Foam smoothing products and techniques

Our Shadow Foam has been specifically designed to be simple to work with, using the minimum of tools. The results we’ve got for years by simply hand cutting and peeling the foam have been plenty good enough for our purposes. So the finish you can get by just applying our usual cutting and peeling techniques is usually more than enough for most people’s needs. But if you’re brand new to Shadowfoaming have a keen eye for detail, or just want to achieve an impeccable finish on your project, there are a number of foam smoothing tools and techniques that can help you.

Using your scalpel

As you know, we always recommend using a Shadow Foam scalpel for cutting our product. And this is also the cheapest means of getting a smooth finish on the base of your cut. Given that you’ll already have this for cutting the shapes in the foam. If you don’t already have a scalpel you get them in both our basic cutting packs and full cutting kits.

Ensure you wear your anti-cut cloves at all time when you’re using a scalpel. If you don’t already have some, they’re available in our full cutting kits too. If the space is large enough you can keep the blade on the scalpel handle. Or if you have a smaller space use it holding a pair of grips. Holding the blade horizontal to the foam just skim any visible lumps and bumps you can see on the surface.

Using foam smoothing spinners

Our foam smoothing spinners are by a distance the most simple way to get a smooth, flawless finish on the base of your cuts. They’re really cheap, but super effective and easy to use. That is, of course, as long as you have an impact driver or most rotary tools. They fit the 1/4 inch bit adapter and they come in a twin pack. Each contains an 18mm and a 25mm spinner, depending on the size of the area you want to smooth.

Just place the base of the spinner lightly in the base of the cut, and it will spin through any lumps or bumps with ease. These really are the easiest way to get the base of your cut-outs perfectly smooth.

The hot foam smoother

These are essentially like a little soldering iron but designed specifically for this purpose. It’s a 30 watt mains powered Hot Foam Smoother. It comes with a stand so you can put it down while you’re working with it. And it also comes with three different brass attachments for the end, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. The first is a small round disc. The second is a shovel-shaped attachment and the last a pointed attachment. Both of which will be great for helping you get into corners.

These work just as you’d expect as hot smoothing tools. The attachments on the end get really hot, and you can just use this to lightly skim over the top of the foam to smooth it off. But you do need to work very carefully with them. Because they get really hot and work so quickly so you need to take care not to melt too much. Also ensure you work in a well ventilated area when using this. Please also follow all the instructions that come with it too. And make sure you always keep it on the stand when it’s on and not being used. And of course don’t put it back in the box when it’s still hot.

Getting the perfect smooth finish

Check out these techniques and foam smoothing tools in action, and you’re equipped with everything you need to achieve a professional smooth finish on all your foam organising projects!