The styrofoam molds were placed in a bucket full of sand, and the furnace – a few ytong bricks, a crucible, and a propane burner – started to melt some aluminum.

Plenty of hot-wire foam cutters have graced our pages before, everything from tiny hand-held cutters to a hot-wire “table saw” for foam.

New materials available for today’s 3D printers are stronger and more capable. Increasingly, shops use an affordable desktop 3D printer to take on support jobs to free up CNC mills.