All shooters desire to have an accurate, stable, and reliable weapon. However, before your weapon can serve you well, you have to remember to serve it well too.
Whenever you go to a firing range to shoot, you should remember to always protect your guns and keep them in good condition.
The best way to keep your gun in good condition is to keep it in a hard case with a soft and protective foam inside. The inside foam can absorb impact and reduce any damages to your gun when inside the box.
Therefore, it’s essential for you to know how to secure your firearm safely inside its case. In this article, we’ll be going through an easy tutorial on how to cut foam for gun cases.
Contents
How to Cut Foam for Gun Cases
1. Prepare the Tools
For starters, you should first gather all the tools you’ll need. You’ll be needing a sharp knife, some pins, and some large carton paper. These materials will be enough.
Make sure to use a knife that’s convenient for you to hold and maneuver. At the same time, it should be sharp enough to be able to cut through the foam without much effort.
Sometimes, other guides will recommend you to take a hot wire cutter or an electric knife as added materials. But if you don’t have them, you can still perform this task anyway.
Using these recommended tools will just help you make the cut as clean as possible.
With a little more effort and patience, you can still make the case look great with just your standard razor knife.
2. Arrange the Weapon
Once you gather all the materials, you’ll need to lay your gun on the foam and think about where you want to position your gun inside the foam.
This will ensure that it will look as nice as possible after cutting and can fit your gun perfectly.
Try your best to plan the arrangement of your gun and accessories as conveniently and as best as possible. Usually, the gun will take up the central space of the foam, while the accessories will take up other spots.
Make sure to leave at least one inch between your gun and accessories. This helps ensure that none of the components will bang against each other when inside the case.
Aside from that, you should also take note of how the placements can affect the balancing of the case. It would be best to balance the weight to avoid one side from tilting down when carrying it.
This could make your gun case uncomfortable to bring around, and it could also make it unstable, defeating the purpose of having a protective case for your guns and accessories.
3. Mark Them
Once you finalize the appropriate arrangement for your weapons and accessories, find a pen and begin marking these locations on the carton paper.
It’s also a good idea to have extra cartons just in case your initial markings aren’t as nice-looking for your guns as you expected. Just mark again, and make adjustments accordingly.
In situations wherein you do not have any carton paper in hand, it’s okay for you to try and find an alternative instead. As long as it’s hard enough to put on the foam and can still be cut along the marked lines, then it should be okay.
If the paper is too soft and light, it might move around too much and become a hassle.
4. Clean Up the Line and Cut It Out of the Carton
The straighter the line, the more it would look professional. If you’re not confident in your craftsmanship, a ruler can be your best bet. It will help you stay aligned and ensure you can get a clean cut for your foam case.
Aside from being straight, make sure that your lines are parallel as well. These factors all contribute to making your case look as neat as possible.
Another piece of advice is to avoid aligning these markings and cuts with the little angles and edges of your gun. It’s unnecessary to take into account the outer details of your firearms, and you’ll just be giving yourself a harder time.
Straight lines that encompass the bigger picture of your gun and accessories would be best.
If you’re 100% sure of the arrangements of the spaces for your guns and accessories, you can then place the foam over it then use your pins to secure the foam in place inside the case. It’s important to make sure that your foam stays stable.
This will lower the chances of any accidental damages that can happen while you’re lugging your case around.
5. Cut the Foam
After placing the foam down, take your knife and cut along the lines that you marked previously. You want your firearm to snuggly fit the spaces you’ll be cutting out, so keep this in mind.
The longer you use the case, the more likely the gaps will widen. It won’t be a bad idea to make your cuts a little narrower in order to make up for this.
Bear in mind, do this step carefully and gently. Do not press the knife too deeply or else you’ll leave a bunch of cutting marks on the foam.
You should use one hand to cut the foam, while the other hand should press down on the carton paper, preventing it from moving around.
6. Alter the Appearance
At this point, the gaps you made in your case should fit your weapons and accessories snuggly. If you have the extra tools we mentioned earlier, then read through these last few steps.
Take your electric knife or hot wire cutter and trim any excess lines and pieces of foam that you see. Make sure it looks as clean as possible, so try not to miss any spots.
Check and see if the foam around the cuts is smooth enough by grazing your fingers against them.
In addition, curving the edges can help make it look more elegant and graceful.
Final Thoughts
Having an aesthetic-looking case might not be the primary reason to have one, but in our opinion, a shooter can also be an artist in his own right, and having a good-looking case is part of the craft of shooting and hunting.
We hope you were able to follow along with this simple guide on how to cut foam for your gun cases. If done right, you should have a stable and secure compartment for your firearms.
