Wow, 20 years ago...you can't be that old. This must have been passed down to you from your Great Grandfather. 
It is an ingenious way to keep tension on the wire, did you design that method yourself.
Watching a few more videos I see that some creations will use a small spring soldered to one end of the wire to keep tension on the wire. I may try to add that to mine. There are a ton of iterations of DIY Hot Wire Foam cutters on YouTube, I had no idea.
The wire I ordered touts itself as Foam Cutter replacement wire and is 30ga. "nichrome 80 wire for foam cutters etc 30ga 10 ft sealing etc replacement wire"
It is an ingenious way to keep tension on the wire, did you design that method yourself.Watching a few more videos I see that some creations will use a small spring soldered to one end of the wire to keep tension on the wire. I may try to add that to mine. There are a ton of iterations of DIY Hot Wire Foam cutters on YouTube, I had no idea.
The wire I ordered touts itself as Foam Cutter replacement wire and is 30ga. "nichrome 80 wire for foam cutters etc 30ga 10 ft sealing etc replacement wire"