Get a good hone, and an angle guide, and use them to put a proper double-taper edge on the #11. Then keep the edge touched up; it gets too dull to cut well surprisingly quickly.
I found 'back in the day' that a modification of the automotive modeler's 'hot knife' improved cutting effectiveness, particularly when making repeating cuts or bevels/miters in thick styrene or ABS. The original tool was just a low-wattage soldering iron fitted with the split screw collet to hold the blade; I highly recommend getting one with fine temperature control and then adjusting it to produce the right degree of heat at the edge. Too much heat will physically deform the edge, but you may find it easier to flat-sand this down than to cut and cut and cut and still wind up with bevel pressed into your edge.
UNCLEBUTCHI have heard of using the older style paper cutters, with the long handle blade.
Those were great for cutting paper, but cutting thicker styrene with them doesn't work so well. I inherited a Kodak photograph trimmer which was essentially the same thing as the big paper cutters but smaller. It would not cut styrene squarely. I believe the reason is that the blade was bevelled on one side only, just like the bigger cutters. Styrene needs to be able to 'spread' as it is being cut. As the blade cuts into the styrene, the styrene is pushed aside. It is not being removed as it would be with a toothed saw blade. When the blade only has a bevel on one side it pushes the styrene to one side, and the cut will curve because only one side of the cut is moving away from the blade. All the spreading is going to one side only. (Does that explanation make sense?) Anyhow, in my experience, they don't work.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterDoes that explanation make sense?) Anyhow, in my experience, they don't work.
Perfectly, now I know, thanks
Tips for modeling with styrene plastic:
https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/modeling-with-styrene-plastic-2382537
Cutting plastic with a table saw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQY89-NxLrA
Clickable link:
Pretty basic information.
BNSF UP and others modelerI finally got into scratchbuilding after reading of its praises. But...didnt expect these problems".
Sorry, we should have warned you. Scratchbuilding is a learning process and by its very nature it is fraught with mistakes and failures. Be prepared to do things over again. The second attempt will be much better.
hon30critter UNCLEBUTCH I have heard of using the older style paper cutters, with the long handle blade. Those were great for cutting paper, but cutting thicker styrene with them doesn't work so well. I inherited a Kodak photograph trimmer which was essentially the same thing as the big paper cutters but smaller. It would not cut styrene squarely. I believe the reason is that the blade was bevelled on one side only, just like the bigger cutters. Styrene needs to be able to 'spread' as it is being cut. As the blade cuts into the styrene, the styrene is pushed aside. It is not being removed as it would be with a toothed saw blade. When the blade only has a bevel on one side it pushes the styrene to one side, and the cut will curve because only one side of the cut is moving away from the blade. All the spreading is going to one side only. (Does that explanation make sense?) Anyhow, in my experience, they don't work. Dave
UNCLEBUTCH I have heard of using the older style paper cutters, with the long handle blade.
Just last week I tried, for the first time, to use my paper cutter to cut styrene. That is EXACTLY how it acted. And I felt, after the cut, that if only the blade had not been beveled, that it would have worked. Maybe.
Back to the table saw, I believe.
Ed
7j43kJust last week I tried, for the first time, to use my paper cutter to cut styrene. That is EXACTLY how it acted. And I felt, after the cut, that if only the blade had not been beveled, that it would have worked.
I don't believe a bevelled blade would work with the paper cutters because the support table is on one side only. The bevelled blade would push one side of the displaced styrene between the table and the blade and it would jam up real quick. At least that's my theory. The NWSL Choppers use a blade that is bevelled on both sides and they work, at least for shorter cuts.
Get a metal T-Square to make straight lines and keep things square. And why are you using such thin plastic? To me even 0.020 seems too thin for most things. I like to use 0.040 for walls etc. I will use 0.060 for a solid base. And like others have stated, scratch the plastic where you want the cut, then snap it apart.
Before you spend a lot of money on power tools, you can scratchbuild without them. I have been scratchbuilding for decades. I made stuff out of balsa, IBM cards and Strathmore board before styrene was commonly available.
Get a #11 hobby knife, a steel ruler, a machinists square (MicroMark sells a thin one that is great for small pieces of styrene), some flat files (6"-9" fine cut), some needle files and some wet dry sandpaper.
That should do the majority of jobs.
I also have a miter box with a razor saw, a chopper and a big sanding block.
I also have dial calipers and a calculator for measuring things.
I have a 3 and a 4 foot aluminum rule that I use for really big structures.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Dave's right: you don't need a workshop full of power tools to do scratchbuilding. With the basics he mentions, you can do all sorts of stuff, and, along the way, you'll learn if you need to expand the options in your toolbox.
I started with an X-Acto knife and a straightedge, and they're still among the most-used in a more well-stocked toolbox.
Wayne
I brought up the idea of using a table saw to cut styrene. I did not mean to imply that the OP had to purchase one to work with styrene. I did it to supply what I thought of as an alternative in the general discussion of the matter.
When I started scratchbuilding, I had no power tools. Many years later, I do have them. They are extremely useful for many tasks. If they were not, no one would use them.
I don't know if others have mentioned this, but I think just jumping into scratchbuiliding can be a little difficult if you haven't worked much with plastic. I would suggest maybe buying some cheap plastic kits, if you can find some at a train show, and try kitbashing them first. Maybe cutting some walls and modifying things a bit. At the same time, make some new styrene pieces for your project too. Maybe use some sheet styrene to make a small addition, or to make a new roof for your modified kit. Maybe reinforce some joints with strip styrene. Play around a bit and see how things go.
That way you'll be easing into scratchbuilding and not taking too big of a jump in making the whole model from scratch.
Jim
I use a "slide" type paper cutter to cut or score styrene sheet up to .040" and find it gives me good control and nice straight edges without too much difficulty. Much more precise than a knife and ruler. Here's an example of what I am talking about.
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