I know this topic has been brought up many times and the usual answer is scribe, bend and break which I have done. Being I am using alot of styrene for roads, parking lots, walls and an intermodal yard I was thinking of getting one of those "guillotine" paper cutters. Has anyone tried these? because I am curious to know if the cut would be angled or flat and I need to cut some corregated styrene for a wall which would be difficult to scribe with a razor knife riding on a roller coaster.
I have a fairly expensive paper cutter and had never tried to cut Styrene sheet. I gave it a shot this morning and it did well on .01” and .02” but not so good on .03” and .04” was a no go. When you have to force things I don’t. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Corrugated plastic cuts just as well as flat plastic, you either have to :
A. scribe on the corrugated side making several light passes to get through the corrugations.
or
B. Turn the sheet over and scribe on the flat back side.
The key with any is to not try to "power" through the plastic. Make several light passes. I use a #11 X-Acto blade and turn the blade over, scribing with the back side of the blade, more scraping a line than cutting it.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
After years struggling with cutting different hobby materials, Styrene, Plastic, Basswood and K&S Brass using a raiser saw or hobby knife I bought a Harbor Freight Mighty Might Table saw for my hobby workbench. Works great. https://www.harborfreight.com/4-in-mighty-mite-table-saw-with-blade-61608.html?_br_psugg_q=mini+saw Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
RR_Mel After years struggling with cutting different hobby materials, Styrene, Plastic, Basswood and K&S Brass using a raiser saw or hobby knife I bought a Harbor Freight Mighty Might Table saw for my hobby workbench. Works great. https://www.harborfreight.com/4-in-mighty-mite-table-saw-with-blade-61608.html?_br_psugg_q=mini+saw Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I have so many brand new number 11 exacto blades that I will never run out of.
For some reason I don't throw them away. I don't know if it's because I think they will poke through the garbage bag and end up sticking out of somebody's foot preferably not mine!
I have all the old used ones piled up in a plastic Tupperware bin. Sometimes I look at those old blades and wonder if I can still use one again
Other than that I use a razor saw to cut almost everything that can't be cut with the number 11.
My Razor Saw, She's getting rather dull I think kind of like Judy (Just Kidding) It's about time I go out and buy a new replacement.
For just the razor saw blade
I don't have enough money to buy a new replacement for Judy
TF
As mentioned above, a metal straight edge and #11 blade using the back side and having the point broken off making many passes (removing 'pig tails' of plastic) or a small table (12''x12'') saw with a chisel tooth blade to cut DPM building walls. I think the circle blade is 3-1/8''. Also sometimes a curved Dentist pick. Let the tools do the cutting, do not force the work. Also I have a few large flat files with different cuts to dress up the cut edges. Then there is the 1/4'' fine tooth bandsaw.
Track fiddler I have so many brand new number 11 exacto blades that I never run out of. For some reason I don't throw them away. I don't know if it's because I think they will poke through the garbage bag and end up sticking out of somebody's foot preferably not mine! I have all the old used ones piled up in a plastic Tupperware bin. Sometimes I look at those old blades and wonder if I can still use one again Other than that I use a razor saw to cut almost everything that can't be cut with the number 11. My Razor Saw, She's getting rather dull I think kind of like Judy (Just Kidding) It's about time I go out and buy a new replacement. For just the razor saw blade I don't have enough money to buy a new replacement for Judy
I have so many brand new number 11 exacto blades that I never run out of.
In the old days, there was a slot in the back of medicine cabinets to dispose old razor blades. If you live in an old house, there still might be some.
There's also a slot in the dispensers of X-acto blades for the same purpose. I have several empty dispensers because I buy blades in bulk these days and they don't come in dispensers, so I have a ready source for disposing of old blades.
To OP . . . make a single steady score and then snap like a piece of glass. Firm pressure, but not too much as others have mentioned. Instead of #11, using a #2 or #24 blade might be better; they're stiffer with less chance of flexing or tracking away from the straightedge.
Count your fingers before and after use.
Good luck.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
rrebell Wow, never saw a cheap one before, got a cutoff one and it saved me on more than one ocasion. Any other gems you have found.
Wow, never saw a cheap one before, got a cutoff one and it saved me on more than one ocasion. Any other gems you have found.
I bought the HF Cutoff saw many years ago and it works Ok but the Mighty Might is a hundred times better.I also bought a spare blade just incase it isn’t available later on. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
ROBERT PETRICK In the old days, there was a slot in the back of medicine cabinets to dispose old razor blades. Count your fingers before and after use.
In the old days, there was a slot in the back of medicine cabinets to dispose old razor blades.
Man that one struck me funny Robert
I remember that slot in the back of the old medicine cabinet We had one of those where I grew up in St Louis Park.
Cut your fingers before and after use
Good old number 11 and double edged razor blades, ...Jaws never had it so good
I have a big white scar on my index finger on my left hand where I whittled away a Long chunk of skin doing some Model Railroading when I was very young
I wouldn't trade that scar on my finger for anything in the world I remember that day every time I look at it and for some strange unknown reason it always puts a smile on my face because I think that was the day I learned respect for a Sharp Blade
You should have seen the blood in the room and the trail all the way down the stairs to the bathroom next to that slot in the back of the medicine cabinet
i have a paper cutter, gulliotine style, maybe 16 inches by 18 inches ...and it works good on flat styrene, 0.010 to 0.020 ... don't think it will cut 0.040, never tried, neve tried corrugated either ..
The thing about the gulliotine style paper cutter is that when you try to cut multiple sheets of paper at the same time, it starts to distort the cut if it is more than a relative handful of sheets. I suspect the same would be true of a normal thickness sheet of styrene.
I notice that with my NWSL chopper - on slightly thick pieces of wood or styrene it is not a sharp clean 90 degree angle cut but slightly distorted.
Dave Nelson
I have cut .05" styrene with ordinary household scissors-no problem. Haven't tried anything thicker.
Dante
I also re-sharpen my X-Acto blades and even the ones in my utility knife, using various oil-stones. Chisel-type blades are probably the easiest to re-sharpen.
However, when an X-Acto blade is beyond reclamation by sharpening, I use it for other tasks. One is for cutting wire: For soft wire, like brass or small diameter phosphor-bronze wire, all that's needed is to use the heel of the blade to be forcefully pressed at the point you wish to make the cut...make sure to physically restrain the portion being cut off, as it will otherwise fly to places where it will never be found (unless, of course, it hits you in the eye). Do this operation on a hard surface, not on a cutting mat, as the wire will deform rather than be cut. My work desk has a glass top, which is ideal for such cutting.
For harder or thicker wire, I stick a short length of masking tape onto the glass surface, then place the wire to be cut on the tape, using pressure on the knife's handle to roll the wire back and forth. For softer material, this will usually cut through fairly quickly or score the wire deeply enough that it can be broken-off by hand.This technique will also work on small diameter stainless steel wire and on piano wire, too, with the scoring usually sufficient to allow the needed piece to be snapped off - much less clean-up required than if you cut the wire with side-cutters.I've used the same process to cut brass tubing, but you need to keep the tubing from wandering as it's rolled back and forth. This method is superior to a tubing cutter if you're working with very short lengths of material.
For blades that still have their pointy tip, but are beyond sharpening, they can make great applicators for ca. I simply place some ca on the glass, then dip the tip of the blade into it, then touch the area where the joint is to be made. With the blade in the X-Acto handle, this will give plenty of reach inside a boxcar to apply ca to the folded-over ends of wire grabirons at the point where they come through the car's sides, with no mess on the car's exterior surface....
For items where there's little or no interior access available, simply pick up a smaller amount of ca and carefully touch it to one side of the wire, then immediately to the opposite side of the same wire - this will cause the ca to completely encircle the wire, and if you haven't used an excessive amount of it, it will all be drawn into the joint, with no residue visible at all.
X-Acto blades with their tip missing, and perhaps also beyond sharpening, can be useful for creating openings in sheet styrene, as might be needed for installation of windows: simply stick the not-too-pointy end into the area where the window is to be located, the twirl it around a few times until it creates a suitably-sized hole. You can then use a sharper blade to to carve the opening bigger, until it's very close to the required size. Finish up using files.
Blades in otherwise reasonable condition, but with their tip missing are useful for scribing thin sheet brass, too, at least up to .05" thick...simply scribe repeatedly, then flex to separate the needed piece.
You can also use old blades for cleaning-up dried paint on the threads of your paint bottles and the bottle caps.
I also use past-their-prime blades to remove the copper foil from circuit board material, in order to create separate zones for wires or pick-ups of different polarities...
Wayne
dknelson I notice that with my NWSL chopper - on slightly thick pieces of wood or styrene it is not a sharp clean 90 degree angle cut but slightly distorted. Dave Nelson
You would think by now sombody like MM or NWSL would have a razor blade that is beveled only on one side like a chisel. Then you would have a good 90* cut (hopefully if the material did not move) on one end of the material and the waste end would have the beveled cut.
PC101You would think by now somebody like MM or NWSL would have a razor blade that is beveled only on one side like a chisel.
The paper trimmers I used had a large screw and wheel to impose vertical cutting force, but I found the blade weight would do some of the cutting without heavy cranking in typical book paper.
I wonder if something like a heavy plane iron might be adapted to an existing vertical-slide arrangement for this kind of gang cutting in styrene...
Note that a lever-type 'guillotine' cutter would likely not give the necessary clean cut in styrene because of the progressive distortion of each sheet as the cut angles across it. Only if the blade comes cleanly down on the sheet will the displacement of the waste by the bevel not introduce distortion...
I just had a thought...tomorrow I am going to take a couple of styrene scraps of different thickness to work and see how the squaring shears do. They worked good for the lead sheet I would cut for two, three and four bay open hopper slope sheets and any other car that needed extra weight. I tossed the steel weight and used lead. If the lead sheet was too thick I would run the lead sheet through the rollers before cutting to size.
I find an Xacto knife blade to be troublesome because the blade wants to travel off line. So, I use a boxcutter knife to score the styrene sheet. I draw a pencil line on the styrene sheet, then clamp it down, and score the styrene sheet on the line.
On thinner sheets of styrene (e.g., 0.010"), the score will completely cut through the sheet. On thicker sheets of styrene, the score will be sufficient to allow the scored sheet to be snapped on a clean line.
Rich
Alton Junction
Whenever possible, I like to use sheet styrene labelled as sidewalks. They come in several sizes of squares. The squares mean one side is essentially already 'scribed', you just count the squares and bend at the joint and you get a nice clean break.
Of course, since you're not using it as sidewalk, you would have the smooth side up (for like a road) or on the outside (for a building etc.). For example, in this picture, I used styrene with 1/2" sidewalk squares to create squares 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" (3 squares by 3 squares). I painted the smooth sides concrete color, and put them smooth side up in the area I wanted to cover. The joints between squares are meant to reproduce the expansion joints in real concrete.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/m/mrr-layouts/2290019.aspx
(Sorry if link is dead, for some reason this computer and the MR site don't like to play nice together...)
Here you go.
I have used a paper cutter to cut thin brass sheet with great success. I have not had success using it to cut sheet plastic.
If you are willing to spend $150.00 or so, a metal shear like this one makes easy work of styrene up to 0.100" thick:
-Kevin
Living the dream.
richhotrain I find an Xacto knife blade to be troublesome because the blade wants to travel off line. So, I use a boxcutter knife to score the styrene sheet. I draw a pencil line on the styrene sheet, then clamp it down, and score the styrene sheet on the line. On thinner sheets of styrene (e.g., 0.010"), the score will completely cut through the sheet. On thicker sheets of styrene, the score will be sufficient to allow the scored sheet to be snapped on a clean line. Rich
I can not remember the last time I used the sharp edge of a Xacto blade to cut sheet styrene. Yes the blade can travel off the line quickly. I use the backside of an Xacto blade, missing the tip. Lay down a metal straight edge, and draw the blunt tip of the backside edge over the styrene and a pigtail will curl up and out (this being removed plastic). Use many light passes. Many years back when I did use the blade's sharp edge, the blade would just 'plow' the plastic to opposite sides of the cut and I would have a ''V'' to clean up. Also after a while dragging the sharp pointy tip across the plate glass I work on did not do the tips any good.
I do have have a box cutter or three in the work bench drawer.
willy6 I know this topic has been brought up many times and the usual answer is scribe, bend and break which I have done. Being I am using alot of styrene for roads, parking lots, walls and an intermodal yard I was thinking of getting one of those "guillotine" paper cutters. Has anyone tried these? because I am curious to know if the cut would be angled or flat and I need to cut some corregated styrene for a wall which would be difficult to scribe with a razor knife riding on a roller coaster.
I really appreciate the comments on this subject. I learned alot. I decided to get the Mighty-Mite saw. It was about the same price as the paper cutter. My local HF is too far away so I paid the $5.70 S/H. It would have cost me $ 5.00 gas and a blood pressure medicine refill to drive there.
You won’t be sorry for buying the Mighty Mite! That has to be one of the slickest hobby tools I own! I’ve used it to cut styrene, basswood and even a 1½” code 40 PVC coupling by rotating the coupling as the saw blade did its thing.It isn’t without fault; it doesn’t have a sawdust catcher so keep a ShopVac handy.
And is didn't come with a fence, I made one from scrap basswood.
Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Hopefully I will try it Sunday being I have to work Saturday. I have about 55 feet of styrene to cut for my HO scale roads and about 12 feet of corrugated styrene to cut for retaining walls.