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Here's a tip about cutting light bars/pipes

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Holy hazmat suits, Batman!  [quote user="cacole"] I would never deliberately melt a light pipe when it is just as easy to cut it with a razor saw.[/quote]Never? Never ever ever? Just as easy? Ever try it? I ain't kidding. Your razor saw is not gonna' do as well.  Never ever ever.  But then there is a saying or two about new tricks and old dogs etc. etc.[quote user="cacole"] Given a choice between cutting and melting of a plastic compound the chemical makeup of which I am unfamiliar, I'll take a little cutting any day over the possibility of having to breathe noxious fumes. [/quote][quote user="Mark R."] I think I can handle a bit of plastic dust from a razor saw on MY work-bench .... I'd prefer that to the noxious fumes given off by melting plastic any day ! [xx(]For perfect 100% light transmission, the severed part needs to be perfectly flat and polished to absolute tranparency - you should be able to look into the polished end and clearly see the other end of the light bar .... if not, I dis-agree that your method is superior. [;)]Mark.[/quote]Ah, Mark, you will not believe the clear view through my method.  Think about it. Reglossing the pipe with heat or attacking it with a saw and file.  Think about working on a piece of glass that way.  Do you think you can remelt it to make it clear, of cut and file it? Hmmmm.[quote user="davidmbedard"][quote] Sorry no, guys, do not cut and file them.  That is the point.  Jus melt 'em.  And you absolutely cannot get as pristine an end on the plastic when you touch a toothed tool like a saw or file or even a rail nipper to the end compared to using a hot tool.  Experiment and you'll see.  I've done it both ways.And, when you melt them in half (which you actually do have to touch them with the iron) you do not have to get out the dremel, then you do not have to file, and best of all, you have not made plastic curls and dust all over the inside of your shell and on the worktable...that stuff will play havoc with a gear set. [/quote]"Jus melt 'em".  Again, the fumes from melting plastic is NOT a good idea.  Your best bet is to cut the light pipe, then polish the end.  Melting a light pipe is NOT good for your health.David B [/quote]Ah but maybe your'e right.  And here's me at the club getting ready to cut some foam with a hot wire, and clean the track with some lacquer thinner.   No gluing styrene today, for me, unless I use the buddy system.  Using epoxy and contact cement?.....right out.[img]http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u172/dcrane_2007/hazwoper.jpg[/img]  I'd like to build my layout like you guys too, but I keep dropping my tools. BTW, putting new carpet in your house, or laminate flooring, or buying a new car and riding around in the interior is far more dangerous over the long run.I guess in this forum a guy must have a couple of hundred posts to have a tip accepted by guys with a couple of hundred posts.
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