I am scratch building a grain elevator from 0.080" thick styrene sheets. I am concerned about cutting out the windows so that they are square and straight. I am using Grandt Line windows , doors and vents with a minimum dimension of about 0.30" and a maximum dimension of about 0.45"; I need some suggestions on the best way to cut out the openings for these. I thought about using just a new utility knife blade to score and then punching out with a 1/4" wood chisel, sharpened. Any way that might be easier or more precise would be helpful.
Donāt know about .080, but this works for me on .040 and thinner:
Drill holes at/just inside the corners.
Score the rectangular opening between drill holes.
Score the two diagonals between drill holes.
Push on the middle of the āXā and the triangles will snap out.
If necessary, clean up corners with file.
May need to score each line several times on the .080. The holes stop the breaks from propagating beyond the corners.
On that heavy styrene Iād drill a hole, at slow speed , as large as you can fit in the opening. Then using an exacto,I actually like using a Flexcut carving knife, and carve the hole to marked guidelines. A grain elevator doesnāt have that many windows. For a lot of windows,score and snap out every thing thats not a window and glue them back together again after the opening peices have been removed. I like the carving knife better because of its stiffer blade and is not prone to braking the tips .
I believe that Micro Mark sells a corner cutting tool. Itās kind of a mini version of the corner tool used for recessing hinges in full size doors. Donāt rmemeber tha page but it was in the latest catalog.
e-l man tom, I got my knife from the Treasure Chest Hobby shop in Missoula, but I think you guys have a woodcarving hobby shop down there in Boise. Flexcut should be online too. Iāll poke around and see what I can find. Flexcut has a whole line of very good, relatively inexpensive carving tools.By the way I use BRADPOINT BITS for drilling styrene as they cut very cleanly with little tear out.
P.S. I found em. Go to the Woodcraft store in the Boise area for FlexCut tools
I agree with Rekleinās suggestion-- āFor a lot of windows,score and snap out every thing thats not a window and glue them back together again after the opening peices have been removed.ā I have not built my new elevator yet, but that is what I plan to do. I have used the technique before for several buildings. For a house made of strene sheet in a slapboard siding pattern, I first scribe horizontally along the groove in the clapboard at what I intend to be the top and bottom of the window opening, and snap off what would be the section withbthe window. Then I scribe the piece I have cut out of the middle vertically where I want the window opening to be. Then glue the pieces back together with the window piece left out. I have done this on a number of N scale buildings.
Most recently, I did it for the office located on the loading dock of this ice plant, as yet unfinished.
The scribe-and-snap processi is the only one I would consider using for my port terminal export grain elevator on my new āIsland Seaportā layout. I think the splices in the styrene would resemble mold marks on concrete, and there would be little need to hide them. For this model, I disagree somewhat with Rekleinās comment that āA grain elevator doesnāt have that many windows.ā
Micro-Mark sells the same tool; I have one and that is what I would suggest fror your windows. It will handle the thick plastic; just nibble over a waste basket or have the shop vac handy. It makes a lot of small pieces of whatever you are cutting.
Attention Ivanhen: Iām sorry for my snotty sarcasm but some answers just go that way!!!
Attention riogrande5761: thatās an HO Scale hole and an HO Scale file and an HO Scale piece of cake: then again it might be an N Scale hole and an N Scale file and an N Scale piece of cake!!!
Thanks, Reklein, If youāre ever in Boise, the address for Wood Craft Supply is 6883 Overland Road, Boise; itās not far from me, as I live on that (west) side of town, phone: (208) 338-1190. The tools run $17 to $20. Thanks
I use crafting hole punches designed for paper. They make a square one, a smaller square that I only use occasionally, a rectangle, and sometimes I use a round hole pinch to make the arch at the top of a window. You MUST layout a straight line for a row of windows with a pencil with work this small. Works great and its fast. Sometimes I adjust the windows if they look crooked with an exacto knife. Hole punches are the Best method ever. It wont go through extremely thick styrene but plenty thick enough. Buy before they runout with tariffs.
One thing Iām trying to do - still down on the learning curve - is to use my Cricut machine to do my cutting for me, as much as and where possible. I still have to master the design phase, and then move on to testing for the quality of the cuts itāll make. But if I can get a machine to do it well for me, I think Iād be more satisfied.
I found this corner chisel on Amazon for $18, not too bad.
Mostly, I use an old Radio Shack Nibbler. It will do .080, but I recently made a frame deck for a locomotive out of sandwiched .060 and that was too thick to fit in the jaw of it. Enter the jigsaw at slow speedā¦
dan
