What do you guys use to make clean straight cuts on ABS plastruct I beams ?
Currently using miter box saw or plumbers hacksaw. Either one makes a rough cut. I’ve also used my Dremel with ez cut disc. A little better than the other two mentioned.
What else can I use ?
Giving serious thought to a Micromark mini powered miter saw. Thoughts on this saw ? Is it worth the coin ?
Patrick
Anything you do, even a hobby chop saw will be a little rough but a little sanding fixes that along with liquid glue when you put things together, been known to use liquid glue just to smooth things too after scaping.
I use a Excel Mini Miter box from Hobby Lobby and a hobby saw with a fine cut blade and it works very good on all ABS, Styrene, Balsa & Basswood, it even works on K&S brass tubing. Hobby Lobby sells several saw blades and the miter box is a tiny bit over ¾” deep so it takes a 1" saw blade, the ¾" blade won’t quite cut all the way through the material.
https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Hobbies-Collecting/Tools-Blades/Miter-Box/p/21482
The saw blade slot in the miter box is .04” wide and the saw blade is .015” so there is a wide gap. To fix that I used a piece of Styrene tube slotted lengthwise and slipped it in the slot to fill the gap. It keeps the saw from wiggling as you cut and the ov
One more piece of wisdom, the more teeth per inch on a blade, the finer the cut.
Dave
Razor saw?
I use a razor saw, cut just a hair bigger then I need. Dress with files/sandpaper
ZONA razor saw and miterbox works very well for me.
I use a fine tooth razor saw and a miter box, followed by a small file for cleaning up the cut.
Hello all,
A Dobson Miter-Rite with a fine tooth blade.
If I need a clean end I touch it up with fine grit sandpaper.
Hope this helps.
Now that looks interesting. A lot more economical than the $300. saws.
https://www.micromark.com/Miter-Rite
Mike.
For almost all of my cuts on styrene, I use a razor saw and miter box.
When I had to cut two clerestory roofs perfectly, so I could have the pieces for one longer roof, I used the fancy-schmancy Micro-mark chop saw. It did a great job. But I haven’t used that saw since. For rough cuts, the cheapo aluminum miter box is a very fast setup, and adequate for the task.
Ed
Extra fine razor saw with 50 or 60 teeth per inch. Home made miter box (cost $0.00). Make sure you know the set of the teeth: whether push or pull. Pull saws can be made of thinner steel and therefore have smaller kerfs. Finish the cuts with a fine file and/or sandpaper. And get a small little tiny try square to check the work.
Robert
I have the Dobson Mitre box and am pleased with it. You have to be gentle in cutting but it does a nice job for styrene and ABS.
Joe
Harbor Freight has a 2 inch hobby cutoff saw (electric) for about $35. It has a limited opening but should be suitable for small stuff. I use a Zona fine tooth saw, but I draw it towards me slowly (one direction) where the slow speed and single direction of use makes the cut more even and less rough, but I still dress the cut end with 220 wet/dry sandpaper.
Cedarwoodron
I have been using a Proxxon 2’’ table saw for the past 12yrs. I have blades for it for different materials. I use a 100 tooth blade on the Plastruct materials. Also use that saw to make My own scale lumber that I cut from smaller pine wood on My 4’’ table saw… only use that saw for rip from My 10’’ table saw, which is also rip from 1 x 6 pine or birch:
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
A Dobson Miter-Rite saw rig is the first item I bought from Micro-Mark, more than 20 years ago, for cutting the many boxcar side-, intermediate-, center-, and end sills from ESM styrene strips for O scale old-time boxcars. I had to un-mount it from its original short wooden base and remount it on a piece of 1x3 to do this, as the longest car I envisioned would be 42 scale feet, actual 10-1/2". The Miter-Rite is an underslung saw, which means all cuts are exactly 90 degrees vertically–unaffected by slot wear in regular miter boxes–and has a protractor adjustment for angle cuts. It cuts so fine that when I somehow managed to cut a couple of beams a hair too short, I butt-joined short lengths in place with liquid cement and recut them–and the joints show only from discoloration from workbench dust!
If this reads like a commercial it’s intentional, as I’ve been hyped on this great tool since I bought it.
Deano
What do you mean by “gentle”? Is that related to the tool’s construction or something else?
Also, can you use any razor saw, or is a special saw blade required?
Thanks
I have some I beam I will need to cut for a flat car load. Now I finally have a use for that Mitre box I’ve had for the past 25-30 years and never used! [oX)]
What I think he means is that you should ‘let the tool do the work’ and use only the very lightest pressure downward on the cut while moving the saw fairly quickly longitudinally at that time. I also support the recommendation to apply cutting pressure only in the direction the teeth are raked - it is easier even with the overhead guide to control on a pull stroke than a push, so ideally that’s how the saw teeth on a narrow-kerf razor saw would be arranged.
ABS copolymer can melt at a comparatively low temperature either from friction or dull cutting, and the refreezing adds to the ‘grooving’ effect in the cut. It may be easier just to add a quick ‘dressing’ with fine sanding to the overall ‘cut time’ to get acceptable finish on the ends in minimum time with minimal frustration.
Maxman
By gentle I mean that you just have to go slow and don’t try to force the saw to cut. It comes with a saw but you can use an Xacto saw too. The upper stiffener on my Zona saw is too wide to allow the saw to work with this mitre box[:(].
Joe