Can anybody give me hints on how to accurately cut styrene.?
Thank you
Lourdes
I measure what I need to cut, then I use a steel rule as a straight edge,use my X-acto knife, scribe it, then bend it where the scribe is and I have 2 clean cut pieces. Do not recommend wooden rule, the knife will shave it and make for an inaccurate cut.
not only will you get an inaccurate cut but your ruler will be wrecked.
What willy said is the given way of cutting styrene. Thin stuff you can easy cut right through while thicker stuff you scribe it and then snap along the scribe line. There are also expensive tools you can buy if you want but i couldnt justify the expense except maybe if i wanted to cut large thick sheets.
I have an old X-ato knife with a #11 blade that has the very tip of the blade snaped off.
To scribe plastic I use a metal streight edge and the back of this knife. It keeps the blade from diging in and going where it wants to go like sharp blade will do some times.
I learned the trick from a military model friend of mine. When I told another friend about this he said that the tool he used to cut Plexiglass with at work worked the same way.
I find that this gives a nice clean edge but you have to make an extra pass or two with the knife.
I use an normal knife if the stock is thin as you can cut through the the thin stuff .
The above replies work great on sheet styrene. If you are cutting up styrene building walls, use a razor saw to get an accurate cut. For small styrene, I use the Northwest Shortline chopper which has stops available to make repeated cuts of the same length.
any input on how to cut styrene at angles would be useful. i intend to model old industrial buildings with these wicked outer angles where wall meets wall. i’ve seen Xacto miniature mitre boxes made of metal, but the trough is small and narrow, and there seem to be only three standard angles, whereas the real structures have many different angles, which adds to their character. Suggestions? Also, how does one tell if the plastic one is cementing, is, indeed, styrene, and not abs, fiberglass, or some other kind?
I just wanted to comment & agree with what BNSFNUT had to say. I have been using my used # 11 blades that are dull with the tip snapped off to score & snap sheet styrene. It seems that the duller the blade gets the more accurate my cut gets. I’ve never used the back of the blade but it sounds good & I’ll have to try it.
I don’t know of any way to cut a beveled edge on sheet styrene. I make them by sanding the edge or scraping the edge with a razor blade, just eyeballing it. If you wanted to be more accurate you could make a sanding or scraping jig to hold the material and the scraper or sandpaper.
With regard to DSchmitt’s comment above, be careful if you decide to handsand as I found I often got a dished edge even using a sanding block. You must ensure thesanding block runs exactly parallel to the edge you wi***o have so the suggestion to use a jig is right on the money and the NWSL’s Tru Sander has been a good tool for me.
Another thing i’ve found that works well is use the precut strip styrene to make the edges of the sheet styrene as straight as possible…cut the sheet styrene, then glue a piece of strip styrene to the back of the sheet styrene with one edge pertruding past the wall cut, then glue a smaller strip of strip styrene along the edge of the sheet styrene and atop the one you just glued to the sheet styrene that pertrudes out a bit…not only will it make it straighter in appearance, but the strips glued to its sides will add strenght to the sheet styrene…Chuck
The scoring method with a very sharp X-acto blasde works well with thin styrene sheet. If you are cutting anything thicker than 1/16" thick you will need a saw blade with a zero degree rake angle on the teeth. This is crucial to keep the styrene from chipping and shattering along the cut. This type of saw blade is not normally found in hardware stores but can be ordered from suppliers to commercial fabricators. If you don’t need to make many cuts, you can try running a saw blade,designed for cutting aluminum - fine teeth, backwards. This will shave its way through the styrene instead of cut. You will still get some nicks, so oversize your pieces and file them to size.
I’ve taped sheets of sandpaper to a flat section of 3/4" plywood and then use a wood jig to hold the wall section at the desired angle. You can cut the wood with a miter saw at most any angle up to 45 degrees (I have a RYOBI 10"). That also avoids the cupping effect someone mentioned above. It takes a while to get the hang of sanding this way but it does the job.