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I've always struggled with making wheels and the like in plasticard, so how do you lot cut it into circles? Do you use the basic cutting compass, or a more industrial means?

Cheers!

i use a saw you can use in a drill it has seven different sizes only drawback is that you have a hole in the center from the drill

if you use a circle cutting compass, use light pressure and just rotate the compass more to slowly cut the card. you will probably need to use a fine-graded sand paper to get rid of a thin ridge of plastic that will be 'pushed' up.

I'm now pondering if I could retro-fit an old record deck to be a circle cutter... blade on the stylus and a fixed position for the arm...

Depending on how big or small of a circle you need, years ago Dsteingass posted these lovely die cutters you can order off Ebay (Pre-amazon days ). you put the plastic card on something solid and then hit this with a hammer. You can get 5-6 before you clean it out, it will hold the punched out perfect circles inside the die itself.


the one in the picture is a 1" die, I had to order that separately ($10 or so), but the other 10 or 11 smaller ones came in a pack for under $15.

Scissors.

 some bloke wrote:
I've always struggled with making wheels and the like in plasticard, so how do you lot cut it into circles? Do you use the basic cutting compass, or a more industrial means?

Cheers!

With difficulty.
Seriously, just the basic cutting compass and a lot of patience.

I've used a leather hole punch previously and it works really well if you're after small circles of that particular size.



It is essentially the same as the die cutters posted above, but without need for the hammer.


When i've needed larger circles, I try and find something the right size and then trace around with a pencil and then carefully cut it out with my knife. It often needs a bit of shaping and trimming afterwards, but it's the most basic way (although not always the easiest) of getting clean circles.

Circle cutter.

It's like an adjustable compass, but it has a blade on one arm (or sometimes a scriber you can swap for one).

For smaller ones, a punch - either the one shown above - If I'm doing rivets or what not.

Depends how big you're talking. For anything about the size of a 10c aus coin I have a punch and die to do that job for plasticard and card. For anything bigger I either, just don't or do a job as close as I can by eye. Punch and dies are awesome IMO, got some circle ones and even a hex one which is always handy for stuff.

if you have any spare cash, you could also buy one of these:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/TOOLSTAR-Machine-Woodworking-Grinding-Polishing/dp/B07TSJ85XY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dremel+lathe&qid=1604626779&sr=8-1

you don't, you buy plastic card tubes, then cut them.

Here are some, you lay it on the plastic sheet and spin. Its made for paper so its more of a score and snap type of action. I have and use the bottom one no prob. Just google/amazon Martha Stewart circle cutter.

Ugh - this is one of my pet hates! I've tried circle cutters and I found them worse than useless - mainly because they just aren't designed for thick plasticard. In the end, my current solution is an iris circle template, and an engineers scribe. Just set the iris to the deisred radius/diameter, tighten it up (and ideally clamp your plasticard and iris to a bench) then scribe round the inside as through you were drawing a circle (Like it's designed for) - then just pop it out! I've found that to be the best and most accurate method for making base toppers and the like. Hope this helps





Both of the above are on eBay - just make sure you get a circle template with metal iris leaves so they're durable as I imagine plastic ones would wear away under the metal scriber.

The circular saw we call a hole saw. Examples.
https://www.grainger.com/product/53WP08?gclid=Cj0KCQiAhZT9BRDmARIsAN2E-J1GWEScaX5-Ef4nyUaB8YEG4qiaLdKvMeeP9ZTT3Gg9I5j8GqvnKNMaAmT0EALw_wcB&cm_mmc=PPC:+Google+PLA&ef_id=Cj0KCQiAhZT9BRDmARIsAN2E-J1GWEScaX5-Ef4nyUaB8YEG4qiaLdKvMeeP9ZTT3Gg9I5j8GqvnKNMaAmT0EALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!264955916333!!!g!439849569998!&gucid=N:NSaid:GGL:CSM-2295:4P7A1P:20501231

That ones a bit fancy. just google Hole Saws. I bought my set for 10$ at a local hardware store. As mentioned above, leaves a hole where the drill bit guided, but works great by hand or in a drill.

Depending on the finished size, but always found either scissors or heavy -duty snips to cut the shape traced out via template or compass. Then run the edge on some sandpaper to smooth out any uneven or flat spots.

 some bloke wrote:
I'm now pondering if I could retro-fit an old record deck to be a circle cutter... blade on the stylus and a fixed position for the arm...

Doubtful. There are easier ways to do it, and turntables don't have that much torque anyway.

For thicknesses up to 1mm ( 40 thousandths of an inch - 0.040" - which is the sizing that Evergreen styrene uses) the compass cutter will do you. It's going to take multiple passes anyway.

If you can find a locking compass with the mount for a pencil, you should also be able to put an x-acto #1 handle into it. Then just set the radius and go.

For thinner plasticard, up to 0.25mm, a cricut can be used (if you have one and the know-wots to run it.)

I use a circle cutter, but spin it in reverse to carve the plastic away with the back of the blade. I frequently cut reasonably large (around 20mm to 50mm diameter) circles from 2mm plasticard this way. It takes a while but the results are quite clean.