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Hello.

Does anyone have any techniques for removing plastic doors from their frames with minimal plastic loss?

I want to be able to cut the doors out of various GW bulkhead models, such as these ones, without losing too much material from the removed door itself. That way, I can use the removed door to create a wrenched-open/damaged version of the door.

The challenge is that the frames extend all around the doors, making saws less viable, and the plastic on these things is really thick, so simply cutting with a hobby knife is extremely difficult. I have used the drill-holes-and-cut-between-the-gaps technique before, but this creates quite a thick path, and I want to keep as much material from both sides as possible.

Maybe a better solution would be create two forms (the door and their frame) and cast it...otherwise I think there is no other option than cut out carefully with knife...

Maybe look into a dremel. They might have a circular blade small enough to seperate your door with minimal reduction in door width. Although if you want ruined doors, why not just rip them up? That way you could drill and cut with ease.

Dremel saw blades aren't smaller than scalpel, also will have a problem with round edges of doors.

Those arent really meant to be removed however i like the idea of making a quick press mold one way or another to make the doors them selves, then dremel out the original.

then you have both an operable hatch and extra doors.

Check out green stuff world two part silicone putty, you can make a mould in few minutes.

Perhaps heating up the plastic part in warm/hot water will make it easier to cut with exacto blade.
I have not tried this my self ! ! !

Ive been making press molds using this stuff - its good!

http://zealotminiatures.com/zealot-shop/#!/Coolmorph-Thermal-Forming-Compound/p/46849451/category=22928005

I have been using a hotair gun for stripping paint to (carefully) melt it but it really does work well in hot water (45C+)

Thanks for the responses folks!

So it looks like there are two options- carefully with a sharp knife, and casting the door and just ignoring the damage to the interior. My casting experience is nil, whereas my experience doing crazy things with knifes is quite extensive, so I think I might try the latter.

I think a Dremel would be too thick sadly, but i will look at their selection. I've heard a lot about them and it may be getting to time to invest.

Heating up the plastic to soften it is a great idea though! Reminds me of a particular ElectroBoom video.

Oshii wrote:
Maybe a better solution would be create two forms (the door and their frame) and cast it...otherwise I think there is no other option than cut out carefully with knife...

Any particular knife you would recommend? I think I will need something a bit more effective than my venerable Stanley knife!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Maybe look into a dremel. They might have a circular blade small enough to seperate your door with minimal reduction in door width. Although if you want ruined doors, why not just rip them up? That way you could drill and cut with ease.

The reason is that this is meant to be for doors less damaged but still forced open- more wrenched open rather than totally wrecked. I want to have the door largely intact, but with damaged fittings around the edge. I have no problems with wrecking doors! I'm even planning to melt some of them to emulate various melta weaponry effects.

I'm using a scalpel/x-acto knife, and that's what I can recommend. It's much more precise than standard knife.
I think that working with gsw silicone putty is so *funky* easy, that even kid can use it, really. It dries in 10-15 minutes, so super fast to start casting. I've got here few photos how it look... https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-119607-58574_Green%20Stuff%20World%20silicone%20putty.html

You could use a dremel engraving bit, https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/modelcraft-diamond-engraving-set-20-pieces/568795-1000?glCountry=GB&gclid=Cj0KCQiAm5viBRD4ARIsADGUT25Rfry5mibJhT_BnhAN6N1ThACMw6Ar62nY0mcG7Pfe_z8JT_DBpvsaAj3uEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds for example

They can be small enough to dig out your door, easier than a knife, probably about 1mm loss of plastic, but reasonably tidy.

If you want to cut the door out losing minimal plastic, drill one small hole and then thread a thin bladed coping saw through it. You will need to be slow and patient with the cut - and you’ll still lose plastic.

I’d actually cut through the door frame - this will leave the door intact - and then use some plasticard sheet cut outs to rebuild the frame.

Although the mold creation ideas above sound better to me.

Doors can be cut out using razor saws or even better an ultrasonic knife.

I wouldn't use the dremel. The circular saw blade (even the really thin ones) won't go into corners without cutting too far.

Utrasonic knife will make a hot mess of that. I'd go for either the coping saw or just keep sliding an exacto blade over it until you pass through

Do NOT use a Dremel cutting disc; I tried it on the old Cities of Death doors and it tends to melt as much as cut the plastic and ends up in a right mess.

I haven’t tried the engraving bit, so that might be worth a shot, but trial it first would be my advice.

It's possible to drill holes at the corners and use a jeweler's saw - poke the blade through the hole and cut to the next hole.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! This is a real slow-burn Zones Mortalis project that I'm hoping to get my teeth into after finals, so it is some way away yet. Just looking for ideas to start planning really.

Having just looked up jewellers saws, they look like the kind of thing I was thinking about originally- thanks!

I've been accumulating materials for the last couple of years for it but the hobby budget is incredibly limited at present.

How many of these are you going to need? If it's not too many, then instead of buying specialist tools the more economical method may just be to sacrifice two complete bulkhead doors to make one wrenched-open one. You can get an intact door relatively quickly if you're not bothered about destroying the frame, and vice-versa.

Otherwise I expect the coping saw will be your best bet.

You don't need to sacrifice the bulkhead entirely to.get the door out. If you cut a big rectangular hole, you could.easily.rebuild a simple.door to.fit.into the hole.

Tamiya Plastic Scriber is a good tool to consider.

https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/tools/plastic-scriber-ii/

I use it for cutting panel lines in polystyrene, it creates a clean, thin separation. The difference between this and an Xacto is the angle of the cut, you get a bit more control because of the shape of the blade.