Cutting plastic carefully

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**Bookwrack**

Well, my building super heavy post sure is sinking fast, but that's not important right now. I've gotten started on the project, and I'm facing the prospect that I'm going to be cutting a lot of plastic. Plastic card, and the model pieces I'm working on. What's the best way to go about doing this without severely messing up the pieces? Use a sharp craft knife, and just slowly score along a ruler's edge until I eventually cut through? Develop mind powers and slice the pieces on a molecular level?

**klingsor**

Straight lines in plastic sheet are easily cut by scoring and snapping. Place a straight edge and draw the knife along it. Make several with a moderate or light pressure, especially the first one, rather than exerting too much pressure on any one cut. Then just bend it along the line and it should snap quite cleanly. For thicker sheets where you have to exert more pressure to snap it you might want to rest it along an edge.

For a knife I like a scalpel for most purposes. Most of mine are by Swam Morton but I do not know if these are available in the USA. The number 10a or 11 blades are probably the most useful. If you lean too heavily on the blades they will snap.

An alternative to a knife is a plastic cutter. Olfa make one as do Tamiya (I believe the blades are interchangeable between them). It is a useful tool but not a vital one.

Of much more use is a steel ruler. A plastic or wooden ruler will get damaged eventually and a steel one is not expensive.

Curved lines are much, much trickier. You can cut along an edge, something like a French Curve and you can get swivel headed knives, though I have had one for a decade or more and have never used it. For circles you want a circle cutter.

A fine saw is another useful tool. You can get fine ones that fit into an X-Acto knife handle or jewellers saws which are like a very fine fret saw. These are particularly good for converting figures.

Brass and plastic tube and rod needs a small pipe cutter. The one by K & M is small and cheap. A saw is not very good at cutting the pipe. For the finer diameters you can roll it under a knife blade and snap it though I find this quite tricky to do just right.

Plastic sections can be scored and snapped just like plastic card.

The basic tool kit.:

Knife (scalpel)

Steel ruler

Needle files

Fine sandpaper

Liquid cement (in a bottle not a tube)

Also strongly recommended:

Circle Cutter (Olfa)

Pipe cutter (K & M)

Right angle square, steel

Plastic Cutter

Clamps

Superglue, thick, viscous

Materials

Plastic sheet in various thicknesses

Brass tubing (K & M)

Fine brass rod (K & M)

Plastic tubing, rod and sections. That by Evergreen is very nice. Addictive to use – you keep finding more uses for it.

Textured plastic sheet (Evergreen and Slaters)

I hope this helps,

Michael

**RanTheCid**

The Chopper - not that I have one (yet), but it seems the perfect tool for large scale plastic card projects.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/53-494

I have a Master Airscrew Balsa Stripper that I use for turning flat stock into strips of various sizes. It works most of the time- been having a bit of trouble with the blade bending a bit. The link is to a UK shop, but just google for a US supplier.

http://www.barrule.com/workshop/scratch%20builders%20paradise/tools%20outils%20werkzeuge.html

**nyarlathotep667**

I own a "Chopper", the original one, and it's pretty handy for cutting a lot of strip styrene, especially when you need pieces of identical length. However, it can't handle anything thicker than 1/4" (not without problems), or wider than 1". The "Chopper 2" might be different, but I haven't seen it up close much less used it.

Other than that, klingsor's post details everything I consider required scratch building supplies. The only things I would add are as follows:

Highly recommended kit:
Superglue, super thin
Superglue kicker in a pump spray bottle
File sticks (think disposable needle files made of fine sand paper that sandwich a thin strip of foam/plastic)
Modeler's adjustable table swivel vise
Modelers putty (Squadron green or white, dry quickly, bond to plastic and don't require mixing)
Epoxy putty (ie: green stuff)
Miliput (similar to GS above, I use it on vehicle kits as it cures harder and is easier to sand to a sharp edge)
cotton gloves (more for painting)

If you are going to be bending any metal (like photo etched frets or any sort of metal tubing, rod, bars, etc..), the following are also highly recommended:
Flat nose pliers
Needle nose pliers
Tube benders (K&S) (allows metal tubing to be bent without kinking up)
Rod bender (allows smooth, even bends of metal rods)

Last, but not least The Most Important Hobby Supplies:
Protective safety glasses and/or goggles
rated safety mask (NOT the comfort mask)

The first should always, always be worn when cutting, snipping, filing, doing anything that can cause a stray piece of plastic or metal go flying into your eye. Hospital trips + potential blindness = not fun. The face mask should be rated to filter out any sort of resin or other fine particulate matter. Use when dealing with resin and lead based figures, as the dust of either is highly, highly toxic stuff. Be sure to clean your workspace thoroughly immediately afterwards with a damp cloth too.