Model Railway Forum

I needed 20ft x 2in of perspex for the layout, so i decided to cut it all from a 4ft x 2ft sheet. All went well ( to my amazement ), just make sure you clamp securely to your workbench, scribe both sides well with a blade, then apply pressure equally along line and hope. If you need to drill holes in it, use a slow speed or it welds itself.

Handy tips, thanks Brian

Good advice Brian. Use a length of batten when applying the pressure, spreads it along the whole length.

Alongside other knives Olfa make specific scoring knives for Acrylic and other plastic laminates, basically a blade with a hooked point that you drag along the cut line to produce a score that allows you to split the plastic.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Olfa-PC-L-He ... 3805133458

You only need to score one side like glass. We used to make our own by grinding old broken mechanical hacksaw blades into a similar point. I believe there are other manufacturers of similar tools.

The hooked blades for utility knives are often sold as Lino or laminate cutters and although at first glance seem similar to the Olfa acrylic scorer if you look carefully the blade profile is different so they may or may not perform the same

https://www.screwfix.com/p/hooked-utili ... pack/3410v

Richard

Interesting, i had to make a lot of 2 inch strips, for fencing. I simply used the bandsaw.

yelrow wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 3:51 pm Interesting, i had to make a lot of 2 inch strips, for fencing. I simply used the bandsaw.

At work we tended to use machine tools to cut the vast majority of Acrylic particularly a table saw but it needed adapting. The standard lift out plate to access the blade usually has too wide a slot for acrylic we made our own that literally had a blade width slot to prevent chipping on the underside. Although we used a standard fine toothed tipped blade for wood, you can get specialist plastic cutting blades. The only one I saw was sometime back but I do remember the tips had little set and as opposed to pointed teeth it had rounded teeth.

Like you we also used band saws and oscillating scroll saws which I believe many sign makers use also, I found them to tend chip on the underside more which depending on what will be seen might be a problem or not.

For the home modeller without such equipment that is all academical, so the Olfa type acrylic scorer is a very good way of cutting acrylic and as a scoring tool gives a much better result than any other form of scoring.

Richard

If cutting Perspex with a jig saw, lay-down masking tape and draw your measured lines on it. When you cut it the masking tape stops the perspex "welding" behind the blade. Also if you need to get a clean clear edge polish it with Brasso after fine wet and dry, it will end up the same as the sheet surface. this works on other materials as well.

We had really draughty Georgian styled sash windows so I fitted some temporary double glazing using Perspex and cut the sheets to size with a wood saw. I Clamped the Perspex down so it was well supported, put masking tape along the cut line then slowly cut at a very shallow angle so the saw more or less shaved the Perspex along the cut line and with a little extra care at the end of the cut to save it snapping. The tape stopped it chipping and it worked well. I have since replaced the windows with double glazed ones and now lovely and cosy.

Puddles