Hack saw for cutting plastic?
 

Hi,

Which hacksaw type tool is best to cut completely thru soft plastic wheel rims? Yes slice them rite in two! And glue 'em back together...
http://web1.rccrawler.com/forum/showthread.php?t=229996



Sure I got a hacksaw in garage:teeth too big and clumsy to make a neat smooth cut....

Exacto knife razor saws have metal rim along top edge, won't go through the slot after cutting an inch deep.

Surely someone makes a hacksaw for cutting soft materials like this?????

Thanks for advice!

If you have a drill press, you can make a jig to mount the wheel to the press so it spins (like a lathe), then use a shrp blade to cut the wheels as it spins. or

You could mount a dremmel wheel to your press, set the height of your table top, then move the wheel around the spinning disk.

Yep, I would follow your advice, but no drill press.

I guess I will buy a jewelers saw $10, 144 blades $9 Amazon

Then following your suggestion use a hand drill to spin the cut rim halves (instead of the cutter wheel). Tape the sandpaper flat and smoothed out at table level while holding the drill to it with rim half attached to drill.

TNX for pointing me right direction!

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/paint-body/121299-how-cutting-thread.html

Narly1

Narly1: Who'd a thought of that?

Thanks!

Maybe that is why you turn the wheel as you cut. Or as mentioned chuck it in a drill. String might work but keeping it from wandering from square would be hard to do.

This is a hacksaw....

http://foohbar.com/magnum/frankentake/hacksaw.jpg

You prolly tried a normal hand saw for wood like this.....

http://www.toolstation.com/images/li...bbig/52906.jpg

My old hacksaw looks just like that, teeth too large, and too much sideways set to the teeth.

So I got a jewlers saw online, came in 2 days. Micro Tools. 144 blades for $10 total (12 each of 12 diff size teeth). Lifetime supply? Saw was $15.

The finest jewlers saw blade (6/0) would have taken an hour to make the cut thru plastic rims. The largest (size 6) worked very well, cuts neater than hacksaw. Very nice.

First I tried just cutting thru rim freehand with the new jewlers saw. Bad result, not a straight cut, which ruined rim. Oh well, having taught self how to do it wrong, on the second trial like suggested above using hand drill as a lathe got it done right.

Thanks for the tips.

Oh well, might as well give the details where it went correctly:

Used screw through rim center on a hand drill, and held rim down flat to the table top to keep rim steady, not moving up and down. The jewelers saw was clamped to a stack of very thin hobby plywood sheets, this stack was screwed down to the work surface. Stack height adjusted by adding removing sheets. Now both saw and rim were firmly held, cut went exact straight through!

Clamping the rims halves to see how gluing them back together would go, this squeezed one rim to a larger diameter than the other so they wouldn't line up.

So I placed small square of 3/4 plywood down on the vice between vice jaws to give the rim edges something to stand up on and keep the two halves lined up to each other even while squeezing them gently between jaws to dry the CA gel glue (took over hour).


Project completed correctly that second time, looks great!

Center part of the tire (at the axle) was indeed now much thinner giving more clearance. But outer edge of tire (the tread part that touches the road) expanded out as wide as before, no clearance gained there.

Thanks again for the help!