# Table saw for styrene?



## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

A while ago I bought a piko caboose. After painting and relettering it I've decided it's too big to run with my 1:29 stuff, so I'm thinking of cutting it down. To get it to 1:29, I'll need to lower it considerably and maybe narrow it.

The Piko caboose is cast with the floor and walls as one piece. The best way to lower it would probably be to cut the walls off just above the base.

Could I do this cut on a table saw, or would it simply shatter? I have a decent saw, and I'm thinking the cut would be more precise than I could manage with a handsaw, and also a lot less work. But I have visions of the thing cracking.

I have a plywood blade with more teeth hanging on the wall, but what's installed now is a freud multi-purpose blade. 


All suggestions welcome 

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## Andre Anderson (Jan 3, 2008)

The short answer is yes you can use a table saw to cut plastic and plastic bodies. The main problem is heat, the saw tends to melt the plastic rather than cut it due to the speed the blade is spinning. You want to use the finest toothed blade you can get you hands on, buy a good blade and only use it for plastic. Also if you direct an air blower to cool things down it will help prevent melting and cool the blade down. The other thing that I have used it is a cheap tile saw from home depot that has a water bath with a diamond blade, this works well do to the fact the water both cleans and cools both the blade and the plastic.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike,

I had a little project this past year where I wanted to cut .06 styrene. Plywood blade. I thought it would work great.......but it shattered the styrene very badly. Went back to the old tried and true way of just scribing the plastic and breaking.


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Micro-Mark sells a *small power scroll saw* that I've used for styrene. The trick is to keep the speed of the saw way down so as not to generate any heat. Reasonably straight line cuts can be done by improvising a longer fence than the one supplied.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

I've had success cutting up to 1/16" and 1/8" styrene on both the micro mark mini table saw, and a standard table saw. On the larger saw I just used a standard blade, feed it in slowly, as the plastic will bead up and melt, but the cut remains sharp. After your done cutting a quick swipe with a knife gets all the plastic bits off. That said I've never tried to cut open a one piece model, nor have I had anything shatter on me. 
Score and snap works well too. Use a scriber instead of a #11 blade and a 1/8" thick piece will snap just fine. A knife blade just pushes the plastic to the side, instead of removing it. 

Craig


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

I'll ante up here. Adding to Craig's comments, I have cut many car bodies. I am pretty uncomfortable with the idea of using a large table saw to cut up a car body. If you set the blade high enough to cut in one pass, the blade is running at two different angles thru material while it cuts, one may work OK, but the other may be off angle too much, chipping is very likely. A table saw is hard to slow down! They throw HOT plastic right back at the operator - including your face. 

If you set the blade short and make two passes for the sides only, the blade is hidden, and as such not safe to my thinking! 

That said, I always use a large 12 inch band saw. A scroll saw is weird because the blade dances .... up & down ... for each stroke which makes it harder to hold on to the part your cutting. They are great for doing the work they are designed for, cutting out internal small spaces! Plus you will need about 4.5 - 5 inches of clear cutting space for a car body to go thru the saw...

I built a sliding carriage to hold car bodies while they are being cut for My band saw here. It is very easy to use, holds items securely and is easy for repeat/similar cuts of bodies. 

A disclaimer on My part is worth mentioning also. Having a machinist's background and mentality, I true and align my blade to cut square in 3 planes for great cuts, but this takes time to set up and play with till you get it right. ONCE it is right, cuts are wonderful tho!!!! Sure makes playing with trains a whole bunch easier too! 

I also use home made fences and a machinist 4x4x6 angle ( Read a big piece of steel ) to guide parts thru the saw. 

good luck, 
Dirk 
DMS Ry.


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

I have tried all of the methods above. But, the one that I have settled on is a Slow running Band saw. I have cut sheet polycarbonate, corolux, styrene, Bachman cars etc. Good straight even cuts all the time.


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

Ditto on the bandsaw for cutting up Ur trains, I use a variable speed bandsaw with a fine blade at relatively 
slow speed... This method has worked better than an other, an I've been using it for many years now with 
great success...
Paul R...


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Thank s all. I can't scribe and snap because it's four walls and a base molded in one piece. I have a band saw, an old delta, but have not had much luck getting getting square cuts and compensating for drift. I agree, set up is key but I've never been able to get it set up well enough. Also no variable speed. But I have a 1/4 fine tooth blade new in the box. Hmmm...

Maybe a hand saw is the way to go. Tedious though.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I read this trick here on MLS a while back: install the blade backwards on the table saw. I've used it a number of times on various plastic-ish materials and got good results without the usual "overheating". Your mileage may vary. 

JackM


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Posted By JackM on 25 Apr 2012 05:47 AM 
I read this trick here on MLS a while back: install the blade backwards on the table saw. I've used it a number of times on various plastic-ish materials and got good results without the usual "overheating". Your mileage may vary. 

JackM 
This is the way you cut vinyl siding for houses and it works great. ( I hung 20 square last year) Fine tooth blade is still a plus.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

I use this saw blade to cut lexan on my table saw. 

It does a great job. 

Straight cuts are no problem.

I got it at Home Depot.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

I cut up the Bachmann hopper with my Microlux mini table saw. I didn't use the finest blade (120 tooth for metal work) as it heated up the plastic too much. I used a coarse wood rip blade. 











One trick, of course, is not to hang around letting the plastic warm up. Move the piece as quickly as possible so that any one place isn't getting too much action. 
I also used an extended fence (2" tall) so there would be plenty of area to hold the piece in place.


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## Bob in Kalamazoo (Apr 2, 2009)

Posted By JackM on 25 Apr 2012 05:47 AM 
I read this trick here on MLS a while back: install the blade backwards on the table saw. I've used it a number of times on various plastic-ish materials and got good results without the usual "overheating". Your mileage may vary. 

JackM Many years ago I installed vinyl siding on a house I had at the time. The person who sold me the vinyl siding said to use a circular saw with a plywood blade mounted backwards. I did and it worked great. I once tried to say sometime when replacing a piece of vinyl siding and used the blade without reversing the blade. It gave me a very poor edge on the siding. I've never tried this on something like a model railroad item, but it sure seems like it would work.
Bob


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

install the blade backwards on the table saw
I heard that trick too, and used it when cutting some transparent plastic roofing. It seemed to work by locally melting the plastic ! Not quite the effect we are looking for in a model cut?


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes that's what'd worry me about reversing the blade, melting the plastic rather than cutting it. And then you joint, where vertical "boards" have to match up, would be messed up.

I'm thinking now of making a jig for my band saw, mounting up a fine/narrow blade, and feeding it through steadily and fairly fast. 

My guess is no matter what method I try, it's probably not going to work very well! 

Tomorrow I'l have a chance to try it


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Mike,

I’d suggest a 52-60 tooth carbide tipped saw blade for a 10” saw. The problems with a full size table saw and cutting plastic will be not only the blade in play but the RPM of the saw/blade. They also offer blades specifically designed for cutting plastics, they generally have a reverse bias on the teeth to prevent material build-up and or melting or re-deposition of the material being cut.

I use a Proxxon variable speed mini table saw and chop saw with 20-24-36 tooth carbide tipped blades for cutting plastics and find slowing the blade is best suited with the table saw for plastics. Since not all plastics are created equal your experience maybe different. I also have a Proxxon variable speed band saw; this works great with plastics too!

I have also used my Makita 12” metal cutting chop saw with 60 tooth carbide tipped blade to section several Bachmann coaches, as Dirk alluded to in his post there is consideration to be given to the angle of attack, generally I was successful, but did experience a couple of cuts that inevitably chipped a section rather than cutting it when passing through the car body near the end of the cut. This was an experiment, it worked but I believe the bandsaw is the safest approach with regard to the car body.

Based on your description of cutting wants or needs, is it plausible to remove the trucks and undercarriage goodies and pass the car through the saw on its bottom with the fence as a guide cutting or clearing inside the vertical walls only? This would be a cut maybe a ½” deep or so I assume. Subsequently you could trim the car body frame to the length and widths desired and then fix the walls to the car body at the desired height. For trimming the walls and roof maybe you could again using a table saw lay the car on its side and dissect the roof from the walls on side at a time with a shallow depth cut.

Michael


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

no matter what method I try, it's probably not going to work very well 
Hey - mine worked fine. I cut the two hopper cars and rejoined them with exactly straight joints.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

I just my micro mark saw all the time for cutting styrene. Much more consistent results when your making repeated strips, etc then with the score and snap method. 
Pete, 
Got any pictures of your fence set up? The fence that comes with the micro mark saw is short and useless. Or at least the saw I have. 

Craig


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I ended up trying it on my table saw, with a standard duty freud blade. It cut cleanly without melting, but tnot squarely. I had to do a lot of cleaning up to get it to work.

Alas, it looks bad--the lowered body and the still-1:24 cupola just don't play well together. I'm going to chalk it up as a loss 
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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

The fence that comes with the micro mark saw is short and useless 

Micro-mark sells a high fence: http://www.micromark.com/featherboard-and-high-fence-attachment-set,7586.html [ www dot micromark.com/featherboard-and-high-fence-attachment-set,7586.html if that link doresn't work. ]


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

I think that fence is for this saw only








I have this saw









Maybe that's a good excuse to upgrade to a bigger saw!


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## TheFishGuy (Feb 1, 2011)

I have a DeWalt... zero issues.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Maybe that's a good excuse to upgrade to a bigger saw 
The microlux (your top pic) that I use is not exactly big. And, if i remember correctly, the high fence clamped on to the original fence. It would probably clamp on to any similar low fence.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

For information's sake, my table saw cut the styrene with no shattering and no melting. The cut was neat and straight, except for my error--I didn't set it up right, and it flexed as I moved it through. I should have made a wooden block to fit inside it, and maybe a sled.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

The cut was neat and straight, except for my error--I didn't set it up right, and it flexed as I moved it through. I should have made a wooden block to fit inside it, and maybe a sled. 
I wouldn't call that an error - more like a learning curve. I went through 3 hoppers in order to make 2 into 1. 

“Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.” 
― Terry Pratchett


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