Doing Things Wrong

Cutting Plastics

Cutting plastics presents a special problem in that many plastics generate significant heat and can melt. This is especially a problem with clear plastics and thicker materials.

Often you'll find that the material simply melted in front of the blade and re-solidified behind it, so you haven't actually made a cut, more like a weld. In this situation, if you pause cutting, the blade will become trapped in the material. Then you have a real problem.

Jigsaws blades heat up very fast in almost any material and are especially a problem in plastics.

The long blade on a band saw makes a good heat sink and is fairly resistant to heating, but thicker materials are still a problem. Even if the blade stays cool, the material can still melt around it.

Most scroll saw blades heat up pretty quickly and give the welding effect I described. For cutting plastics with a scroll saw, use a "skip-tooth" blade. This is a blade that looks like every other tooth is missing, and is much more resistant to heating. They are seldom labeled as such, just look in the package for what I described.


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This fretless sounds really cool, and is super-easy to play, as you no longer have to stretch your hand unnaturally just to make ordinary patterns. It is set up with flats I found in the junk box. Can anyone tell me what kind of strings have blue thread leaders? The intonation fell right in, which is surprising considering the bridge was previously set up for 25.5" guitar strings. ( Actually, how important is intonation on a fretless anyway? )

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