Cutting perfect circles from Styrene.

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Techniques
1

Ever needed to cut a perfectly round circle from styrene and struggled??

Here is what I use for this purpose.

It is an Olfa Compass cutter and you is exactly like a standard compass, with the difference that you don’t draw a line but scribe the styrene.
This is their small size sufficent for most modeling purposes, they also got a bigger one.
Fairly cheap item and comes with 5 spare blades.

Might come in handy for the armor guys and similar that need to cut templates for road-wheels, etc.

HTH.

2

Yep, fantastic tool, except for the smallest circles… But then, a punch & die set is best anyway for those smaller bits!

3

Agreed.

4

perfect little tool where do i get one in the uk :slight_smile:

5

Shroomy, I got mine from Staples. You’ll find some at the big shows too, such as Trucks n Tracks, EuroMilitaire, but probably more expensive though!

6

staples is good just down the road from me cool
cheers dj
you of to the shows this year?
i have never been so going to make the most this year :slight_smile: like a child in a sweet shop :slight_smile:

7

I’m in Chatham, and I normally go to the Trucks n Tracks, EuroMilitaire shows in Folkestone, plus if I can find the time, a number of smaller shows such as the Gravesend and the Welling ones… The Southern expo in Hornchurch is another one I go to. And sometimes in Northern France or Belgium.

8

Gotta check out Staples. Goes to show you, you never know where your next modelling tool will come from.

9

I’ll have to swing by Staples the next chance I get and see what they have. Anybody know of a good webstore to check out punch and die sets? I looked through a few and haven’t really seen any, but maybe I’m looking in the wrong spots.

10

i know its uk based but its a start
http://www.historexagents.com/shop/hxsearchresults.php?SupplierCode=PD

11

That is indeed a very useful tool.

12

Need more room on the workbench.

13

Got that one from one of the books we have been discussing, plenty more stuff in them that I reckon not many modelers here are aware of yet.
[;)]

14

Thanks, shroomy, that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, and they’re just as expensive as I feared.

If you’ve got more tips, Model Museum, by all means, spill the beans, I like to learn at least one new thing every day.

15

Let me go through the books and select a few that will fit most modelers on FSM. Some are very specific to Robot models and similar.

I have a learned since I started to read(somehow manage between my chinese and japanese ability) those japanese books.

16

lemon jello

Check my posting in the armor section of the forum. For Christmas this year my wife (Bless her little heart) bought me the Round Punch and Die set from ARMOUR EXTRA DETAILS. It’s made in Italy by SINTEC. If you look up www.steelmodels.com you can see both of the punch set they offer. I noticed that these are suspiciously close almost “copied directly” from the Historex sets for both design and size of pubches.

Once you decide which one you want and you want to buy it cheap go to either the Hobby Shop directory in a copy of FSM or look on line for NORTHSTAR Hobbies in Mississauga, Ontario, CANADA. This was the shop my wife bought my set at. Price in Canadian dollars $114.00 and best of all they offer mail order service too.

I hope this helps you get a new tool on your workbench.

Cheers;

Gregory

17

Neat little tool. Similar to my own solution to that problem. I modified an old drafting compass by removing the lead and attached a 11 blade to it instead. Tricky to work with (am considering building a cradle for the blade from brass tubing) but cheap (as in free).

I used to work at Staples (stop-gap when the school I was teaching at started bouncing my pay-cheques) and always found lots of neat model supplies there. Only reason I don’t go there any more is my ex-wife still works there [:D]

Sean

18

I have one of those circle cutters. Mine is still in the package as I have’nt put it to use as yet. Found mine at Michaels with 50% off coupon.