How to cut a thin plastic bath panel

Sep 19, 2008 10 Replies

Hi - anyone know of a good way to cut a thin plastic bath panel I need to cut some length off he end and some off the bottom it's a flexible plastic.



My thoughts are - jigsaw with metal blade - I'm worried it will crack the panel plus hard to follow lines cutting the contoured bit..



A hacksaw blade - will take a long long time



Wood saw - may crack it



a knife (heated maybe) probably too tough to cut with a knife


a lot of plastics only need to be scored with a knife to allow you to then split it along the crack, or a band saw these work quite well

When I worked at Ideal Standard, the panels were trimmed by a bandsaw when they came out of the Geiss moulding machines so I see no problem using a jigsaw with a medium metal blade. What you'll probably have to do is keep cleaning the teeth tho'.

Don.

Avaition tin snips work a treat, as do tuffcuts or a Bosch PMF 180 multi tool.

I should imagine it depends a bit on the plastic and how thick it is. I go for some form of fine toothed saw, don't they reckon you need at least 3 teeth to be in the material being cut to avoid jamming? Good support at and near the point of cutting is important, things don't cut well if they are flapping about. A new hacksaw blade in a good handle will be a lot more controllable than a jigsaw.

Not a Fein? B-) I have a bath panel to trim at some point, could I use that as hook to hang the purchase on? Naw think I have more use for a random orbit sander first.

Don't know about the Fein as I don't have one, but the Bosch is a stunning detail sander, much better than any detail sander I've ever used. Not as good as a ROS of course.

I would use a tenon saw to do this.

Support it with a sand bag to cut as you go.

Jig saw with fine blade or as someone else suggested an angle grinder. It must be well supported.

But there are some details a 125mm ROS disc just can't get at.

I did mine with a sharp fine-toothed woodsaw.

No problem at all.

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