04-01-2010, 12:19 AM
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Micro Mark's compass circle cutter seems a bit large, (and a bit pricey if you're only going to use it once) but perhaps you can use a school compass in the same way. I seem to recall a compass designed to clip any pencil in place. You could probably just as easily clip-on an Xacto or other hobby knife instead.
But try this first. Draw the circle as big as you need it to be. Then put the blade of your knife on the line and carefully spin the styrene. Don't try to make the cut in the first pass, but go as deep as you need in order to snap it out.
OR, cut a square the width/length of the diameter you need plus some slop. Draw the circle inside. Then nibble away at the corners to get an octagon, then nibble away at those corners, etc. until you approach the circle. Use an emery board or sander stick to rough it down to a circle.
My 2 cents.
Galen
Micro Mark's compass circle cutter seems a bit large, (and a bit pricey if you're only going to use it once) but perhaps you can use a school compass in the same way. I seem to recall a compass designed to clip any pencil in place. You could probably just as easily clip-on an Xacto or other hobby knife instead.
But try this first. Draw the circle as big as you need it to be. Then put the blade of your knife on the line and carefully spin the styrene. Don't try to make the cut in the first pass, but go as deep as you need in order to snap it out.
OR, cut a square the width/length of the diameter you need plus some slop. Draw the circle inside. Then nibble away at the corners to get an octagon, then nibble away at those corners, etc. until you approach the circle. Use an emery board or sander stick to rough it down to a circle.
My 2 cents.
Galen
I may not be a rivet counter, but I sure do like rivets!