light diffuser

I was thinking of using light diffuser in my egg tubs this year. I was just curious what you guys used to cut them to size. I know plastic can be brittle and can snap pretty easily.

I use a pair of diagonal flush cutters: http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&bi...d=0CKYBEK0DMBc

i havent worked with this material specifically, but generally when i work with plastic, and also for many other uses, i have this:

http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-38472-.../dp/B0017PWTX8

then i just put in a circular saw blade, one of the ceramic ones without teeth, and it will cut any plastic, easily, with high precision, and without breaking anything. i mean, with that you can cut a glass bottle into slices.


or you could try to make the edge of a knife really hot, so that it will melt through the plastic, and cut with that. or just try a regular saw, for wood, and be really, really careful.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

i havent worked with this material specifically, but generally when i work with plastic, and also for many other uses, i have this:

http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-38472-.../dp/B0017PWTX8

then i just put in a circular saw blade, one of the ceramic ones without teeth, and it will cut any plastic, easily, with high precision, and without breaking anything. i mean, with that you can cut a glass bottle into slices.


or you could try to make the edge of a knife really hot, so that it will melt through the plastic, and cut with that. or just try a regular saw, for wood, and be really, really careful.

---

I beleive he is talking about using "egg crate" diffuser, its a bunch of brittle tiny boxes its not a solid piece of plastic so a roto tool will just snap it. I have access to a full machine shop with plenty of different cutting tools and I still haven't had any success using anything other than hand tools cutting it.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/13/ajuhahyb.jpg

This is what the sheet looks like. Just trying to figure out how best to cut it. I want to avoid it snapping to maximize the material

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

Scissors....

I use a pair of sidecutter pliers most of the time. One time I could not find them and I used regular scissors though and it worked just fine. The eggcrate tends to snap pretty easy along the edges.

table saw gets it done really fast :) or if done by hand, some sidecuts.

Yeah you can probably use a pair of kitchen scissors pretty easily, it'll be time-consuming but more structurally sound than trying to take a saw to it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Archimedes

Yeah you can probably use a pair of kitchen scissors pretty easily, it'll be time-consuming but more structurally sound than trying to take a saw to it.

---

how would the method have any effect on structure?