Lattice is a beautiful form of design you can use to decorate your house. Many people also use lattice panels to decorate their garden and use them as fences as well. The most common materials which are used for making lattice are wood, plastic, PVC and polyvinyl chloride.
Among these types, the easiest material that you can work with is the plastic type. In fact, plastic and vinyl lattice are becoming more and more popular to many household DIY hobbyists. Plastic lattice can hold up well and will not fade over time, requiring little or no maintenance. It is also not challenging at all to learn how to cut plastic lattice. With the right tools and techniques, you would be able to cut plastic lattice to whatever shapes and sizes you desire for your decoration purpose.
As I mention right in the beginning, choosing the right tool is very important if you want to cut plastic lattice smoothly. The best tool for cutting plastic lattice is a circular saw with a plastic cutting blade. A second option of blade you can use is a fine toothed blade- a blade with small and straight teeth.
You should never go for a saw blade with large teeth capable of ripping and tearing. You also shouldn’t use any blade which is designed to cut through rough pieces of materials such as lumber. Always avoid a blade with large teeth.
Besides the circular saw, you can also use a power saw, a handsaw or trim saw for this project. The choice of which saw to use is based on your personal preference. As long as you feel comfortable handling the saw, you should use it.
Tools you need for the project:
Step 1: First of all, you need to measure the sizes and measurements of your project. Measure the place where you intend to place the cut plastic lattice. Remember to allow for around 0.25 each size to accommodate any expansion or contraction. Then use a pencil to draw the line on the plastic lattice of where you want to cut it. Use a ruler or a straight edge to help you draw a straight line.
Step 2: Then follow the drawn line and remove any staple or nail that are in the way of this line. Staples and nails are used to help hold the position of the lattice in place. You can use a screwdriver to remove these stapes and nails. Doing so will help you to cut the plastic lattice much more smoothly. It also prevents the risk of these staples flying off to your eyes and face when they are cut.
>>> Now, follow these steps if you use hand saw or circular saw to cut plastic lattice:
Step 3: If you use a hand saw to cut plastic lattice, place the board with the front side up. On the other hand, if you use a circular saw, place the board of plastic lattice with the front side down.
Step 4: In the next step, you need to find a way to secure the lattice. You can ask other people to hold the other side of the piece of plastic lattice for you. You can also use clamps to hold the piece down. Keeping the piece of lattice secure while you cut it will prevent the plastic lattice from chipping or splitting.
Step 5: Start cutting the plastic lattice with the saw. You should cut onto the line with a smooth and steady pace following a straight line in order to prevent the plastic lattice board from chipping. Go as carefully as you can.
Step 6: When you are near the end of the drawn line for cutting, support the piece of plastic lattice even more firmly. This will make sure this plastic lattice board doesn’t chip or snap.
>>> Here are the steps on cutting plastic lattice with a pair of compounds snips:
Step 3: After you draw the line that you want to cut the plastic lattice into, use the snips to make small cuts. Just cut with this tool like when you cut with normal scissors. There are 3 main types of snips for you to choose from. A pair of straight snip allows you to cut straight lines while left cut snips and right cut snips allow you to cut counter clockwise and clockwise curves, respectively. Cut slowly and steadily until you reach the end of the drawn line.
Here are some final tips that you should apply when working with plastic lattice:
Overall, cutting plastic lattice requires a little bit of time, effort and patience from you. You need to have a steady and slow cut for a smooth and clean result. But the result at the end will be well rewarding and worth all of your effort.
I hope that with all of the information above about choosing the right tools as well as guidance for the proper steps, you would be able to have nice and clean cut pieces of plastic lattice to work well for your decoration purposes.
Plexiglas (Poly methyl methacrylate) is also called the acrylic plastic which is made from stiff plastic, and Plexiglas sometimes are used as normal glass. Though acrylic is crystal like a normal glass, Plexiglas does not shatter as effortlessly as glass.
Nonetheless, plexiglas undoubtedly grazes at any time, it is much more difficult to handle and cut. Here are a few tricks to support you to cut the thick plexiglas without much hassle and save the time to do other tasks.
Unlike other materials, the thick plexiglas has different sizes and the thickness level, so we could select appropriate saws to control and cut it.
You need to put the plexiglas sheet in the flat working area firstly such as a table, a workbench, etc. Then, you lay a safety paper wrapping on the sheet.
To make the cutting line, you need a ruler or one tape measure and a grease pencil to make a marked line before starting the process. By doing this, you will know the marked line that you want to trim in the sheet.
To be secure, you should retain the sheet in a fixed place to prevent the sheet might fly in the fence, and the blade could cut in the wrong line if the sheet does not resemble the saw blade.
As thick Plexiglas is sturdy, you should also select a high – quality blade to deal this issue. In fact, you might find the blades which are made for cutting the thick Plexiglas only in the stores.
If you need to cut many pieces of the thick plexiglas at one time, then you could take a carbide – tipped blade to support you in this challenging.
Workers sometimes use a coolant when cutting the thick plexiglas although is not compulsory in this procedure.
Furthermore, you are able to use the detergent and water in one bottle to create a mixture spray in order to put it in the saw blade.
You should not drop many components in the blade saw (just one to three drops only). These elements could help you cut the thick Plexiglas without a hitch if you need to cut several sheets.
Because thick Plexiglas cutting requires a high – level of technique, you should pay attention to the speed during the cutting time.
The best speed is about 3,450 rpm for trimming the thick Plexiglas. On the flip side, the feed rate of the Plexiglas might have around 4 inches per second.
You should retain the blade in a slow speed to reduce and stop the scratch after finishing the cutting process.
Before stopping the procedure, you should not forget to remove the rugged edges around the sheets. You can take a wet sander, a power saw, a drill fitted and a buffer to solve this trouble.
The step – by – step jigsaw instruction could be identical with a table or a circular saw, but the jigsaw could support you in different cutting.
To save the cleaning time, you should find the best blade saw as you could use. Intensity blades like a cylinder would reduce the resistance and the friction when switching the saw.
Try many speeds of the blade to realize the best speed of the jigsaw because higher level might cause an accident and lower one could make the Plexiglas melt.
Moreover, attempt to trim the plexiglas too much could melt the sheets unless you have the experience to handle this issue.
If the sheet melts, you could lubricate a few drops of an oil in the blade saw. Please keep in mind that you should not try to use an aerosol dispensed oil because it could happen a burn accident from the jigsaw motor.
When workers do not have the blade saw to cut the thick plexiglas, they use the scoring and breaking instead.
However, this solution is available for cutting the thin sheets (less than ¼ inches) like the glass sheets.
To cut the sheet, you get the spots in the scoring in the marked line and the sheet will automatically break.
After that, the edges of the scoring tool like a single tooth of a circular saw (or a table saw).
To have a smooth chip in the thick Plexiglas, you should choose one powerful tool like a table saw or a circular saw. Whether you take a modern method or the traditional way (scoring and breaking), you should not miss out the rough edges in the sheet after stopping the procedure.
Cast iron pipes were used in renovation constructions before the 1960s, and if you want to modernize these old buildings, you would cut cast iron pipes. Furthermore, realizing how to cut cast iron pipe is extremely crucial and vital in order to revamp.
Most of the workers possibly want to use a hacksaw to take on the task, but cutting cast iron pie requires the workers to have much endeavor and time. So, how to cut cast iron pipe by an efficient tool becomes a great question in this situation.
Cutting foam is an easy task that everyone can manage to do with simple tools such as a utility knife or an electric knife. For bigger piece of foam, you can use a band saw with the same techniques. When you have the right equipment on hand, all you need to do to cut foam is following some basic steps. There are some efforts and patience you need to pay for this project but it would be all worth it in the end.
If you are interested on learning how to cut foam, scroll down to read on!
Step 1: Using the taping measurer, the ruler and the pen to measure on the foam and mark the lines which you want to cut the foam into.
Step 2: Put the foam on the floor. Or if it is more convenient for you, put it on a working table with clean and level surface. To prevent yourself from marking the working surface while you cut the foam, place an extra piece of plywood under the foam.
Step 3: Turn on the electric knife or hold the utility knife and move it along the line that you have drawn on the foam. Make sure that you move the knife slowly in order to follow the drawn line easily. Keep in mind that you need to cut thin lines only. Don’t press too hard on the foam.
Step 4: Use the tip of the blade to cut into the foam with the depth of around 0.25 inches. If you have to cut a straight line, you can use a straight ruler and place it along the line you want to cut your foam into. Then slowly move the knife along the ruler.
Step 5: Continue to cut into another 0.25 inches of the foam or deeper using the tip of the blade.
Step 6: When you finally manage to cut though half of the width of the foam board, push on the knife harder so that it would cut through the final depth of the foam.
Step 7: When the blade successfully cut through the foam board, run the knife along the drawn lines iin one stroke to cut the board clearly.
Step 8: Move on to other section of the board and repeat step 4 to step 8.
Foam is available in most of the craft stores. There are different types of foam with different thickness and sizes. Choose the type you prefer for your specific purpose. Soft foam would be needed for decoration while thicker foam can be used for cushioning. If you need to cut foam for your cushions, measure the dimensions of the cushion cover, especially the thickness, to make sure you buy one that fits.
Also keep in mind that since you are going to cut foam with knife by yourself, you should go for a piece of foam which is not too dense. Dense and rigid foam would be way much harder to cut. You can touch the foam with your finger to check how rubbery it.
Most of the foam products on the market come with colored codes. The black code represents the thickest pieces of foam. The light blue coded foam is less thick than the black one and the green coded foam is the thinnest piece of foam.
I have mention about 2 types of knives which you can use to cut foam including utility knife and kitchen knife. You can use both of these knives for cutting the same foam board of the same thickness. However, if you are going to cut a thicker piece of foam board, or in case you have to cut a huge amount of foam, you should go for the electric knife. This tool also provides a nice and smooth cut for you.
In other hand, if you want to cut foam with small and finer details, using a utility knife is the better option. You would be able to control your speed of foam cutting better.
Last but not least, if you have to cut large thick piece of foam, or in case you have to cut multiple pieces, go for a band saw. It is more difficult to set up and use. However, it would be really efficient for the task. Here are the simple steps on cutting foam with band saw.
While cutting foam is an easy task even for a clumsy person, there are some things that you need to know in order to prevent yourself from getting hurt while working on this project:
As you can see, there are several methods which you can use to cut foam. Still, the most popular method for you to cut foam board at home is with a utility knife or kitchen knife.
I hope that this article below would be able to provide you much information about how to cut foam in the most efficient way. Keep in mind these guides and extra helpful tips and I am sure that you would master this technique in a short amount of time.
Firebricks are blocked materials used to withstand the fireplaces, the furnaces, and the fire boxes.
Fire bricks are different from regular bricks due to its temperature ability (firebricks are able to line up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit – the temperature of the firebricks are higher than the regular bricks).On the one hand, the chemical components and the platforms of the firebricks are also disparate from the regular bricks.
Thus, cutting the firebricks is also a little dissimilar than the regular bricks. You could cut the firebricks by hand or a powerful tool relying on your choice.
The trick question is “how to cut firebricks by a powerful tool” that you might wonder. In this article, we will break down the question and show you how to cut firebricks.
Starting your job
Some workers might want to use a saw to cut the firebricks while others could need to trim the fire bricks by conventional equipment – a hammer and a chisel. In this guide, we will introduce both of two tools to help you to select your appropriate tool.
You should take a carpenter pencil to mark the line on all of the sides of the firebricks. Instead of using a carpenter pencil, you could use the chalk line.
With the marked line, you need to create a – 90 degrees angle along a speed square. To have the right marked line, you should get the firebricks on the soft ground, on the soil or on the sand.
When laying the firebricks in these areas, you would reduce the blow of the dust from the chisel and the hammer.
You use the chisel to spot along the marked line (across four lines) slowly, and you need to spot the firebricks about three millimeters only.
This task will create a groove in the firebricks along the marked line. You should repeat the task in all of four sides.
After having the groove on four sides, you could have a heavy blow on these sides of the firebrick. It might split the brick into two pieces.
Once you use a hammer and a chisel to cut the firebricks, you need to remove the rough points from the fire bricks.
You could use a hammer, a chisel or a mason’s hammer to do this step depending on your option. With a hammer, you are able to take it in one hand while holding the fire brick with the other hand.
When you want to use a chisel and a hammer, you should put the firebrick in the sand or other soft lands and using both of your hands to do the job.
Repeat the task until you see the rough points disappear in the firebricks.
In this step, you also use the same technique as selecting a hammer tool to cut the fire bricks. However, you need to wear the protection to prevent the potential damages in the cutting process.
You should wear the goggles to protect your eyes, the mask to prevent the dust, and the hearing protection to evade the noise from the circular saw.
You put one fire brick on a strong surface and keep it tightly. Then, you use a circular saw and take it on the side of the firebrick to begin the cutting process.
You might want to use a chisel and a hammer to handle the curved line and take out other surpluses. After that, you complete the cutting process in other fire bricks.
If you could estimate the marked line, you would not need to use a carpenter pencil to score the firebricks as most of the experienced workers usually do it.
On the other hand, you should keep the dust away from your eyes and your nose to finish the task.
Though the firebricks and the regular bricks are the same when you look at them in the first time. However, both of them have different factors that you could not recognize.
With the firebricks, they could withstand the temperatures highly than the regular bricks (up to 18000F). They are strong, heavy and low porosity.
Thus, we usually use the firebricks to build in the cooking chambers as a wood oven, fire boxes, small or large industrial furnaces and making the fireplaces.
The main compositions of a regular brick are silica, alumina, magnesia, lime, iron oxide and alkalies.
The major chemical ingredients of a firebrick are alumina (23 percent), silica (73 percent) and other compositions like the ferric oxide, titanium, and metallic oxides.
The chemical compositions of the regular bricks could connect and bond together while the firebricks might resist high temperatures easily.
Normally, the colors of the firebricks are white. You sometimes see the fire bricks have many colors like espresso, mossy green, red and jet black.
The various colors allow the firebricks match the applying erection in the same constructions, and regular bricks also have several colors depending on the type of the soil used.
The firebricks have the rectangular form and the regular bricks have many shapes that you could select them to build the constructions.
The thermal conductivityThough the firebricks could withstand high temperatures, they could not have the thermal conductivity significantly.
The low thermal conductivity provides a huge energy and prevents the passage of electricity to the walls or other platforms.
Therefore, firebricks are used in the extreme mechanical and other stress environments such as a wood-fired kiln or a furnace.
After reading and practicing this article, you will clarify that the cutting firebrick process is not a daunting task to attain. Furthermore, this is not a tricky task to try and handle it properly. You are able to cut it by hands or taking a circular saw as a powerful tool to complete your job.
Granite is one hard tough material! It is among the most natural stones that can be used in your house for various purposes.
Learning how to cut granite is quite easy. Still, it requires you to choose the right equipment and have the right techniques in order to have a pristine cut.
There are several ways in which you can use including circular saw and wet tile saw. Depend on the size and thickness of the piece of granite that you would choose how to cut it accordingly. Read the article below for how to cut granite by hand in the simplest and most effective ways.
Granite tiles refer to thin piece of granite. Since the granite you are going to work with is not really thick, you can use a normal circular saw for the project.
>>> Choosing the right blade is important if you decide to cut granite with a circular saw. You can go for either diamond tipped blade or carbide blade. These blades would not be heated up or bind by the granite.
Tools that you need for the project:
Here are all of the steps to follow for cutting granite with a circular saw
Step 1: First, you need to measure the granite tile accurately. Then mark the line you want to cut with a pen.
Step 2: Put the granite tile on a working station’s surface and clamp it down with collars on both sides of the granite tile.
Step 3: Use a duct tape to cover the cut line. It would help the mark you draw on the tile stay and prevent the tile from chipping when you proceed to cut it later on.
Step 4: Then use the circular saw to cut along the line, just like when you use the circular saw to cut anything else.
Tip: This step is the most crucial step. You need to cut along the line slowly. In addition, you should ask other people to wet the blade during the process. This would help to keep the heat down and prevent the blade from going dull.
The main problem that you would encounter when you cut granite tiles cut a circular saw is that granite will chip out and there is more saw dust. The edge of the cut granite tiles would not be as smooth as when you cut with other equipment. Wetting the blade while you cut will help to reduce the amount of dust.
In order to cut thick piece of granite- also known as granite slabs, you can use a tile wet saw. You can also use this tool to cut granite tile for more precise cuts.
Tools that you need for the project:
Here are all of the steps that you need to follow in order to cut granite:
Step 1: Fill the tank of the saw with water.
Step 2: Measure the tile and mark the line that you want to cut the granite into.
Step 3: Slightly adjust the guide on the cutting board to fit with the granite tile or slab
Step 4: Put the piece of granite laying flat onto the cutting board with one side leaning against the guide.
Step 5: Turn on the saw.
Step 6: Slightly put the slab towards the blade following the line you want to cut it into
Finally, here are tips you should know in order to cut granite:
As you can see, there are a lot of methods in which you can follow to cut granite. For cutting thin granite tile, you can use a circular saw. Alternatively, for cutting big slabs of granite, go for tile wet saw. There are several things that you should remember to cut granite effectively and safely as well such as securing the tile to prevent vibrations, wearing your personal protective equipment and working in a well ventilated area.
I hope all of the information above is easy for you to understand and follow. I am sure that with this article, you would enjoy cutting granite and encounter no difficulty with it at all!!!
Fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) panel is a kind of wall covering that is endurable and delightful to decorate the walls. To fit on these walls, the FRP panels need to be cut precisely during the FRP installation process.
The configuration of FRP boards specifies the use of special blades to complete the cut. On the one hand, the safety standards need to make on the top authority as the flying debris, cuts and FRP dust could appear in the air.
To have a smooth trip, you need to gear up some main tools and other supporting gadgets as follows:
To begin with your task, you should wear the leather gloves, the safety glasses, and one particulate respirator in order to avoid the dust because the FRP pieces could fly through the air.
You open the tape measure and put it on the FRP sheets firstly. Then, you take a carpenter pencil to spot the lines that you might want to cut on an edge of the FRP panel.
To have an analogous line on the opposite edge of the FRP boards, you should repeat the marking points on an edge of the panel.
In this time, you take the panel on a table which is solid and sturdy enough to keep the entire length of the FRP tightly.
After that, you create a line between two pencil marks and the chalk line to keep the carbide blade of the circular saw, and the circular saw in the right line in order to make the noticeable line over the edge of the table.
After having the marked line, you arrange the blade of the carbide circular saw with the chalk line by pressing the trigger of the circular saw and slowly shove the blade in the FRP sheet.
When shoving the blade across the FRP panel, you still need to align the chalk line and the blade of the carbide circular saw.
To finish the process, you need to change the sharp edge of the utility slowly to evade the cutting edge of the FRP.
Moreover, you should take the blade at a 15 – degree angle and hold the utility knife along the cut to take off the burr remaining when cutting the FRP panel.
One thing to keep in mind is that you should not get the blade along the cut as the blade will harm the FRP sheet.
After cutting the FRP sheets, you should seal the products to stake off the corrosion of the glass fibers. Some manufacturers could use a comparable resin to evade the state of the corrosion in the glass fibers.
Should
Should Not
Cutting the FRP panels is not a daunting task when you know the cutting process accurately and practice the techniques regularly. In addition, you should also follow the safety requirements to prevent all of the accidents and damages could happen at any time. After finishing the cutting process, you could totally install these FRP panels on the walls in your home.
Hardie board is created by James Hardie, and it is also known as the cement board. Hardie board is pointed out to be popular and endurable in the construction material. Nonetheless, the cement boards also have both benefits and drawbacks to consider before using it. On the one hand, is it really difficult to cut when you want to do it by yourself?
Most of the cement boards will last a half century with limited interchangeable guaranty. It also has the insect resistant and avoids the salt from the sea. In general, cement boards are able to adapt all of the harsh environment and the tough weather.
Hardie boards could appear as various elements like a wood – shake siding, cedar shingles or the wood lap boards. Furthermore, you pick your favorite colors or appropriate colors totally that fit on your furniture. These colors could be durable from 10 to 15 year in the outside environment.
Haride board is made from 90 percent of the sand and 10 percent of the cement that supports it fight the fire. For example, a house which is also constructed from cement boards burned out, the next house has the 50 – feet distance could not be affected.
Imagine that you lived in the area where having storms or summer hailstorm in a year, would you think that your house still stays in these heavy storms? It could happen when you use Hardie board for a siding material. Hardie board is able to fight these natural accidents without continuing damage.
Because Haride board has complex platforms, you will not save the budget to install these cement boards in your house.
To apply the cement board, you need to have a detailed plan and choosing many workers to build. On the flip side, you also spend much time to wait and control the construction while doing the process.
You might be surprised that Haride board weighs about 300 pounds (100 square feet) and it is bigger than vinyl siding (about 70 pounds).
Although you will paint after 10 or 15 years, you could repaint repeatedly to keep the colors in the Haride board.
Use the score and the snap tools
The easiest method to cut the Hardie board is that you spot the surface and break the sheet along the marked line. This is the same way of cutting the drywall.
In fact, you could use a utility knife or a carbide – tipped scoring equipment in order to spot the line. Do not forget to take eye goggles, dual-cartridge respirator, and the gloves to protect yourself while doing the process.
To use the scoring tool, you take the Haride board on a flat surface, and you spot the cutting line with a carpenter’s pencil. You should not use a normal pencil because it could not draw the cutting line clearly.
You take a straight cutting line about 4 – foot level or a straight line on the board. You go down on one hand of the straight line and tight the other hand of this straight line with your hand.
Then, you draw the scoring tool along the edge of the straight line and cut a groove on the surface. To deepen the groove, you should draw the scoring tool about three or four times.
Furthermore, you stand on the board of the sheet and use your knee to prevent the back of the sheet and hold your knee directly behind the spotting line.
You curve the sheet against your knee in order to make the board break along the scored line. After that, you use a scoring tool or a utility knife to chop the fiberglass on the back of the sheet to divide into two pieces.
The broken edges of the board could be rough but you could make it smoothly by a rasp.
If you do not want to cut the hardie board by scoring and snapping tool, you could try a power tool.
You should not miss out wearing eye goggles, dual-cartridge respirator, and the gloves when cutting the hardie board because many specks of dust could fly around in the cutting area.
To cut the straight line, you could use a circular saw with the wood – cutting blade and get the saw on the board slowly.
To be safe, you should take the saw that does not have many teeth. This is a small secret of experienced workers. However, you might want to take more teeth in the blade to cut the wood material as it is cleaner.
A blade with many teeth may cause several specks of dust in the air, and you will get danger when breathing in the area.
On the flip side, you could use the angle grinder with a diamond cutting wheel to cut the board but it will create lots of specks of dust in the air, and you will lose the controlling of the tool. Because it is more difficult to handle the power equipment than a circular saw.
Some workers also use a wet saw to improve its weak points. They could control the saw smoothly and save the time to cut while it does not make a few specks of dust in the air.
For those who want to ensure the cutting line in the hardie board or a beginner, you are able to try a jigsaw. You should take a jigsaw with a metal blade or a carbide – grit blade.
A jigsaw might support you to have the right cutting line slowly without much hassle, but you should change the blade after having six or seven cutting times.
When you want to have the holes in the surface from a tub faucet or toilet flange, this is the time to cut the board with the holes.
You draw the outline of the hole in the board by a pencil compass. Then, you get the diameter of ¼ inches in a drill and the series of a bore that near the spaced holes and the outline.
You need to use a hammer to tap in the center of the holes. The board will have the broken circle around the board and the board will crack along the holes.
To clean the jagged edge around the hole, you should use the pliers or the tile nippers.
Cutting the hardie board is not a daunting task when you estimate and cut in the right line. You could try different tools to recognize your own equipment while trimming the board. And you should not forget some safety tips before starting the process.
There are a huge variety of saws that you can select on the market to cut wood. In fact, saws are among the most popular tool for a woodworking project thanks to their efficiency and versatile.
However, have you ever thought about using other tools for cutting wood? Imagine that you are in the middle of nowhere, probably when you go camping and need some wood sticks to start a fire. However, what if there is no saw around you? Or in case you are in the middle of a woodworking project, your saw refuses to work and your neighbor is not around for you to lend. What are you going to do?
Hence, knowing how to cut wood using several tools proves to be helpful for many unforeseeable event in the futures. Take a look at this article below and I will show you how to cut wood without a saw - using many simple tools, which are readily available in your pocket or your garage.
If you love to decorate your own house or build model, I am sure that you have to work with foam board very often. Foam board comes in different colors and different sizes to meet all of your needs for different projects.
While it is a popular material for art project, it does take patience and technique to cut it properly. One of the most common questions I get from my friends when they work with foam board is how to cut foam board so that it doesn’t tear. The key thing here is the right tool, the right blade and the right pressure. Scroll down for more details on how to cut foam board into beautiful smaller pieces.
The first method would make use of a unity knife. It is used to cut though slim and thin foam board. Also if you want to cut foam board into smaller pieces with fine and complicate details, you should follow this method.
Here are the tools that you would need in order to cut foam board:
How to choose the right knife to cut foam board?
Many people think that the more expensive the knife is, the better it is with the foam board. However, it is not always the case. The most important factor is that your knife needs to have a sharp blade.
If you have to cut a long and thick board, you should also prepare some extra blades to change when needed.
Follow the steps below on how to cut foam board for your project:
Step 1: To begin with, you need to find a clean and flat surface as your working station. Then put the foam board you are going to work with onto the table.
Step 2: Use the ruler, the measuring tape and the pencil to draw the shape you want to cut the foam board into.
Step 3: After you finish drawing on your board, don’t put your ruler away. Use it to secure the board. You can place the ruler along the line you draw on the foam board and run the knife along the ruler. It would help you to cut a perfect straight line.
Step 4: Put the blade of the knife onto the foam board and start cutting. For the first cut, only use light pressure and cut the surface of the foam board. This is your trail line.
Step 5: Keep on cutting over the trial line until you can finally cut through the board. You have to make at least 3 cuts in order to cut through a piece of foam board. The first cut would cut though the paper outer layer of the foam board and the second cut would cut through the foam itself. The final cut would cut though the outer layer on the other side. You might need to use more cuts for cut though each layer as well.
Step 6: Move to other places on the board and repeat from step 3.
Note: Always remember the rule of thumb for cutting foam board: As little force as possible. As many cuts as it takes.
As stated above, in case you want to cut thick foam board, using a handheld hacksaw would bring you nice and smooth cuts. You can choose from a wide range of materials and designs. But the easiest tool to work with is the one with plastic handle.
Here are the steps you should follow to cut thick foam board with hacksaw:
Step 1: Put the foam board into a clean working station.
Step 2: Measure and draw on the board what you like to cut.
Step 3: Apply a long and smooth stroke along the line you have drawn on the board. In case you have to apply sawing motion, do it at a very slow speed until you can cut through the foam board.
Step 4: Clean the dust from cutting. Also you can smooth the edges of the cuts by rubbing them with a piece of foam board. Don’t rub it against sand paper- sand paper would be too rough on the surface of a piece of foam.
You can purchase other specific tools to cut foam board as well. They are made for cutting foam board only but they are also very useful and help you have clean and nice cuts.
Overall, there are a few methods in which you can use to cut foam board. You can use a utility knife to cut thin foam board. On the other hand, if you have to cut thick foam board, a hacksaw is a better option. There are other tools you can use including foam rabbet cutter, free style cutter or a hot wire cutter.
Remember that whichever tool you use, always cut the foam cut with little pressure and slow motion if you want to have clean cuts. I hope with the ultimate guide above, along with a few practices, you would be successful in cutting clean cut from whichever foam board you have for your project.