Grinding plastic?

[jaxngee]

Hi-I ve got a basic build question here, I need to shave off some thickness of cockpit inside plastic to accomodate a resin replacement-what kind of tool bit do I use-most of what I have just melts the plastic.....

[maverick728470]

Jaxngee,

Have the same problem at times when doing vac.If u'er using a hight speed dremel tool or anything that has a high speed setting as to the ones that have a speed control.Then one would use a routor type ball that fits into the dremel tool and go at a slow pace without heating up the plastic.Or what i do to avoid the high speed thing is use a regular drill.It has a trigger that one can control the speed,but it to can heat up the plastic as well.

It's just a slow process for thinning anyhting as the insides of a fuselage to pop in that resin pit for u'er project.Larry

[Craig361]

Something I use a lot are a couple of different style blades in my exacto handle. I first use a sanding drum in my dremel tool to remove the unwanted kit details, then I use either a wide flat blade or it the section is curved, a curved blade to scrape away the material. I do a little sanding with 320 grit along the way as I scape with the blades. A little slow perhaps but doesn't really take too long to do. I can control the thickness as I go and it doesn't heat the plastic up, works pretty good for me.

[LSP_Matt]

Just some extra ideas here that might suit you or others.

 

I also use a variety of dental burs. My motor tool came with chuck inserts to fit small dental burs which come in all manner of sizes.

 

Inverted cones for a RA head handpiece are excellent ( if small enough) for grinding out exhausts in a controlled fashion. Parellel sided cylinder shaped burs (end and side cutting) of large diameter are awesome. They work just like a router. We call them flat fissure burs.

 

Much larger burs for grinding acrylic denture (tungsten carbide/steel) also come in a variety of shapes and if used slowly ( to avoid xs heat) are super at removing gross amounts of plastic.

 

Best of luck