OT How to cut this....

Unroll and roll

Mike L

I would use a pipe though the middle of it and set one up on the other side of the saw you choose. Unroll it from the one side across the saw and roll it up on the other side. That way once you get the first few feet cut you could just roll it up on the outside, which should pull it across the saw for you. With out knowing how wide a piece you are cutting off and how much left it is hard to say which saw I would use.

Feather board to hold it flat to saw table

Re: Unroll and roll

Barry Irby

Your idea is the same as mine. He says the rolls are 18" wide. I have seen them but do not recall and am not there to look at them now. I also don't know if he wants them cut to some specific width or just ripped in half. I will get more details later today.

I doubt the saw (any saw) will leave slick edges. I was wondering about flame seasoning the edges with a torch. Or whether it matters. The buyer runs some sort of grocery store that sells short dated or expired stuff. Brown bananas, bruised apples, dated Mac and Cheese, I could go on, but you get the picture, so I doubt he will care about the edges.

Re: OT How to cut this....

Michael van pelt

Most jig saw manufactures make a rubber cutting blade that works well. I would use my Festool jig saw and track.

band saw

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

fence on a band saw and saw away. One person feeding and another taking it up as it passed the blade would make short work of it.

Table saw too scary for this operation. This stuff will have a low melting point. I would be worried abut it softening enough on the table saw that it may grab on the blade or at least make a melty cut. .

Good idea...

John in NM

Those kind of wavy knife blades - seen one once and forgot all about them. In a factory I bet they cut this with a big blade like a meat slicer uses at the deli counter, that jigsaw blade is the next best thing.

Re: OT How to cut this....

johnv

why not leave it rolled up, make a sled for your bandsaw & cut off the end of the roll. Lots of rolled sheet goods are cut this way including the sought after TP. about 4 tpi sounds about right.

safety issue

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I don't know how "sticky" this low melting polymer is going to be when sawed.

Sawing a cylinder on a band saw is fraught with peril. The leading edge is unsupported. If the teeth grab it will self feed and you will not be able to control what happens next.

Cool the blade

Tom Dunlap

When climbing or life support gear is sewn bar tacks and other high stitch count configurations are used

To keep the needle from getting hot a nozzle to direct nitrogen to the needle is used. It would be so easy to plumb an air nozzle to the blade, even one nozzle on each side

Re: safety issue

Stuart Johnson

A well known woodworker/teacher showed how to make the rounded cut by placing a thin strip of stock against the cut. It has to be thin enough to go under the leading edge.

Re: Good idea...

walta

I am not sure you can cut it cleanly enough with a saw.

Going thru a curtain will always be unpleasant as the strips are heavy and will mess up your hair.

A ruff cut would go from merely annoying for too dangerous as a ruff edge would likely draw blood.

The strips need some weight to work if they are to light the wind will blow them open.

The strips opened with less force when the opening was 12 foot tall. The 7 foot door required you to lift the strips over the load going thru the door in less distance so you had to use more energy over less time.

Consider reducing the overlap instead of cutting.

If you must cut build a jig that you pull the vinyl thru with a razor blade mounted in the jig at 45° pushing down.

You may still need to melt the cut edge to round it with a heat gun.

It was no fun when the ends would flop into the cage of the forklift and smack your face.

Walta

What I'd do

Ellis Walentine

... is to cut them to length first, if you know the final length. Then, I'd make up a sled table of some sort that would keep the strip centered, and I'd rig up a sharp knife of some sort at one end, sticking up from the sled, set at whatever width you want. Feed your strip into the sled, grab the end, and pull it through. The knife would make a clean cut as fast as you can pull it.

Ellis

knife

John K Jordan

I've cut a lot of flexible plastic and rubber with box cutter/utility knives. Put the material on a board or piece of plywood, cut down a straightedge. Material thicker than 1/2" usually took several passes, thin stuff, single pass.

Re: OT How to cut this....

David Weaver

If you can get a good straight edge and it can be as long as the continuous cut you want (the edge of a cut board is fine), I'd lay it on a surface, lay the straight edge on top of it and cut it with a knife.

I've cut a lot of leather like this for razor strops, as long as the material is stable, it's not a huge deal if you don't get it cut all the way through on the first pass - but the cut needs to be deep enough for the knife to follow in the next pass.

Re: OT How to cut this....

Chuck

How about something like this?

https://youtu.be/SgCam8t3670

After all this...

Barry Irby

We tested the guy who was interested for more details. How wide? How long? What ever, No response.

Thanks for all the thoughts. If the guy reappears, I may try the osculating tool knife Idea.

Re: OT How to cut this....

Dale Stansbery

I have a roll of that material and use it for odd jobs around the farm including a pet door in a screen door. I just use my big aluminum framed tin snips. I wouldn't want to do a 200 foot cut that way though. However, you can get an electric scissor tin cutting tool from Harbor freight for cheap. Mine works great on tin, but I haven't tried it on soft plastic. I don't see why it wouldn't work though. Trying to cut it on a saw almost seems like overkill, and a little scary.