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Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 12:57 pm
by hencethus
So I'm cutting out the display window for my Game Boy Zero, and my plan is to leave a little bit of a shelf or lip or whatever so that I can put clear glass screen cover on it (from HHL).

Here's what I've got so far:
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But I'm not really happy with how crooked and uneven it looks.

Does anyone have any advice on how to make it nice and neat and clean and even? I definitely can't freehand it with a Dremel or anything like that. I couldn't draw a straight line to save my life.

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 1:06 pm
by MattTheHuman
I haven't done mine yet, but I'm planning on getting a metal bar to use as a shim, then file it down to size, stopping as soon as I hit metal.

Its crude but I feel its the best way I can personally achieve a straight line.

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 1:33 pm
by 1461748123
If you cut from the side you can get a pretty good result because the edge can led you :)

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 3:19 pm
by hencethus
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Alright I used this door latch thingy as a shim and I achieved what I think I'm willing to accept as "good enough." Thanks for the advice, human.

Here it is now:
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Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 3:38 pm
by MattTheHuman
Looks good! Nice use for the shim *thumbs up*

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 5:16 pm
by jlane52641
Yeah that looks great!
Great idea!

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Tue May 10, 2016 6:10 pm
by crispy_tofu
Looking good! :)

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Wed May 18, 2016 4:13 pm
by razor
@hencethus Did you ever get that glass screen protector from HHL? I'm curious what it looks like.

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Sat May 21, 2016 5:16 pm
by hencethus
razor wrote:@hencethus Did you ever get that glass screen protector from HHL? I'm curious what it looks like.
Nope, not yet. I think I'm going to open a thread in the showoff corner to document my progress. Taking my time with it, so not much to show yet.

Re: Nice clean straight plastic cutting

Posted: Sun May 22, 2016 8:03 am
by Camble
This was my solution:

I cut cheap electrical tape (the cheap stuff is quite stretchy) into 1.5mm strips and ran it round the edge of the window. Then used a marker to follow the edge of the tape. When filing and sanding the edge, I just stop when the coloured ink disappears.

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