I’m thinking miniature table saw. I’ve cut styrene on it in the past without much trouble. Probably I’ll clamp the car to the deck and raise the blade into the side to make the cut. This way I can cut just the opening and maintain the rigidity of the side as best as possible. I may have to finish the corners with a razor saw, but that’s not a big deal, either. (And if it totally goes to pieces, then I’ll just build new sides from styrene or whatever I have lying around.
Later,
K
I cut all of my acrylic on a 10" table saw. Use a sharp 60 to 80 tooth carbide blade on a saw with a good, accurate fence. I raise the blade slightly higher than I would normally for wood of the same thickness. The only critical thing is to hold the material firmly down on the table. If it is allowed to raise it will chip out at the cut. I cut 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" (nominal sizes) regularly.
I also have cut foamed PVC the same way. TAP Plastics also has a blade especially for this purpose I believe. I haven’t used it myself but you could ask Russ Miller at TAP, San Leandro, Ca. store about it.
Richard -
Thanks for the table saw advice. I have one but just couldn’t see buying the $80 blade recommended on that aquarium website. I think I could rig a finger board or two to keep the acrylic down tight to the table.
I think I’ll see if Homely Depot has suitable acrylic in-stock for a test project this weekend - it’s going to be rainy and cold here.
JR
I get my acrylic at Home Depote, I also found a blade at an Ace Hardware for $20. The teeth can’t be off set, just straight behind each other. I’ll get the name here in a bit.
Marc Bergmueller said:Probably a veneer blade. Lots of small teeth, not terribly expensive. I have one, but it's been burned in the circular saw - will look for another.
I get my acrylic at Home Depote, I also found a blade at an Ace Hardware for $20. The teeth can't be off set, just straight behind each other. I'll get the name here in a bit.
Thanks Mark -
JR
I have built several building out of acrylic. I use 1/4" think which really is closer to 3/16" It is very rigid and strong. I use my 10" table saw with a Freud Diablo 7 1/4" 40 tooth thinkerf blade. I belive you can get the blade for $14 or $15 at HD. It is important to have a zero clearance insert to reduce chipping. You need to hold the acrylic down as mentioned previously. I use GOOP to adhere the parts. They make a marine type but I use the standard houehold stuff which says its waterproof. I make the side cut on door openings on the table saw and then use the band saw for the top cut. Windows are just glued to the acrylic. Once I have the basic structure it forms a great base to start from. David Cozzens
Thanks Dave -
Good advice on the Zero Clearance throat plate. I have one, but probably wouldn’t have thought to use it. I’ll check HD for that blade. My veneer blade is only 7" pretty badly burned - probably best off with a new blade.
I picked up a small sheet of 1/4" “Hobby” grade acrylic from Home Depot. As far as I can tell, the difference in grades is clarity - so if you are going to paint, the cloudy hobby grade is just fine. The crystal clear Polycarbonate is very expensive by comparison. Anyone know if there is there also a strength difference?
For adhesives, I think I’ll go with the acrylic cement (welder) rather than Goop. I might try multi-purpose PVC/ABS stuff just 'cause I have some. I think it is MEK based and it’s much thicker than the special TAP Plastics acrylic cement.
Jon
I prefer using the acrylic cements over something like Goop or epoxy. They just stick the pieces together, however sturidly, whereas the acrylic cements dissove the acrylics and weld them together… it is, allegedly, much stronger. Your mileage may vary.
I’m going to start out small. Found this and thought it an appropriate beginner project…
I estimate based on a door height of 6’6" that this structure is 5’ wide X 6-7’ deep with 7’ walls. The peak is about 11’ or whatever it works out to with a 1-in-1 pitch roof. Add another 2’6" for the stack. Now the question I’m asking myself is do I build in in 1:24 to make the math super simple, or try and get close to 1:20 without having a scale rule in stock. Wait Kevin don’t say it - I know - use 1 Foot = 15mm 
JR
Jon Radder said:
I’m going to start out small. Found this and thought it an appropriate beginner project…
I estimate based on a door height of 6’6" that this structure is 5’ wide X 6-7’ deep with 7’ walls. The peak is about 11’ or whatever it works out to with a 1-in-1 pitch roof. Add another 2’6" for the stack. Now the question I’m asking myself is do I build in in 1:24 to make the math super simple, or try and get close to 1:20 without having a scale rule in stock. Wait Kevin don’t say it - I know - use 1 Foot = 15mm
Is that what it is! Cool!
Steve Featherkile said:Not exactly, but close enough for Gummint work. [I think]
[b]Is that what it is! Cool![/b]
If 45MM track = 3 Feet 15MM = 1 Foot.
Problem is, how do you divide 15 by 4 to get accuracy to 3 or 6" ? I suppose you can use thirds and just go with accuracy to 4" (5MM = 4 In.)
JR
I just resurrected this project last night. Spring got in the way in April and it got shelved. Now I’m looking for stuff to do inside. I did my best to transpose the photo to a scale drawing last night. According to the night crew on Chat, I still need to work some things out. The door and the whole front is probably wider. I drew the door at 24" x 6’ and the front 6’ wide. The roof pitch is also too steep. You can see where I erased a 1 in 1 pitch and drew it as 4 in 3. I’m going back to 1 in 1 (45 degrees). BTW, this mini graph paper works out to be quite close to 2 inches per square in 1:20.3. At least close enough for a structure, perhaps not for a car.
Jon
Nice… the peak looks a little steep on the drawing, but the rest of the proportions look good…
Your door is a bit too small. Doors are 6’ 8" tall in the opening. That is a US standard. As for width, generally exterior doors are 36" or larger and the minimum interior door is 30". Granted there are narrower doors to be found. 24" is generally used for closet doors such as a utility closet or linen closet. I would say you can justify a 30" door on the shanty but not any narrower. 6’ 8" is a must for height. Also in designing windows…especially on older homes, the top of the window should be the same height as the top of doors. Again there are specialty exceptions but this is a general rule for a standard window.
Warren Mumpower said:Warren has spoken, so let it be written,
Your door is a bit too small. Doors are 6' 8" tall in the opening. That is a US standard. As for width, generally exterior doors are 36" or larger and the minimum interior door is 30". Granted there are narrower doors to be found. 24" is generally used for closet doors such as a utility closet or linen closet. I would say you can justify a 30" door on the shanty but not any narrower. 6' 8" is a must for height. Also in designing windows..especially on older homes, the top of the window should be the same height as the top of doors. Again there are specialty exceptions but this is a general rule for a standard window.
Steve Featherkile said:Warren Mumpower said:Warren has spoken, so let it be written,
Your door is a bit too small. Doors are 6' 8" tall in the opening. That is a US standard. As for width, generally exterior doors are 36" or larger and the minimum interior door is 30". Granted there are narrower doors to be found. 24" is generally used for closet doors such as a utility closet or linen closet. I would say you can justify a 30" door on the shanty but not any narrower. 6' 8" is a must for height. Also in designing windows..especially on older homes, the top of the window should be the same height as the top of doors. Again there are specialty exceptions but this is a general rule for a standard window.
I work for a contractor and have done some cad design work for them, so I’m familiar with these rules, but if you refer back to the picture, this little shanty doesn’t follow them.
Notice how low the door knob is. That indicates an odd size door to me/ I agree that 24" is too narrow, but I doesn’t look like 36" to me.
As for windows and doors at the same top height, look at the photo again. The top of the door trim is above the eves. The widow is lower than the door so it remains visible behind the roof line…
Again, I’m not looking to do an exact replica of the prototype, but I like it’s odd dimensions. Gives it character.
Jon
OK - I’ve tossed the graph paper and imported the image into Viso. Then based on the assumption that the trim is 4 inches wide, I stretched the image until the trim on the left (furthest from camera) was at 4 scale inches. I then began measuring other elements and came up with the following… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/ShantyVis.jpg]
[/url][color=blue]Visio Drawing - Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] The siding looks like 6" boards and the door panels 10 inches wide. The entire face of the building scales out to 7 foot wide. Thus the door is 32" wide but 8Ft 6In tall. That’s one tall door :o I think I’m getting close to be able to build a cardboard mock-up…
Jon
The camera is fooling you. Because it is at an angle to the plane of the front of the building, it appears taller than wide, but isn’t. You are correct with the 7’ wide. But…the height to the top of the trim above the door is also 7’. That’s the 6’ 8" plus the 4" trim. That door height should be taken as a standard height door.
And as for the window, note what I also said above:
“Again there are specialty exceptions but this is a general rule for a standard window.” This would be a specialty exception because the eves are too low.
Thanks Warren, I agree.
I printed the drawing and made a paper mock-up, and it does look way too tall.
What was fooling me was the door knob location. I realized this morning that the knob was moved lower because there is no landing at floor level. One has to reach the knob while standing at least 4 inches below the floor level.
This is turning into a great exercise in scaling a photo, something I’ll likely need to do again someday as measured drawings for as lot of what interests me aren’t available.
Revised print to follow.
Jon
If you look closely at the photo, you can see where the door knob used to be on the door. I wondered about what that hole was for, but figured it used to contain a dead bolt.
Go figure.
