Cutting plastic with a paper cutter?

[seadude]

Has anybody ever used a large paper cutter for cutting large sheets/sections of plastic? I'm talking about something similar to the following as shown below. If anybody has used one, then what advantages/disadvantages did you encounter? I'm thinking of buying one in the forseeable future as I need to cut large sheets of plastic, probably at least 1/8" inch thick, but no more than that.

[kitnut617]

I have,  I used it to trim access plastic from some vacu-form kits I was selling to make packaging small and lighter.  It completely ruined the paper cutter and that was with all the thickness of the styrene at 1mm.  Over 3mm will just break it. Another problem is actually clamping the sheet, as you cut it moves the sheet. The clamp bar is just not up to it.

[jcf]

You might be able to use a heavy-duty type:
https://www.amazon.com/HFS-Heavy-Guillotine-Paper-Cutter/dp/B00NO7PYYI

[Hobbes]

1/8" is ~ 3 mm. When you cut plastic that thick, the plastic tends to bunch up on either side of the cut: the knife pushes the plastic aside.

You'll get cleaner cuts with a table saw of some sort (provided you can set the speed low enough). Or you could look into using a laser-cutting service (I've done that before, so ask if you want to know more).

3 mm is really thick for a model, I'd only use that as a last resort. 1 mm is a lot easier to use, and strong enough for most purposes.

[Dizzyfugu]

I have a light one - bought it for only EUR 5,- in a sale, primarily for paper work.
But you can use it for styrene sheet, too, the blade is REALLY sharp and the lever lets you apply lots of pressure/force. It's just not really suited for delicate work, e .g. trimming small parts.

I successfully used it, for instance, when I needed 5x5mm tiles for a reactive armor on a mecha kit - all cut from a styrene sheet:

Dorvack +++ 1:24 PA-36S "Nove горбун" with R6M cannon (Kit conversion) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Effective tool, but of really limited use, IMHO.

[zenrat]

Styrene blunts cutting tools surprisingly quickly.

I'd look into sheet metal guillotines rather than those for cutting paper.