OT: cutting Neoprene

[goose]

Goal: cutting neoprene straight, clean and efficiently.

Stock: 1" (roughly) diameter black neoprene solid round.

I tried an X-acto type knife, but the blade wanted to wander and the cut came out rugged. Also required more force than I thought.

Ideas? Scroll saw, band saw? Any special cutting tools for this?

I also want to drill an axial thru hole, any special drill bits, commercial or shop made?


Thanks,

[SGW]

Try using plain water as a lubricant when you cut and see if it gets easier.

[Brucey]

demo saw / sabre saw with the serrated blade used for carpet, rubber use water trickling on surface and also try and peel the cut segment away from the stock.

For drilling a sharp drill bit at high speed and cut / feed it fast again use water for lube do not let it rub / or it will burn up on you

Good luck with it mate

[KIMFAB]

Use a plain knife blade in your reciprocating saw to cut.
For a hole I make a punch out of tubing, kind of like a leather punch.

[darryl]

A bit of dish soap to lube the knife will help. Something else that often works is rigidly securing the blade, then rotating the rubber piece around it. In a sense this is like a tubing cutter.

[Evan]

Freeze it and then saw it.

[ed_h]

Not sure exactly what shape you're after, but just this last weekend, I needed to cut a clean rubber disk out of some 0.062 Buna sheet. Tried the same things as you and got a ragged edge. Finally made a "cookie cutter" from a short piece of 3/4" EMT, sharpened on the a belt grinder. Used a press to get a clean cutout on a piece of wood. I only needed one, so I didn't even try to harden. The edge of the tool was a little distorted, but it probably would have made a few more.

A pic of the tool and the disk:

http://bullfire.net/Temp/IMG_1722aa.JPG

[firbikrhd1]

How about a PVC cutter? I've used mine to cut rubber hose squarely with good result.
http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/PC-1375/

[ak95xj]

We had to do this at work recently..It was a nightmare..We Had to glue neoprene to a bunch of strips of metal and trim off any excess...Used a saber saw to cut the excess off.Which worked ok.Only problem was if the neoprene started to peel off the metal just a tiny bit it would start to vibrate or flop around ,and at that point it obviously just wont cut.sandwiching or clamping it would have helped.Never heard of these other methods,nobody knew what to do with the stuff, making holes in it was even worse

[Dr. Rob]

You know, it cuts rather well in the lathe with an x-acto knife in the toolpost, or tube cutter in the tailstock.