any tips for cutting resin wheels

[chato de shamrock]

Hey guys

I recently purchased some wheels made from resin. I've only really worked with a body and chassis made of resin and have been told you have to be careful cutting it cause things can crack or break apart. These pictures show just how wide the wheels are to the tires they came with. I think it's kind of obvious, I want to trim the wheels so they look better on the tires. My concern, however, is approaching resin the way I would a regular plastic model and then breaking something.

At this point I'm debating on trimming the inner part of the lip since the opening of the inner part is smaller, but my concern is just how strong is resin? The tire is a bit smaller then the lip so you have to work it in the tire. As you can see the lip is also a bit bigger then the wheel. What are the chances it can crack if i trim the back part of the lip? My other option is trimming the back part of the wheel and leaving the lip alone.

Also, when working with these type of resin wheels and wanting to cut them narrower, are there any tips you guys can offer to avoid cracking them? Perhaps stick to sanding them down or avoid cutting with the dremel, etc. I have some of those xacto saws blades. Would those work to trim the lips or is it best I avoid hacking into them since it's thin resin i'm dealing with?

Thanks for your time and any advice you folks can offer.

[freakray]

If you decided to go from the back I would avoid the dremel, it's great for speed but a little too aggressive for the brittle nature of resin = the Xacto saw blades are the way to go, just go slowly and gently.
Cut short of where you want to be when you're done and sand down the remainder, it's less risky.

If you go from the front side to reduce the lip, I would personally go with sanding it down, far less risky.

If a crack does form, superglue will take care of it.

[willimo]

A saw works great. I have cut wheels very similar to those just by cutting them down with an old set of sprue cutters, and then sanding the edge smooth and straight. Resin isn't a whole lot different from plastic, truth be told.

[Kjenjak]

I have always used my Dremel tool for things like these. You have to work slowly and take away only small prtions of material at a time. This way you bring very little pressure onto the material, and nothing will get cracked. The more fragile the part, the better the use of a Dremel compared to a saw imo.
But of course you have to find a way that will work best for you.

[ScaleTuned]

Resin is very brittle. I've not personally had luck using a Dremel or Micro Miter Saw on resin wheels / or wheel sleeves regardless of how careful I was. I would suggest the xacto saw blades or a small miter box / saw combo and do it by hand. Because resin sands like butter you can easily clean up / square up your trim job using files or a small disc sander.

[willimo]

Maybe I am using weird resin??

[drunken monkey]

my experience with resin tells me not to expect to make clean cuts and as a result, I tend to cut generously then sand down as necessary.

[nugundam93]

i use a PE saw (SMS) and just wetsand off the excess.

[SierraB]

Make sure you fixed the work-piece well with fixing-device before cutting.

[stevenoble]

A fine tooth Zona razor saw will easily take care of the excess. Cut them slightly less than where you want them to be and then remove the excess with sandpaper taped onto a flat surface. Use the sandpaper wet to avoid dust and go carefully, checking the size often so as not to remove too much..