Olfa P-cutter scriber by Chris Aleong

Actually I should have titled this short article “How to change the blade of the Olfa P-cutter to make it more useful” as it sure needs some adjustment.

To those that do not know, the Olfa P-cutter it is marketed as a plastic scriber used to score plastic to break it, you know score then break. There are two versions small (P-cutter 450) and a large, sorry I don’t know the number. In this article I am only talking about the 450 as the large version is really not suitable unless you have some 200 thou plastic to scribe.

To me the Olfa P-cutter is one of the better scribers out there for scribing recessed lines on kits and much better than a needle chucked in an X-acto handle. Not to say that I don’t use a needle but not to scribe lines. The P-cutter actually removes a curl of plastic when you pull it along the surface of the kit whereas the needle creates a groove by pushing the plastic aside on either side of the needle. With the P-cutter you normally don’t have any post scribing clean up while you have to remove the ridges after using the needle and in most cases rescribe to clear out the groove.

As good as it is, I thought the P-cutter was limited in that it did not allow you to get into tight corners due to the protrusion of the blade on the rear end or away from the scribing tip. So I

figured what I could do is get rid of most of the material not really necessary for scribing. Here is picture of the blades before and after modification.

I used a bench grinder with a fine stone and held the blade in a vise grip slowly removing the material. Make sure to wear eye protection and you have to go slowly as the blade may shatter. I lost 2 blades trying to rush the process. While I was at it I removed a portion of the rear so that it fit into an X-acto handle. Made it much more comfortable to hold and manipulate.

So there you have it, adjusted for those tight spots like vertical tail and fuselage locations. I also have the scriber marketed by Squadron and use both when scribing.

Chris Aleong

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