mini chop saw

[cteno4]

ok here is one of my favorite little modeling tools now. its a micro 2" circular chop saw. I got mine from harbor freight.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-top-cut-off-saw-42307.html

 

it was on sale at the store for i think $19, but even at $28 (full price) its a great deal. its the perfect saw to slice off stock styrene or small wood bits thats too thick to chop with a razor blade. the blade cuts very cleanly thru styrene, leaving some waste along the final edge that snaps right off. its really great to cut thru square, rectangle or round tubing as well as which dont cut well with knives and razor saws tend to catch a lot on.

 

also found an ebay seller that sells cut off abrasive discs to chop metal as well (micromark also sells some as well)

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Five-2-Mini-Saw-Cut-Off-Discs-/350325387648?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item5191053180#ht_917wt_845

 

the only draw back is the place that the stock is held in a small vise is under the saw. its hard to hold small stock in place by hand and drop the saw. this is done to force you to clamp the material and keep the fingers away. im fiddling with taking out the vise (it rotates to 45 degrees as well for angle cuts). and replacing it with a small piece of angle iron so i can just old small stock in place (ill keep my fingers out of the way!). i may put in a small laser to show where the cut line is as a reminder where the blade is going!

 

micromark sells one for for $70 that looks identical. perhaps better quality, but looks pretty close if not the same...

 

http://www.micromark.com/Microlux-Mini-MiterandCut-Off-Saw,9639.html

 

there is also the 3.25" proxxon which is really nice and better suited to holding stock, but its $190. if i were doing larger scales i would think about this guy, but for most of what i need in N scale the little micro guy i think does just fine and is very easy on the tool budget.

 

http://www.micromark.com/Proxxon-Mini-Chop-Miter-Saw-For-Hobby-Use,8531.html

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Sure beats using the miter box and not a bad price. When I'm working on a project and I have to do a lot of sawing after awhile my knuckles on my thumbs swell, this will ease that pain!

[cteno4]

yeah and the tubing especially as the teeth of a razor saw want to catch all over the place and leaves a much more jagged cut that hast to get a lot of cleaning.

 

ive been working on some fish crates for my fish warehouse and its wonderful to just slice off from 2-5mm sections of small rectangular tubing styrene stock with the saw and not even have to sand the cut end, just clean off a bit of the flash that is created on the outside cut edge!

 

other think i want to work on with the hold in place stock holder is a little length jig/stop that i can easily set to cut a bunch of identical pieces. right now im using a clamp and a block of wood, which works, but is really a pain to set up and adjust.

 

the safety catch also is a bit of a pain on its location. its a button on the top you push to let the saw be pushed down to cut. unfortunately its a bit awkward to reach a finger to push down and hold while starting your downward pushing and i find it one of those things that adverts your attention from what you are doing and thus i think becomes more of a safety hazard! it can be a pain if you are chopping a bunch of the same cuts with a length jig as if you let it go all the way back up the safety engages again.

 

btw the bad reviews this machine gets is from folks trying to use it on heftier stuff, which i admit its really underpowered to do, but for the little stuff its wonderful! while the dremel with the cuttoff wheel can do some of these tasks its hard to be accurate and also square with those.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bigford]

i bought one of these off e-bay from annconda tool?

along with 3 blades. the hardest thing i cut was a very dark wood

for a scale ship. i want my friend to fab me up a length stop off the side

so i can cut multiable peices

[cteno4]

yep thats exactly what im planning. basically a piece of L stock instead of the rotating clamp. that way i can hold the stock on the right and also use a small stop on it for cutting multiples.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[scott]

it was on sale at the store for i think $19

 

Not bad, considering that a rotary-saw blade for a Dremel goes for $15 or more at our local hardware store. (LHS?)