and 2 Mitre boxes; 1 Excel (plastic) and 1 Exacto (steel)
My situation is that the first two tools make vertical cuts like l instead of l. This happens even on the smallest of wood planks, and it’s driving me nuts; all the sanding to square them off, leaving imperfect angles. The mitres are a little better, but not by much. Not worth the extra time involved.
Does upgrading to the Chopper II or Chopper III get rid of this annoying cut problem? Any other suggestions?
I have the NWSL Chopper 1 and yeah, the angled cuts get annoying, especially in 1/700. What I do for anything thick that distorts the blade’s path is make the cut halfway through, flip the plastic stock or whatever over, and finish the cut from the other side. Although I have found that the thinner the stock used, the more vertical a cut you end up with. Their claims of being able to handle stuff up to 1/8-inch think are a little overstated.
Hello ! HEY mfsob , did you know you just told us what the instructions in the chopper says to do ?? When I need mitre cuts I use the finest saw blade I can find and let the saw do the work . Yes , my friends , if you force the saw through the material it will NOT come out square .!! When using the zona saw you MUST NOT force the saw , it will deform under pressure . I found a blade a while back that someone called a JAPAN SAW . This saw is exactly the size to fit in the grooves in the X-ACTO miter box. It cuts only on the back stroke so be careful and you,ll do alright . P.S. I got my saw at HOME DEPOT . tankerbuilder P.P.S. The chopper system only cuts square when you keep a sharp blade in it . I change the blades direction every 20 or so pieces and replace it after 100 . The razor blade WILL flex dramatically on some material . The rule I follow is If I can,t bite it ,I don,t chopper it !!! I do make many cuts up 1/8 " on both my chopper1 and my chopper 2 with no problems .
I don’t cut a lot of wood but I do cut a lot of styrene stock in my Chopper. I found that if you add a piece of shim stock to either side of the blade and clamp it in place it keeps the blade from bending during the cut. I once had to do some real precise cuts and this was the only way I found I could do it. I made my blade stiffeners from brass but you can use styrene too. Just leave enough of the blade exposed to pass completely through the thickness of the material being cut. For my application I didn’t need to leave much of the blade exposed so the shim stock went down along the side of the blade most of the way. This made it very rigid and the cuts were square and didn’t require any sanding.
Wood fiber is very abrasive on blades, change them often.
I used a piece of brass. You can cut out a shape similar to the blade or just a piece to shim the blade, the goal is to make it stiffer.
TIP:Never allow your blade to rest against the board. I use a piece of aluminum angle to prop the handle up to keep the blade from resting against the board. This keeps the blade from dulling and keeps it from getting twists or bends which affect mitre cuts.
My Chopper is stored in the back of drawer where it is protected. I can anchor it to the bench using drywall screws in the corners of the base. This is great when you are running a long production of parts.
Well I just started a scratch aircraft out of cedar, anyways had to use a miter box and all that for cutting some pieces. Here’s the link to the WIP, maybe it will help answer a question or two: /forums/1126385/ShowPost.aspx
Personally, I use an X-Acto Mitre box and Razor saws. I do a bit of woodworking and use it to cut strip for wood inlays. Works like a charm every time. I still use my chopper from time to time (with a piece of brass stock clamped to the blade, as above), but pound for pound, I prefer my mitre box for accuracy and straight, square cuts.
Thanks, Hawkeye! I even printed your illustrations and left them on the workbench for next time I do workbench maintenance. And I just might have a small piece of brass or styrene that would fit without even needing to cut to size.
I was noticing that you drew angles on your Chopper’s base. What angles are those?
On mine, I cut about an eighth-inch wide strip of dressmaker’s measuring tape (with the marks denoting down to sixteenth-inches), labeled each half-inch mark with pen a different color from the marks, then glued the strip of measuring tape to the metal portion, starting from the blade. Now my chopper has a built-in ruler that helps me position the stop.
I keep my Chopper in its original box. It’s one of those things that will sit unused for months at a time, then I go through a period when I use it nearly every modeling session.
I use the X-Acto miter box and razor saws, too. I just added a piece of thin birch plywood (about 1/8" thick) to line the bottom of the box, so when I cut through the stock, the saw blade doesn’t hit the bottom.
I guess which one you use-a chopping or a sawing technique-will depend on the stock you’re using. Chopping compresses the fibers as it cuts, while sawing tears across them. But that’s only been something to worry about with balsa, in my experience.
