I’m in the middle of one of my most ambitious scratchbuilding projects ever (Aurora’s old 1/48 MBT70), and in addition to buying a ton of Evergreen styrene strips, tubes, channels, and L-beams, I’ve also invested in “The Chopper II.”
Excellent product! (I’ve never seen “The Chopper I,” however!)
For those who don’t know, it’s a platform with a razor-equipped arm for making precise cuts for single or multiple pieces. In addition to cutting the myriad of tubes and other things I’ve needed on this build, it’s been a lifesaver cutting the 300 pads for the MBT70’s tracks. No way I could have gotten 300 consistant pieces cutting with an X-Acto!
It cost about $90 USD here in Japan, but I suspect it’s much cheaper overseas (i.e., outside of Japan).
If you do even a small amount of scratchbuilding and need accurate, clean cuts, then you should really consider getting one of these babies.
Forgive me if I’m the last person to have finally come across this thing and you’ve all had one for years, but man, it’s great! [:D]
I’ve got what would be called “The Chopper I” only when I bought it, it was simply called “The Chopper”. Don’t know what I’d do without it, especially when scratch building parts.
jdavidb
The Chopper comes with two small pieces of plastic shaped like small draftsmans triangles (30-60-90 & 45-45-90) and clamps to attach them to the Chopper. If you need them extra triangles and clamps can be ordered from the manufacturer (probably the same as the ones you got with the True Sander). I’ve also made some special angles out of .060 plastic for specific jobs.
I think there is a Chopper in my future. I have the small miter saw from Micro-Mark but the Chopper seems purpose made for turning out greebles for Sci-Fi work. I believe they are under $40 from Micro-Mark but I’ve also looked at one used by commercial sign shops in the $100-150 range.
I can imagine. The notes with The Chopper II recommend when cutting thick stock, do half the cut, flip the stock, then finish the cut from the other side to avoid the angle problem. Seems to me you’d just end up with two angles, but I haven’t tried it.
Nothing a quick bit of sanding wouldn’t correct (in most situations), and certainly not enough of a drawback to outweigh the benefits of the tool.
Sorry, perhaps I wasn’t clear enough.
I wasn’t talking about an angle that you’re TRYING to get; I was referring to the slight angle Hatewall and I were just discussing that invariably occurs when you try to cut thicker pieces of plastic. The blade angles out slightly in the vertical plane when cutting through thick stock, giving you kind of a bevelled edge. To counter that problem, the manufacturer recommends the half-cut/flip/half-cut method.
Of course, you are completely correct in your statement about having to flip AND reverse the piece to purposely and properly get any kind of angle other than 90 degrees.
[#ditto] on the “rocks” part. I couldn’t do without my chopper II. I wish it could make longer than the length of a razor blade cuts sometimes though. Anyone know of a source of extra wide razor blades that would work?
Same here!
But aren’t there other tools for longer cuts? I have a “slide cutter,” which is basically a ruler equipped with a sliding device with a blade in it. Mainly for cutting paper, but it does OK on thin styrene stock, too.
Well - after listening to you guys going on about the Chopper II, I’ve ordered one from Micromark, and am now just waiting for the Stork to land it on my doorstep here in the UK. What’s its footprint, btw? I have a small desk, so I hope it isn’t a big tool! [:0]
I’ve finally joined the Chopper crowd. I picked one up while at Wonderfest. I almost went into cool tool overload in the dealer room. I dropped about $300 on hobby tools, mostly at the “Tool Man” booth. The Chopper II and a nice Iwata gravity feed AB were a big part of that.
I bought one of these years ago (after looking for a long time before that at the original) and was really disappointed by it. It does indeed to an OK job of cutting thin strips, but it starts to cut poorly on what I’d consider to be moderate size stock. Also, the mitre stops were a really good idea that was really poorly executed. The knurled knobs are very difficult to turn, and after about 15 uses the nuts for them pulled right out of the board.
Generally I find that I’m happy with tools I buy, especially when they come highly recommended, but this wasn’t one of them.
I think you must have had the original Chopper. It was mounted on a piece of masonite board, and I can see the screws stripping very easily on that one. The Chopper II is made of metal though. I’ve had mine for a few years now, and don’t know how I got by without it-never had a problem yet with stripping.
With the thicker stock, it works better if you just lightly cut both sides, then snap the piece of plastic, sort of like the score and snap method for larger sheets.
Got mine today… very nicely made it is too, and comes with a helpful manual of about A4 size. I had to pay £9 customs on mine though, because I’d also ordered a razor saw set, which pushed it over the exemption limit. Bugger!