Model Railway Forum

Has anyone recommendations for a mini saw ( blade diameter about 80 mm or so) ?

There is a Dremel which uses toothless blades, but reports say that it be smelly to use as it grinds / burns its way through wood and the blades are Dremel prices !

I am cutting supports for a “high” twin line approx 140 w by 150 h. My carpentry is not the best, so I felt it might by better to cut a rectangle the right height as a support then use a small plunge saw to cut out the middle Portion to save weight and have wiring access.

Any, all thoughts welcome.

Rgds

Something lie this?

https://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/27070.php

They are expensive in the region of £350+ and are not very powerful. On the other hand Aldi and Lidl do bench saws with 200mm diam. blades for about £99. Not necessarily good for serious woodwork but perfectly adequate for layout baseboards.

Richard

Have you looked at the various circular saws by Worx? (Try Argos).

From your description I think you are looking to create a series of 'hollow' rectangles, in which case a chop saw would be more accurate to create the support then use a curcular hole cutter or jigsaw to remove the middle.

Just make a frame, a bit like a picture frame, two uprights with two pieces glued across the top and bottom. Cutting bits out the middle is a lot of unnecessary hard work with a lot of waste timber. Also the cross pieces will not be very strong because the grain will be in the wrong direction. It will take a lot less skill cutting lengths of 1 X 1 inch (or what ever) timber than cutting out a hole.

Thanks for your replies.

The upstands are made from unwanted mfi (shows the age!) chipboard cut into right height strips then cut to length for the width of the rail tracks, I wanted to take the middle rectangle out to save weight.

I originally tried the a construction of using 4 strips of board, but my carpentry skills, nailing / pining and glueing was not a success. Turn out a bit wonky and fell to bits.

I took a look at the Worx cutter at Homebase, but ended up at Screwfix (bless’m) with an Erbauer mini saw 85mm dia with included spare blades and case.

The plunge cut is about 70 mm long, so with a gentle movement fore and aft makes the right size cut, repeat the three cuts, and minimum of cut with a keyhole saw to make good the corners, good to go for the next one,!

Again thanks for your suggestions

Rgds

I have an Exact, plunge saw. Have been very content with it. Not cheap, but good once mastered.

Buy some proper timber cut to length and glue that. Chipboard is not ideal, horrible, heavy and when in thin strips about as strong as a strip of sponge.

Nothing wrong with your carpentry skills just rubbish material.

My large workshop, built with 60 sheets of TandG treated chipboard, perfect for that purpose, but,
Certainly totally not for modelling. Splinters are horrible.

Nothing wrong with chipboard when used for the correct purpose.

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:17 pm Nothing wrong with chipboard when used for the correct purpose.

Yes, certainly keeps your hands warm.