The very best single item for cutting scale rail, in my opinion, is the jeweler’s coping saw with filamental blades. This was what I saw, and have since accepted in practice, from watching Tim Warris’ videos on his handlaidtrack site. My other go-to is a rather large perforated, diamond-studded cut-off disk. I think it came with a Canadian Tire model of a Dremel, but in their Mastercraft brand. This thing is just a bit thicker than three sheets of printer paper, and is about a full inch in diameter. It does require care with the opposite rail, as you might imagine. Even so, all my other disks do also require attention, will power, and a steady and firm hand to get a thin kerf cut. When the thing travels, or when you bounce it inadvertently, you do cause yourself all sorts of grief, not to mention a horribly angled and wide gap in the rails. And that’s if the side of the blade doesn’t snag the rail and lift about four inches right out of the spikeheads.
If the track end is long enough you can just hold it with your opposite hand and - presto! - no careening or ricocheting. If the nipped end is too short to hold then dampen the trajectory with a wadded up piece of kleenex. Pretty simple solutions for both issues, IMO.
Tom
Claiming that full sized side cutters are a better tool than Xuron rail cutters for cutting nickel silver rail is an insupportable claim.
To claim they are the best tool for this job is just a ridiculous claim and may mislead others.
Speaking from my experiance selling MATCO PROFESSIONAL HAND TOOLS for seven years, the tool Kevin described and pictured are not “side cutters”.
They are a “full sized” version of what the Xuron cutter is - a “flush cutter”.
Sheldon
EDIT: Yep, I SEE no bevel on the jaws IN THE ABOVE PICTURE.
Even if the jaws are too thick/large, that is nothing a belt sander can not ajust for a better view of the cut.
yes I realize that but they are still side cutters.
The point is they cannot be the best tool for the job. They’re not even a better tool than the Xuron.
Nickel silver rail is just copper wire basically.
“no bevel on the jaws”. They have to or they won’t cut anything. They are just offset bevel, one side of the blade only.
You need a small tool to cut Nickel silver rail. The Xuron could be made smaller for most of us but there are smaller nippers already available, such as those used in the electronics industry for clipping surface mount component wires. I have a few of those which I use for sprue cutters. One particularly high quality cutter of this type is handier than the Xuron for tight spots and easily cuts Nickel silver.
[quote user=“Lastspikemike”]
PC101
ATLANTIC CENTRAL
Lastspikemike
Claiming that full sized side cutters are a better tool than Xuron rail cutters for cutting nickel silver rail is an insupportable claim.
To claim they are the best tool for this job is just a ridiculous claim and may mislead others.
Speaking from my experiance selling MATCO PROFESSIONAL HAND TOOLS for seven years, the tool Kevin described and pictured are not “side cutters”.
They are a “full sized” version of what the Xuron cutter is - a “flush cutter”.
Sheldon
Yep, see, no bevel on the jaws.
Even if the jaws are too thick/large, that is nothing a belt sander can not ajust for a better view of the cut.
“no bevel on the jaws”. They have to or they won’t cut anything. They are just offset bevel, one side of the blade only.
You need a small tool to cut Nickel silver rail. The Xuron could be made smaller for most of us but there are smaller nippers already available, such as those used in the electronics industry for clipping surface mount component wires. I have a few of those which I use for sprue cutters. One particularly
Yep, another ruined thread.
-Kevin
Bought a pair of the Xuron vertical rail cutters today. Noticed the additional feature of this tool: slightly overlapping blades for a cleaner cut. Described on the back of the packaging which I had not noticed before.
I hadn’t realized that Xuron makes the two styles depending on whether you cut across the rail horizontally (2175b) or vertically (2175m) from the top.
I had noticed the pair I bought first cut better across the rail than vertically. I tend to make the final cut vertically, for fitting the remaining gap, so I’ll be interested to see if it makes a difference. It’s supposed to.
Now I have one of each type.
They actually make three: the original 2175 is one of the best flush cutters for jewelry making (e.g. cutting the ends of jump rings).
Do you have a link to this ‘slightly overlapping blade’ thing – I can’t quite figure out how overlapping the edges could give a better ‘flush’ cut.
Authoritative person gives beginner’s guide to rail-nipping with these:
https://xuron.com/blog/2019/07/model-railroad-track-cutting/
Overmod
I disagree with about 99% of spikes posts but here is what that overlapping is about
https://xuron.com/blog/2021/01/micro-shear-flush-cutters-faq/
Has anyone tried those #691 cutters when making joints? If the slight shearing action works as noted, that might remove both a need to dress joints and to make clean gaps to be epoxy insulated…
https://xuron.com/index.php/main/faq/2
It seems likely only the one side of the cut is clean rather than both sides.
Certainly the horizontal cutters cut one side square and clean but the other side is wedge shaped and distorted.
That is inherent in it being a flush cutter that also has high edge strength and toughness. I had thought the 691 has two flush- cutting edges, one each side, but it is just a shear plier type, with heavy square jaws and right-angle faces, little different from those ‘electrical’ pliers with wire notches machined in a box joint for leverage. I find those only good for ‘free’ stock, where the ends are free to be pushed sideways relative to each other, and of a cross-section not deformed by the shearing pressure on the stock ends. The tool is not, as I had thought, two sets of flush-cutting edges with a space between.
I have now had the chance to review the patent
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ca/1d/2c/3ce2933bcfc4b1/US3774301.pdf
It is of considerable antiquity (early '70s) and interestingly had expired before the current trademark for Micro-Shear™ was filed for (March 1994, granted 1995).
As an initial note, my take on the principle is that some of the company claims for it – that it somehow greatly decreases the effort to cut material, for instance – aren’t really supported by the design. As the cutting edges advance through most of the work, they would act no differently on the metal than ordinary flush-cutting edges do, except at a slight oblique angle to the flush face plane of the tool. Only in the last couple of thou at most would the ‘shearing action’ as described become notable (and it would result in some peculiar ductile behavior in that very small region in the center of the cut). The interesting question is whether the ‘popped’ zone where there is essentially final tension failure if the cross-section of the ‘nub’ in a typi
I’ve used a razor saw and a hacksaw to cut rail, but I prefer a cut-off disc on a flexible shaft from a motor tool.
If you have Kadee’s clip-on coupler gauge, it can help prevent the rails from being yanked from their moorings if the cutting action is a little too aggressive, especially if you can hold the gauge in-place with your free hand.
Wayne