I am interested in purchasing some miniature power tools for my modelling workshop. In looking at the Micro-Mark offerings, I became interested in the following:
Microlux Multi Scroll Saw #60514
Microlux Miniature Table Saw #50304
Microlux Tilt Arbor Table Saw #80463
Microlux 3-Speed Standard Duty Drill Press #81631
Microlux 5" Disk Sander #82889
I would appreciate any discussion or evaluation of these or leads to other similar products. Thanks!
GLAD YA’ ASK!!! GLAD YA’ ASK!
Let’s tackle this one tool at a time:
A scroll saw is a very specialized piece of equipment; if your woodworking/metalworking ambitions lean towards scratchbuilding and you are interested in scrolling gingerbread or the likes then a scroll saw will be an essential tool in your workshop. Some woodworkers swear by theirs–others swear at theirs. These machines become an effective instrument for measuring the quantity of dust in your workshop area because they become a collector of dust particals.
Table saws are extremely useful in the shop but in the case of your possible selections you have to evaluate just exactly what you are wanting to do. If you have a need to cut bevels then the tilt arbor saw is going to be the only way to go because the #50304 saw has a fixed aluminum top. If you are interested in nothing more than straight cutting such as cutting your own ties for hand laid track then this would be the way to go. The tilt arbor saw is nearly three times as expensive as that #50304 saw and in this case price might be a heavy consideration.
I will make an alternate suggestion regarding your (possible) selection of a table saw: at the bottom of page 56 of the new Micro-Mark® catalog will be found item #82679–MicroLux 5-½" Circular Saw. This saw has a bevel adjustment on the base plate allowing you to bevel your cutting a la the tilt arbor saw discussed in the preceding paragraph. Building a jig to allow you to dog your wood on a Black and Decker® Workmate® will allow you to do MOST of your larger hobby chores using this Circular Saw. Most of your finer work can be done using a #50304 table saw also discussed above. The cost of these two tools–the #82679 Circular Saw and the #50304 table saw comes in at nearly $150.00 less than the tilt arbor saw, a considerable savings.
I will make another alternate selection in a moment.
Your fourth ite
Thank you!
As a custom builder my recomendation would be to buy tools as you find a need for them. Micromart has been around for a while, the tools aren’t going anywhere and they can deliver overnite if you need it really bad.
I do have the 3-speed drill press and the x-y table and a vise that bolts to the table. I use it all the time. I also have a 4" disc sander (sinilar to the one mentioned) hooked up to an old MRC power pack to vary the speed and use it a lot as well. I also have a similar table saw that I use only occaisionally, mostly for cutting brass tubing which I could also cut with my Dremel.
The best tool you can add to your toolbox is an Optivisor, you would be amazed at the improvement in one’s skills when you can see the small stuff up close. The rest kind of falls in place as you find projects to do.
You might want to consider regular wood shop sized power tools. The Micromark jobs look cool, but the small size limits them to modeling jobs. Craiglist list is full of used power tools at very fair prices. For instance you can pick up an 8" tilting arbor table saw for $100. That’s big enough to rip 3/4" stock for bench work, dado book case sides, crosscut 2*4’s, and also small enough to rip HO gauge ties to width. I picked up a 12" bandsaw for $100 that was able to resaw 3/4" stock to 1/4" for wooden roadbed. For many model railroading jobs a bandsaw is more useful than a scroll saw. If you want a scroll saw, there are plenty of them on Craigslist. Dremel used to make a nice model sized scroll saw.
For a drill press, take a look at the Dremel drill press stand. It drills straight and will handle anything that you can get for a Dremel.
The only clear advantage of the Micromark tools over regular wood shop tools is small size. If you just don’t have the room for regular sized tools, then the miniature Micromark jobs may be the only way to go. But if you have the space for a shop, the regular sized tools are cheaper and more versitile.
I’ll second that!! Having been a MRRer for most of my 66 years, and a professional carpenter/cabinetmaker for almost 50 of them, I’ve owned all the full sized tools and a few of the mini’s.
A good table saw, equiped with a zero clearance blade insert, will work as well or better than the mini. The insert is simply 1/4" cabinet plywood - or plexiglass - cut to the shape of your insert, put in the position with the blade down, started and raised 'till the blade cuts just above the material you are working with.
Delta & Ryobi both make drill presses that will handle down to 1/64th" bits. The Dremel tool
I will go along with what you say; these “miniature tools” work for miniature jobs but are not going to be hefty enough for full service benchwork/cabinetwork. These full service tools are frequently no more expensive than those designed for model/hobby work and have greater capability as far as operations are concerned. About the only thing that can be said for model/hobby tools is they are usually considerably lighter. The only reason I did not address this specific issue is because his post specifically addressed the smaller tools found in the Micro-Mark catalog.
I’m only familiar with the #81631 “3-speed” Standard Drill Press, as I’m into scratchbuilding O scale steam locos at the moment (TEN years!) and have no use for woodworking tools. That being said, however, I highly recommend that little machine!
For more than 30 years my only power tool was a #2 Moto-Tool, long discontinued, in the original Dremel drill press designed for it. I drilled thousands of holes with it, first using a Dremel foot rheostat then replacing that with a common sewing machine foot rheostat when the rubber insulation of the cords disintegrated. That old drill press held the Moto-Tool firmly in place and brought the table up to bear, but that was no inconvenience to me. I drilled and tapped three 2-56 holes in the table for hold-down bars (1/4" square and 1/8x3/8" brass) and used the drill press for milling wood parts (years ago, before I started working mostly in styrene and metal) and to emboss “rivets” with male and female dies.
When I went back into O scale in '93 (the eyes, the eyes!), I found I’d worn out the table mechanism and couldn’t do really good rivet embossing, so the second tool I bought from Micro-Mark was that trusty little “Jewelers Drill Press,” for which I’d been looking for years. Don’t let that “3-speed” designation throw you, as that old sewing machine foot rheostat allows you to drill and machine at whatever speed needed. I bought a #15264 Universal 3-jaw Chuck for the higher numbers of “wire drills” and a #15118 Drill Press Vise to hold items for drilling and have been happy as a clam in warm water ever since.
I did decide The Standard Duty Drill Press was just a little too light for milling jobs, so a year or so ago I bought a #82959 Heavy Duty Drill Press, a #82389 X-Y Table Attachment and a #82747 2" Milling Vise. I intend to use it fo
I’ll say first off that I don’t own any of the mentioned machines, small or large. I do agree with the poster who said you should consider buying them only as the need arises. You didn’t mention what sort of modeling you do or will be doing, it seems to me that perhaps you may think a model railroader needs all these machines to do modeling. No doubt they may be useful, but I believe most modelers get along just great without them for normal hobby efforts. My only powered tools are hand held motor tools and I’ve done a fair amount of scratchbuilding, kitbashing, etc. over the years. I do have a 4" disc sander that I bought from a friend some years ago, but haven’t really had the need for it yet.
Another modeling friend of mine has also done some great scratchbuilding, kitbashing, etc., and he has a workshop full of regular machines. But he uses them mostly for his home renovations and such, rarely in his hobby work.
Good luck!
Put me in the column for full size power tools. While I was in large scale I built all my own buildings from plans or pictures. Using care and watching what you are doing you can cut just about anything with the big tools that the little tools can do. The only thing is the big tools will give you more saw dust.
I cut poplar for lap siding that was 1/8" thick. I then passed it through a horizontal sanding machine (drum sander) and wound up with siding 1/16 inch or less. My shop is stocked with wood I cut much like the hobby shop stocks their wood stock from Midwest, Kappler, etc.
Know your power tools capibilities and always wear eye and ear protection.
I’m intimately familiar with their scroll saw - meaning, I’ve had my hands in its worn out innards. I urge you to go for a full sized machine. The microlux machine has very limited capacity that is sometimes a problem, and the plastic and soft metal parts inside don’t last like a Dewalt or Delta. The price is about the same as a Dewalt or Delta, so I see no point in buying the puny Microlux machine. By the way, I do feel that continuously variable speed and easy blade changes are features worth paying for (Microlux blade changes are not as easy as they are on my Delta); when cutting window openings you use the blade changing feature a lot.
My father had one of the table saws and he talked like he liked it, but he rarely used it (he was an R/C model airplane builder).
Regarding the other tools, I’ve got full sized versions of them all and I am completely satisfied with them as model building tools (although when I put a #65 drill in my 1/2 horsepower drill press I feel a little like Tim Allen). I don’t see much point in gettling small tools unless it is to save space.
Lots of good ideas here. My inclination for smaller tools is based on space available. I do think full size would be better overall. My space is plenty large for RR modelling but not so big as to accomodate much in the way of full sized tools without overcrowding. I need to re assess what I want to do modelling-wise then go from there and I think buy as needed.
Although it may seem logical that you would use big machines for big projects and tiny machines for tiny projects, that is not true. Tiny machines lack the rigidity needed for precision.