I scratchbuild many of My structures and even some coaches and cabeese…I was just wondering if any of You scratchbuilders have made some kind of jig to cut openings in walls with?
I was thinking of making some type of punch to at least outline the window or door cuts. I was just cutting out window openings with an xacto blade and thought I would throw that out there.
Ron
Ron, you might try making a template for common windows and doors out of thin brass that could be used as a cutting guide. I also saw, in an OLD issue of MR a tip where a guy cut a single edge razor blades edge down to the width he needed for windows. He just ground the sharp off on either side of center until he had the center part down to his right size. As Norm (New Yankee Workshop) says, “and as always, wear your safety glasses”. Once you have a custom blade like this made, you could use it in a NWSL “Chopper” cutter. Using spacing marks along the fence of the chopper you could quickly cut the side cuts on passenger car windows to an even pitch and height. Hope this helps kick start the imagination motor.
Lou
Just remembered that there’s a type of punch used by woodworkers to finish the corners of a mortoise. It’s called, appropriately enough, a corner punch. Try an online search for woodworkers supplies, or maybe Micro Mark?
Lou
I just do it the way you are doing it except I drill holes in the 4 corners of the square i’m going to cut out. That way it pops out easier. I know it can hurt your hands using an exacto knife for so many cuts so i let up on the tension i put on the knife blade. Let the blade do the cutting not you…chuck
MicroMark has corner punches which might be useful. I cut out my windows with a plain Xacto knife, #11 blade.
I just bought a hand held punch tht looks like a large paper punch. It is used in the auto body & heating-A/C industry for knocking holes in sheet metal. I’m hoping to find a square punch set that fits it then “should” be able to knock out rectangular holes where they are needed. At least that’s the plan…
dlm