How Would You ...

PJB,

I assume you have a plastic building.

A jig saw will work if it is wood or plastic. You can also use a Zona hand saw. Just lay out the cut and take your time with it. You should not have a problem.

Alan Graziano

How tall is the building? Are there any windows in the way of the cut? The jigsaw sounds like the way to go for the rough cut. If you need to clean it up, glue a piece of sandpaper to a flat surface.

Random suggestion:  After you slice the building, replace the back part of the structure with a mirror. That way, the view through the windows will reveal spacious rooms.

Avanti posted:

Random suggestion:  After you slice the building, replace the back part of the structure with a mirror. That way, the view through the windows will reveal spacious rooms.

Pete - that's a good idea.

But now thinking I need to paint the rest of the building into the basement wall??  The building sliver really looks good when viewed from the front but from any other angle there is no way to hide that a scale person syanding in the building will be committing suicide if they take one giant step to the right! Lol   Even painting is troublesome as it too will only look good from a given angle.  Hmm....

As an update for any other noobs out there:

1- I decided to use my Zona razor saw instead of my jigsaw.  The jigsaw would mean bracing of the building, including the surface area being cut, to keep it from moving under the jigsaw stress - but the building wasn't wide enough to allow bracing via clamps and clearance for the jigsaw footprint. 

2- I marked the cut-line around the building everywhere that allowed marking. 

3- tried to brace the building with clamps so it wouldn't move while sawing. 

4- used a fresh blade and cut it on the cut lines. 

Overall, happy with the results. 

Lessons learned -

-It's not as tough to saw through a plastic building as I had imagined. 

-If the building is comprised of pieces glued together, as was mine, it will come apart no matter how careful you are in sawing.  Not all pieces, but some will come apart. So make sure you know exactly where each piece needs to be reglued as parts come apart. 

- I have incredibly stable hands and execute all kinds of tough cuts precisely,  but cutting a pre-assembled plastic building by hand will not give you a perfectly precise straight edge or a perfectly angled cut line. Maybe it's the sawing motion or building flex or the combination, but it will not be perfect. If you need a precise edge you're probably better off disassembling the building and cutting pieces individually by a mechanical means.  This didn't affect my situation, but thought it be of value to others, given unique needs. 

Peter

   If it fell apart from the saws vibration or pulled apart from the tooth grab , or was just sparsely glued would have had an impact on results, but a 5" super-bond, metal cutting disk (very thin brand) on an angle grinder would leave a nice line after removing melted cutting flash. The dangers of the grinders strength destroying it exist. Loose parts would near guaranty such problems if they caused a "grab". An angle grinder is no joke.  But it's how I think I would have approached it, they cut very smoothly.  Mounting a disk in a radial saw or similar is a twist on the disk's use that works too.

Adriatic - where were you when I asked?!  

Seriously - thanks for the input. I'd mention that using any kind of cutting device that requires the building to be stabilized for a cutting blade to pass over it (like a chop or band saw) can also be a challenge. In my case, the building had parts that jutted out, a stoop and eaves. None of which are conducive to laying it flat or keeping it on a specific cutting angle for a mounted bade. 

The attached photos show an MTH building that I cut to provide a foreground flat and a background flat. I used an xactor razor saw. I had to disassemble the building to make it easier to cut. The best cut is achieved by slow, light strokes. Let the saw do the work. And make sure the saw is sharp. All it need was some light sanding to clean up the cut edges.

Some thoughts on using flats:

• IMO flats do not work well alone. The need to be behind other buildings. Otherwise the look like, well, flats!
• Flats fail visually when you can see their edges - tops or sides. So they need to be high enough so you can't see the tops when viewed (like when you view a real building from street level - see first photo), and the sides need to be hidden by other buildings or other scenic items. A visually "busy" background behind them also helps (like a city scene). Placing them against a plan background like a blue sky screams "flat" - compare second photo with third photo (unfinished background left side with finished background right side).

Adriatic posted:

   If it fell apart from the saws vibration or pulled apart from the tooth grab , or was just sparsely glued would have had an impact on results, but a 5" super-bond, metal cutting disk (very thin brand) on an angle grinder would leave a nice line after removing melted cutting flash. The dangers of the grinders strength destroying it exist. Loose parts would near guaranty such problems if they caused a "grab". An angle grinder is no joke.  But it's how I think I would have approached it, they cut very smoothly.  Mounting a disk in a radial saw or similar is a twist on the disk's use that works too.

This is an intersting approach to cutting the plastic.  I don't think I would have thought about using an angle grinder!

Jim

I love my angle grinder...but once it loved both my front teeth with a 5" chunk of metal. They are no joke, but I found nothing is as versatile when your fitting and welding. If you have the cash, use Metabo with the safe stop/ over-rev system. It senses a disc shatter and stops. Price of 1 tooth cap, and less painful than exposed nerves on the forth of July

The saw use--I had an HVAC partner drop the only grinder off a man lift once. He thought I was stupid, tried to pull stuff like that to go home early often. Extra grinder was mysteriously forgotten that day. On the way down in the lift, I saw a hand held rip saw, and the rest was easy.... but not his evening. Feeling like I needed to work out some frustration, we stayed late and closed the job about midnight.

Plastic too? I just thought "giant 90ºdremel"

You can gut a ratty car dash quickly with one too. I do use dremel and die grinders often too, the melt flash was the same on all.

The razor saw is another fav.too. But starting the thinner large blades, they flex some, and lose the cut, etc. So, for a good pre-cut groove & line, I put mini scoring hooks into the very ends of some of mine with a set of wet-stone sharpening poles. I have rotary fishing hook sharpeners now too, and expect an improved saw hook in the future (if I break one, never have). Gramps taught me that.

Thanks for all the great input. Really appreciated!

peter 

How did you get your fire escape together?