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Building Grating with Proxxon Small Saw KS230. Roof of the bridge of my model is fully covered with gratings. Sometimes you cannot find the grating that fits your model's scale, so you must build it. To build good grating... mhm. you need patience to say the least. I like all sorts of jigs and tools I decided to build them myself. As usual I searched the web and combined number of options trying to accommodate what is applicable to my situation - tools and budget.
What you need using that method is circular saw. Problem is that there are worse saws, and there other better saws, and there are great saws. I have the one from lower/middle shelf i.e. so called small Proxxon, where you cannot adjust either angle or level of the blade, which is a pain in the butt, however on the other hand it can cut nicely very thin stripes of wood. Anyway...Since we cannot lower the blade, we have to raise the plate so the blade sticks out only for 1 mm or so.
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Second thing is different blade; standard Proxxon KS-230 blade is too thin (0.5 mm). 1 mm thick is also available either from them or 3rd party (I have actually recently seen some nice blades also at ZGONC in Austria). In the end I bought the one from Proxxon - see picture - for €21 if I remember correctly.
So now I am working on the table saw surface i.e. piece of wood/plywood plate I will put on proxxon’s aluminium table. New blade normally sticks out by 8 mm. In order to have sticking out only by 1 mm I need flat piece of wood 7 mm thick. So you can use your imagination where to get it. I was wee bit lucky as I had some nice ready pieces of oak I have recently brought from my brother . I cut them into shape, and glue together leaving a gap for the blade.
When glue is set, I take another piece of the same thickness oak and put under my new oak plate and using the lead I cut nicely the 1 mm wide and deep groove which should be exactly 1 mm away from the blade’s whole! If the groove is too far, then your grating will not be as good as you expect.
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Now I glue in into the groove 2x1 mm brass bar. The jig is almost ready. The last job is to mount it to the base… you cannot use clamps, as they would obstruct working area. After some test I figured out that screws holding original aluminium plate are long enough if you make proper wholes in my wooden plate. So I cut through accurately two wholes and put original screws through them and there you go:
Whole thing is firm and ready to be used. Now the best part. Cut out your "hand-made" grating.
Small note here, start cutting against the grain, in order to be able to cut with the grain when you reach the stage of slicing the plate into pre-shaped stripes, otherwise then breaking.
Here's how I was doing. Still need some practice though.
I wish you great gratings.
Cheers
Jerzy.
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