New Scroller after advice

[Hudson1984]

Hi all, I can see this has been asked before, but being as i've had messages saying the site needs more content I thought I'd ask lol.

I make terrain for tabletop gaming, and one of the issues I have is basing stuff, I was going down the laser route but thinking a scroll saw would be a better option.

I was hoping for advice on choosing a saw?

the material is fairly thin, say 2-3mm mdf/ply/hardboard etc Glued to the terrain, painted etc etc.

That being said, having looked a little more into scrollsawing it looks like I could produce some other really cool things, so I thought I'd ask if there's a better machine to keep an eye out for or perhaps features i'd not considered.

any advice would be great.

 

[AES]

Not sure exactly what you mean by, QUOTE: I make terrain for tabletop gaming, and one of the issues I have is basing stuff, ...... UNQUOTE. Sorry if I'm dense. Do you mean something like a landscape baseboard for a model railway layout (though perhaps smaller)? In that case I GUESS that at least some of those people use expanded polystyrene, in which case a hot wire cutter (or V sharp knife) would probably be better - a scroll saw is not going to do well with EP, though it CAN be done.

But you're also talking about a laser, so perhaps you mean using wood (or man-made boards) in some form?? If yes then a scroll saw will do a very good job with that, especially if you want hills and valleys to make "contours", rivers, forest clumps, etc, etc.

Sorry, as you can guess from the above, I AM dense and am just clutching at straws. How about a pic or two, or a sketch, with some outline dimensions? Maybe give an old fogey like me some idea of what you're actually doing!

 

[Hudson1984]

Not sure exactly what you mean by, QUOTE: I make terrain for tabletop gaming, and one of the issues I have is basing stuff, ...... UNQUOTE. Sorry if I'm dense. Do you mean something like a landscape baseboard for a model railway layout (though perhaps smaller)? In that case I GUESS that at least some of those people use expanded polystyrene, in which case a hot wire cutter (or V sharp knife) would probably be better - a scroll saw is not going to do well with EP, though it CAN be done.

But you're also talking about a laser, so perhaps you mean using wood (or man-made boards) in some form?? If yes then a scroll saw will do a very good job with that, especially if you want hills and valleys to make "contours", rivers, forest clumps, etc, etc.

Sorry, as you can guess from the above, I AM dense and am just clutching at straws. How about a pic or two, or a sketch, with some outline dimensions? Maybe give an old fogey like me some idea of what you're actually doing!

Hey you’re trying to help so I appreciate that i make stuff like the below.
Its 3d printed and whilst some of it has an obvious base (or ground floor) the rest is open, I’d like to make bases that follow the shape of the building, and can be covered with flock or similar.
Polystyrene is a little weak sadly so would be wood

 

[ajs]

If you just want to cut flat bases for those I'd say a scroll saw would-be ideal. Laser would likely be more effort than it's worth once set up and actually entering the design is factored in - on a scroll saw simply draw around the base and cut by eye.

 

[AES]

Agree with ajs. I guess laser would be ideal if what you need is "many" or each. But just as ajs says, with a scroll saw you just draw around the base and cut it out. And with the right blade, the base could be ply, MDF, solid timber, anything from a couple of mm thick up to at least 22 mm thick. I guess you've seen the sticky at the top of this scrolling section and what blades to buy and where?

Your only "difficulty" is with what machine to buy - plus practising to get "the nack"!

I don't have any idea of UK laser prices, but I GUESS that unless you go for brand new top of the range scroll saws (Hegner, Excalibur, or perhaps S/H Delta) they'll all be cheaper than a laser.

Good luck.