"Cutting Your Own Wooden Bases?" Topic

How do you keep all your fingers?

Seriously, wooden bases for miniatures are kinda small… how do you safely cut them? Hand tools or power tools? Wood from the local lumberyard or something fancier?

Lost the tip of one finger so I cannot comment except to say a Stanley knife is not the best tool for the job.

x42

I avoid wooden bases, due to warping issues.

Plastic, or metal are superior in that regard.

If you can get someone to cut long, thin strips of the appropriate size, you can then use a miter box and a razor saw to cut them to size by hand. Low risk there, other than the occasional nick, or scratch, unless you're really clumsy or careless.

Attention to detail and careful sanding (if needed) are required to get them all to the same matching size though.

Precut bases are probably much easier, and more uniform.

To make bases I use artist board and cut with a knife. For anything thing else I buy plastic or laser cut MDF – you can get sawn MDF, but the laser cut is superior because you get a hard sealed edge from the laser – so avoiding those rough, loose sanded down edges (plus you should be masked to sand down MDF – and not ideal to be doing that in an apartment).

I use thin plywood, cut with a craft knife using a very thick metal rules (which helps keep the fingers and knife apart.

A small back saw and 1/8in MDF sheet.

Cut to depth first and then width – gives a bit more length for control.

Depending on how well the cuts were made file to size.

Jeweller's saw. As for material, discarded vertical blind.

Thin plywood with a craft knife and reasonable safety precautions such as multiple light cuts instead of forcing it through in a single pass.
I wear the scars proudly!

The only wooden bases I cut are 40mm x 40mm or larger. Buy the plywood at the craft store and cut it on my professional-grade table saw with a custom panel cutting slider. I get anything smaller from Litko.

I've been using beermats and artists board since the 1970's, once you get base texture on it's fine

I have eliminated the x-acto knife from my hobby tools. To Many "unfortunate" finger accidents. I am now a firm believer in files to remove material…. And now I purchase all my wooden bases at the correct size.

I use one of these:

Helps to also purchase the ripfence.

DM

I bought one of those small table saws from micro-mark to cut wood bases for my 1/2400 ships. Works like a charm, I'm usually cutting 14mm x 50mm craft plywood from the local Hobbytown. It's pretty much a single use item (my hobby junk) but there was no way I was using my bandsaw for the small pieces I was cutting.

link

I use 3/32" bass wood. I buy it in 4" widths and 24" lengths at craft stores.
The 4" (100mm) is just right for either metric or English base sizes.

I measure the sizes I need and mark them out with a ballpoint pen. I press the pen deeply to give it a score, along a straightedge ruler.

I cut with a new #2 Xacto blade or a utility knife.
Cut on a cutting mat.
If doing a bunch of my 1" x 2" stands I Mark and draw lines at 2" intervals and then draw the 1" width lines. Having the grain run along the length helps to keep the bases from splitting or warping.

It's easy and I haven't cut myself once.
However I have cut myself prying figures off bases while rebasing but that's a different story.

laser knife.

I buy any base that has right angles. But for circular bases 40mm and up I use a Dremel and a circle cutter attachment

Lightsaber. Or Litko. Mostly Litko.

Cutting your own bases is so 1988.

I mail order all my bases. Wood, resin with terrain, plastic: it doesn't matter.

None cut by me since 1973 for reason given in earlier post.

x42

I leave it to the professionals, Litko. Some things are just easier and safer to contract out.

pjm

Kids today…..

I used to use balsa wood cut with a small backsaw and an Xacto knife using a steel ruler. Now I buy Litko pre-cut bases.

Jim

Back before I went Litko, I used an xacto knife and a carpenter's square that you can buy at a hardware store.

Use 1.5mm ply and either a really sharp craft knife or strong scissors. These are mainly 50m x 30 mm bases for my WW2 1/144 tanks or 60 mm x 30 mm for 10 mm LoA . I tend to buy in smaller bases such as 20 x20mm. I usually sand the rough edges, but not yet lost a finger or even part of one using the craft knife (I have pierced my thumbs several times cleaning up flash and moulding lines, on certain ranges of figures, with a no11 scalpel blade!)

I buy MDF bases but often resize them. I use a model saw. I generally manage to use modelling tools without injuring myself

Phil

When I did cut my own wood bases for individual items, I used bass wood or mdf and my trusty scroll saw with rip fence. Note: power tools are useful for home projects too when not being used for hobby purposes ;-).
If I needed larger bases I agree with Mako11….plastic and metal pre-cut.

Use 1.5mm ply, cut with a pair of "Shop Scissors"…large scissors with a lightly serrated edge from Fiskars… for 15mm and smaller. Used to use this (after using matt board, etc.) for all figures.

Newer 25+mm are all on 3mm Litko plywood.

Kids asked what I wanted for Father's Day. I told them a scroll saw. Yes! They came thru and I have been cutting since. Works great, just be careful and follow instructions.

I use a carpenters square and pencil to measure. Then use a scroll saw as Don Manser above suggested. I use a piece of wood to push the basswood thru. Been doing it for years and still have all my fingers and thumbs. Haste is what causes accidents.

I switched to peel-n-stick vinyl floor tiles. They cost $0.39 USD per 12"-square; I stick two pieces together, glue-side to glue-side. Then I cut them with a utility scissors, to whatever size I need. Power tools are dangerous, and when cutting small things like miniatures bases, they are too cumbersome, and dangerous.

Vinyl floor tiles can be cut easily, after being marked with a ballpoint pen and a ruler. I glue my figures to their bases using E6000 glue; then I paint the base with Wood Glue, and dunk it into a bowl containing colored sand.

The vinyl floor tiles allow me to cut whatever base sizes I need. The smallest I've cut is around 6mm-square. The majority are 1"-square. From two, 12"-square pieces of tile, I can get 144, 1"-square bases, for a cost of $0.78 USD, total!… Cheers!