The Chopper III - NorthWest Short Line

I am in the process of cutting and attaching the wooden decking to my Fairlee frt. house. As you can see you have lots of room to lay all your planks that need cutting on the base without them getting in the way.

Chopping through my kits

I had been wanting to get a chopper for a few years now. With a few wooden kits on the go, flat car decks to be add and a couple of wooden fences to be built for the White River Division, I decided to purchase one. The one I went with was the longer work surface, Chopper III version by NorthWestern Short Line. They make a mini version which is good if you do not have a lot of storage room or a small work space. Mico Mart also has a lower priced small chopper. Part of the reason I went for the Chopper III was I got a deal on it from Doug's Trains (Doug is out of these at the moment and Walthers is also out of stock) but the length of the unit makes it very easy for handling long strips of wood. As you can see in the photos you can cut and work on your project right on the chopper base. I actually just finished cutting fence boards and gluing them on the Chopper work surface. Sure makes some projects really easy. If you are thinking of purchasing a Chopper take a look at the longer base version...George Dutka

One of my larger projects this modelling season is the Vermont big barn by Creative Laser Design. The roof included with the kit just did not cut it so I just turned the roofing over and made it into a more prototypical metal roof found in northern Vermont. I did have to add ribbing's which was cut on my new Chopper. In this photo the ribbing is seen being cut on my Chopper. Some of  pieces are seen added to the barn. For longer cuts such as these I just reverse the guide to the other side of the base. These longer cuts can be made with ease. I will be covering the finished big barn in a later post.

I was in such a rush after purchasing the Chopper III  to try it out I did not  realise till after I cut all the flat car decking that I should have stained them.  It sure would have been a lot easier to stain them in one long piece. Arrr...boys and their toys.