Yes Jack, I bought one'

Hi jack, yes I have the "Wonder Cutter, and it works very well on plastics, card and balsa wood, and paper  I wish they would have produced it a lot sooner.  It is rather expensive, but it is worth it...  I built over 100 scratch built structures for my layout.  All windows, doors, cut by hand with an exacto knife.  The cutting of windows and doors takes plenty of time.  With the wonder cutter, draw your lines, and cut.  You go from several minutes to mere seconds for a window and door. and it is very accurate.  Push gently and scribe. One pass and you are done..

Thanks Goober for Report

Just what I needed to hear.  I have a lot of warehouse type buildings to scratch build.  What thickness of plastic are you using and how often do you need to change blades?

Limitations...

Hi Jack,

As Goober mentioned it is a fantastic tool that has many uses, I've used it on some small projects and I also briefly used it in a video I published on YouTube building a paint shaker.

I start using the Wonder Cutter at the 7:20 minute mark.

However just be aware that it has some limitations:

The blade vibrates so fast that it can potentially melt the plastic that it comes into contact with, multiple quick passes works better than one slow pass. If you don't mind a bit of sanding to clean the edges then a slow deep cut with a bit of plastic melting wont bother you (sometimes the plastic melts and bonds back together).

Also for example when cutting out a window, try to cut from the inside of the wall if possible (the side of the wall that won't be visible to the viewer), you tend to get a neater cut on bottom side of the plastic.

Styrene plastic melts very easily, I had trouble cutting through anything thicker than 1mm without it melting however a bit of sanding soon tidied up the rough edges. 

It cuts really well through balsa wood and I did some tests on bass wood and thin pieces of plywood and they all worked really well. Softer wood obviously works better but I was surprised that it worked on the 0.75mm plywood I had. For the more rigid material like plywood be aware that the vibrations from the blade can travel from the blade through the plywood and into you finger (if you're holding the piece of wood) and can cause a very hot sensation on your finger! I actually got a small blister from it, now I make sure to firmly press or anchor the wood to the table.

The wonder cutter is amazing when it comes to cutting card! If you plan on building card kits like Metcalfe or similar this tool will make life very easy! It comes with 40 spare blades, so far I've changed the blade twice in the last month that I've been using and testing it.

I'm still experimenting with it so I can't give a complete recommendation just yet but so far I've been quite happy with it. It doesn't really help with basic kit building but for scratch building (especially with bass wood) I think you'll find it useful.

Luke

Thank you. I was real interested in the Wondercutter but your review helps me. I’ll wait. I use styrene in my builds and don’t need to sand any more then necessary. This seemed like a too good to be true item when reading the advertising and online reviews. 

Tom

$400...?

I'd have to be doing a heck of a lot of cutting to justify that. 

Jeff

You aren’t retired yet, if it works and you scratch build a lot, I can see it. 

Tom

Ultrasonic Cutter

The WonderCutter is just one brand of ultrasonice cutters. You might want to shop around- quick check of Amazon and E-Bay shows other brands in the mid-$300 range.  However, I have no idea the different brands compare to each other.

Lou in Idaho

A paint shaker?  A Wonder

A paint shaker?  A Wonder Cutter?  Wow what next. Naw, not for me. I always understood model paints are better stirred, not shaken.

Mike.

I’m just wondering if there

I’m just wondering if there might be a way to use an ultrasonic toothbrush that was modified to accept attachments.  I love the idea of the type of tool but frankly the prices of the commercial ones are ridiculous 

an ultrasonic toothbrush

 Hi Rick, That's an interesting idea, I hope someone has tried it and can tell us if it works.  For bigger cuts an oscillating multi tool might be usable and cost a lot less. I've used mine for trim work in the house and layout benchwork in spots where other saws won't fit......DaveB

Caffiene, or an engraving tool

You could just drink about 50 cups of coffee and then try to hold a regular xacto yourself 

Tucked away in some box somewhere I have an engraving tool which is basically a hard sharp metal tip that oscillates pretty fast so you can engrave your name on metal tools by hand.  Hadn’t occurred to me to try before but as is I imagine you could pretty easily if crudely score styrene.  How easy it would be to mount a blade on one would depend a lot of the particular one you have, I’d have to find mine to see if it looks doable.  Haven’t seen it since the move.

I too thought attaching a

I too thought attaching a blade to something like an electric toothbrush could work, the main difference however with the ultrasonic cutters is they oscillate in one direction (back and forth), a toothbrush vibrates in a circular motion which could make it hard to get an accurate straight line...

It could still be an interesting test to see if it actually works effectively.

....or an old electric shaver

More info video

If you want a little more info on US cutters (ultra sound) you might enjoy this video.  (He makes it fun too)

You can also save about $80 (over the micro mark version) on amazon buying the model in the video.

Have fun!

Cheaper paint shaker

Take a small Irwin quick grip.  Put one end in a saber saw.  Put the paint jar between the clamp faces, turn it on.

@ Mike

Mike,

Great link to that video. The guy is great at explaining complex machining issues to a beginner. Watched several of his videos and subscribed to his channel. Not often you find somebody that knows what they are talking about.

Bernd