Take down of ultrasonic cutter.

[John Wagenseil]

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NUTR: Ultrasonic Cutter USW-334 - YouTube

"This Old Tony" demonstrates, then cracks open an almost affordable ($300 to $400) ultrasonic cutter.
It looks like it would be a great paper modeling tool, though it would probably be use up cutting pads quickly (time to bring last year's Sear Catalogue back inside from the small house out back?).
Is it worth 5 or 6 sacks of groceries? I could go hungry for a month, but not eating for 3 months in order to afford one of these would be pushing the comfort envelope.
Does anyone have any experience with ultrasonic cutters either professionally or as a hobby tool?

[airdave]

$400 ??!!
Its not worth $400. imo

Theres no question it will cut cardstock for paper model parts,
but as you pointed out, it also might destroy your cutting surfaces.
There is nothing stopping it slicing right through an expensive cutting mat.

Then theres the question of can you see the cutting blade well enough to accurately follow the outlines of parts?
We've seen with some knives, that it can be hard to sight down the blade properly and track your cutting line.
The handle does look a bit bulky.

But who knows...it could be a great paper cutting tool.

Which brings us back to the price.

[airdave]

I'm revisiting this old thread to see if anyone else has any experience with an ultrasonic cutter?

Today I came across a discussion on scale model addict about "tools"
and there were some words about ultrasonic cutters (used in the realm of plastic models).

This got me thinking about these tools again, wondering about their application in paper models
and so I looked to encyclopedia yootoob.

First video I came across was the one mentioned by John in his original post (starting this thread).
Unfortunately I didn't find much else...at least nothing that would help me with my query.

Price for these tools seems be anywhere from $300 to $600 which makes it a pretty expensive paper knife.
But like many of you, as I got older, it gets to be less fun cutting through card and paper
and I'm interested in ways to make cutting easier.
I have arthritis and and some wonky knuckles, so my hands are aching more and more when I use them.

[Siwi]

These make a lot of sense for cutting plastic, since the old school method is sawing through the plastic which risks disaster and creates a lot of dust and mess. But such a tool seems like overkill for paper unless it is properly thick cardstock or mountboard.


I think a better solution for avoiding putting pressure on hands and arms when cutting would be some kind of mini-guillotine where the blade is mounted and moves along a track that can be aligned with the edge, maybe using a spring or fulcrum multiplier for cutting pressure. Of course, this wouldn't work very well for rounded corners and curves but it would allow a substantial amount of cutting to be done pressure-free.