My Dremel tool hinge slot cutter.

The Eldon J. Lind, Co has (had) a neat little hinge slotting tool. I have one. It looks like a tiny pizza pie cutter but the 'wheel' doesn't rotate. The 'wheel' looking portion has evenly spaced teeth about its perimeter. I alternately bent the teeth a little to give is a wider cut for slotting. A similar tool can be made of brass which is what I did when mine was misplaced for a spell. I taped the handle so it wouldn't 'tire' my fingers, being thin and of metal it was uncomfortable to hold and use. You just push it into the balsa and lever it back and forth as it digs a slot. The teeth really do the job!

706jim wrote:...The thin Dremel cutoff discs can be pretty fragile; one minute they are there and the next, nothing but a bare mandrel!

And a crack in your safety glasses.

I like that Guide table Fred may have to ck. into it I have a Dremel drill press my Dad bought me years ago and never used it just haven't figured out what for ? Has any one used one of these not that I am going to get it , don't like tools that only do one thing ... http://www.ebay.com/itm/GREAT-PLANES-Slot-Machine-Motorized-Hinge-Slot-Cutter-Slotting-Tool-GPMR4010-/381513540417?hash=item58d3faa341:g:ur4AAOSwYIhWjwlB getback

getback

The problem I have with most slot cutters is keeping the tool parallel to the center of (usually) thin balsa or balsa/hardwood sandwich.

For larger sized planes with tail feathers or flaps 1/4" fat or larger, this is not that big a problem. But for 1/8th or 3/16th stab/elev a real pain to make the slot straight into the balsa sheet.... When I was using the EzHinges just using a free hand Xacto #11 worked but I did not like how stiff they were for 1/2a and started using Klett Hinges a lot

A lot of words to say that I saw the Great Planes version you are asking about and decided that it might be even harder to keep the piece square to the cutter in use because the tool is so wide

Old guy here with now shaky hands and bad eyesight

The Great Planes version is just a small one of the oscillating tools like the one I have from Rockwell


I had though (Based on Bob's home made Dremel tool holder)  to make a holder for the large oscillating saw in the photo and cut down a blade to plunge cut slots