All,
I bought the Meng D9R Bulldozer and the E.T Model 35-211 kit for the slat armor. The reviews I have read on the slat armor are saying that you need a good, solid way to accurately, cleanly and consistently cut the 0.5mm brass rod that comes in the kit. I was wondering if any of you have a 'best' way to try to do this, any particular tool that would work, and any particularly easy way to ensure cutting multiple rods to exactly the same length. I have played some with photo etch, but not a lot with brass rod. Help, please!!!

If you have a triangular file , you could scour around the rod and then break it off . Or you could use wire cutter then file the end flat .

I've got a pair of side cutters that works fine for 0.5 brass rod. A dremel or file can be used to flatten the ends.

Another option would be to replace the brass with styrene, so you can just use your knife.

Thanks, guys.

Brass is softer than steel so rolling the rod
over a hard surface by pressing the sharp edge of a
hobbyknife against the rod and "sawing" back and forth
will cut it. The tricky bit is to hold the knife at right
angles to the rod, otherwise the cut will turn into a
sort of spiral. Moving the knife backwards-forwards about
3 mm will be enough, the knife edge needs to go "full circle" around the rod ...

/ Robin

UMM's Micro Saw helped me cut brass tubes over the weekend without any issue.

I got mine directly from their site
http://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/product_info.php?cPath=21_28&products_id=35

Hope this helps.

Is that a bimetallic saw ?

The packaging doesn't say that, so I'm not sure. Just as RobinNilsson said, brass is much softer. I have tried cutting it the way he described and it does work. I got the idea of using this saw to cut my brass after I read it somewhere (I forgot where). I decided to give it a try and it worked for me.

I would cringe at the thought of using the zona saw to cut brass or copper , I don't have any experience with those type of saws that's why I was asking .

I guess you have a point there. I did use this technique again last night, the blade was still sharp enough to cut through my brass rods. Not sure how useful the blade will be for other applications. I will make this blade solely for cutting rods until able.

Personally I put an old blade in my NWSL Chopper and use that, with another old blade flat underneath to give a hard cutting surface. That lets me chop consistent lengths, essentail for pinning metal tracks. It does get a bit chewed up after a while but I can move the wire around to keep a sharp bit in use and as it's an old blade, eventually I just bin it when it starts to look like a saw (or I use it as the new cutting surface).