Large Scale Central

Model Machines

General Discussion
#1

Sad news with the passing of Jim Byrnes in October.

I stumbled on to Model Machines 10-15 years ago when I was hunting down a Dremel table saw and landed on a shipbuilding site. I believe Jim’s background was with lasers and the precision showed in his products. He had the reputation of building the Rolls Royce of mini-machines.

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I took a punt on getting a table saw and never looked back. I then sought out a disc sander and finally a thickness sander which has become my “go-to” machine in Oz. (At the time Jim & Donna only sold 110v machines and apparently after asking for 240v each time, they started offering this option.)

As with any company that is a one man operation, the question always arises of whether it is a good investment when aftercare is at stake. Not owning a CNC machine or laser cutter yet, I can’t judge if my reliance in a precision analog machine would change. However, I can say that I have had no issues with Model Machines other than swapping consumables in the past decade.

Jim’s wife Donna, has stated that she is thinking about what will happen with this niche business and announce something in the next few weeks.

Anyway, it’s something to consider if you’ve been putting off getting one of these high quality machines.

Addendum Oh, and here is the link…

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#2

Best tool purchase I made a few years back. I asked him for a 18" wide table as the standard sized 12" wasn’t quite big enough for me. At the time he has only made a few bigger ones as custom orders. Low and behold he started offering a bigger table!

I really want to get a tilt table and the cross cut table. I think I can build a cross cut table myself.

My biggest concern is if his wife closes shop, where to source new blades?
I’ve looked and looked online for 3" and 4" blades in the same tooth count that I have from them and can’t find them.

#3

Craig you might want to bookmark this thread
Byrnes Saw Blade Options

#4

Bookmarked and explains why when I went to replace my Thurston 110 tooth blade Brynes didn’t have any but he had a 90 tooth Martindale blade instead that I’ve been using.

But I tried looking at the Martindale website for a 3" 90 tooth .020 kerf blade with a 1/2" arbor and no luck. Made me suspect that Jim maybe ordered them as custom runs?

Thanks for that link and info.

PS that link for Malco saw blades gets me a similar blade at least for the 90 tooth.

#5

There might be a size of slitting saw you could use, too.

#6

A lot of those blades are actually advertised as slitting saws. Some of them have 200+ teeth on a 3" blade!

I’m kinda curious to try a 200 tooth blade on some thin styrene and see what happens.