To a man with only a hammer ...

It was said by one far wiser than I that "a man with only a hammer considers all problems to be nails." Over the years I have built up fair stock of power tools in my wood shop, and I frequently find myself approaching  disparate problems from the perspective of the equipment in my shop - even when building HO scale models. Here's a perfect example of my being stuck in the furniture making paradigm.

The prototype mineral house in the copper smelter which is serving as the inspiration for my structure was outfitted built with a circular window in one of its gable ends. Since the building was of sandstone, a circle of stones was installed to trim-out the window, as shown in this HABS drawing:

In order to replicate the installation, I decided to cut the ring of finish stones from sheet styrene.  While the conventional method would likely be to carefully cut the inner and outer sides using a sharp Xacto knife, my power tool paradigm led me down a very different path.

In woodworking, I bore holes using a drill bit. When drilling larger holes, I use a smooth cutting, sharp forstner bit, of which I have a complete set - one of which was the exact size needed to cut the center opening. Placing the bit in the drill press and the styrene up against the fence, the forstner made quick work of drilling the hole through the thin styrene - its sharp cutting edge creating the beautiful shaving in the process as shown below.

I usually cut circles in thin wood using a jig on the band saw - so why not styrene? Grabbing a piece of scrap 1/2" plywood, I used the same forstner bit to drill a hole near the edge of the ply. Digging through my jig making supplies, I was elated to find a delrin rod that was exactly the same diameter ad the hole, so I cut off a short section long enough that it stood proud of the top of the ply. I set up an 1/8" blade in the bandsaw and clamped the piece of plywood to the saw table so that the outer surface of the delrin rod was the desired distance from the blade. After angle cutting the piece of styrene so it would fit on the mandrel with its edge against the blade, I turned on the bandsaw and carfully rotated the styrene, cutting the desired ring in the process.

After cleaning up the slight burrs with an Xacto knife and 600 grit sandpaper, I glued it with epoxy to the prepared wall - the circular opening in which I also cut using the forstner bit!

Perhaps a little unconventional, but it worked like a charm!