i’m currently working on my 1/48 B-1 and its going great but… lots of ejector pin marks raised and sunken, way more filling and sanding than i want to do so i dug out my electric motor tool and chucked one of those “diamond file” cylinders. the tool has only one speed (fast) but with a light touch using the flat end i worked it like an ereaser on a pencil and smoothed out the rough.i would recommend finishing with some hand sanding to obtain a flawless finish but it sure makes quick work on the majority of the unwanted material.BE CAREFUL don’t dally on one spot for long or you will melt the plastic also watch that you don’t catch en edge or ya might leave some unwanted divits in your model.hope this helps someone or inspires a better idea than the dreaded sanding sessions.
Good suggestion for the big jobs armornut…especially your cautions about the dangers of a single-speed model.
If you want to get a little more control over your motor tool’s speed and reduce the risks you mentioned…over the years I’ve found several ways to slow down the beast:
- speed pedal from an old sewing machine (my wife was a bit upset over this choice)
- household rotary light dimmer switch wired into the middle of an extension cord (insert precautionary advice about working with electricity)
- industrial rheostat called a “Variac”, which is what I use now. These are pricey if you purchase one new, but give you precise control from less than 1 rpm to max speed. I got mine used from a laboratory that had used it to control the speed of pumps.
Anyways, options 1 and 2 are pretty cheap and easy ways to slow the tools down…and once you get it so you aren’t scared of melting or gouging your models, you won’t believe how much you’ll start using it!
Cheers
(Insert standard caution about dust, & using particle masks…) [yuck]
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don’t wet-sand with live mains devices either…
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Some people have used battery-operated rotary toothbrushes, mounting velcro pads on sandpaper of various grades…
http://www.modellversium.de/tipps/1-werkzeuge/1-elektro-zahnbuerste-zum-schleifen-und-bohren.html
See the article on the German model site MODELVERSIUM on how to make a power sander out of a power toothbrush. For those of you without German, you can pump the URL through an online translator
Is styrene dust harmful?
I use a battery-operated electric toothbrush as a power sander.
Genius [#toast] I like the ‘belt sander’ …
Styrene dust, is like sawdust, flour dust, wallboard dust, or resin dust.
It is an irritant. It is not toxic.
caSSius great suggestions for varying the speed of the tool,i never thought of modifying the wiring with somesort of rheostat thanks for your input[tup]BTW has your wife forgave you for the demise of her sewing machine?(lol)
I’ve never raised any styrene dust using power sanders… It embeds itself in the paper or just melts alongside the part being sanded… Come to think of it, I’ve never raised any dust hand-sanding it either…
Glad it was of some use to you armornut…[:)]…these tools really become indispensible once you get the speed-melts-plastic-thing overcome. Good luck with getting yours into shape.
BTW - I’m not sure if the (now) ex-wife forgave me for the sewing machine sabotage…doh! come to think of it…I never did hook it back up for her…[:I]
NOTE TO OTHERS: if you borrow the sewing machine pedal, remember to hook it back up again when you’re done…it might be important! [(-D][(-D]
EDIT: I just found this tutorial next door in the Tools forum:
/forums/1120247/ShowPost.aspx
If you can get past all the text-formatting gobelty-gook in the opening paragraph, it’s a pretty good tutorial on Option 2 mentioned in my original post.
Cheers
sounds like we have helped some of our modeling bretheren caSSius, have a great weekend and have a great build.[8D]