I’m a surgical resident and was wondering if any of you had any experience using surgical or dental instruments for your models. I was going to go to the Operating Room and pilfer some tools that were no longer usable for real live people but that were still ok for plastic. I have some ideas of what I would like to get a hold of but just wanted to see what everyone’s opinion was.
p.s. eleven blades aren’t that much different for people, just a different handle.
I use them all the time.
The disposable scalpels with the plastic blades are invaluable. They stay sharp for a long long time. Some even have a ruler on the handles.
Hemostats are great for holding small parts, if you can find the ones that have the smooth teeth and brass finger loops on them they are worth their weight in gold. You can lock them w/o marring the plastic.
The 2-0 silk sutures you can use for rigging wires. Needles of all gauges can be used for gun barrels, applying glue, drilling holes, and scribing panel lines if needed.
The most used tools I have used are two pairs of forceps that were used on pediatric/ neonatal cases. They are very very small and one set is even bent at a 90 degree angle. Great for PE or those very little fiddly bits of detail. The surgeon handed them to me and said keep them they are useless now.
Other than the stuff mentioned a box of latex gloves.Used for painting and cleaning so no fingerprints are left, managed to get from the hospital I work at to my workbench somehow.
So if you can get hold of some of the stuff go ahead it will save you tons of $$$$$ in the end so you can spend it on more kits or other specialty tools you can’t get there at the place you work.
Paul
I use dental instruments all the time. When they wear out at the office and can no longer be useful on patients I bring home and use them on my builds.
Thad
I love the dental picks, as well as the scalpels. We’re remodeling the home of a man who is in the medical profession and brings home whatever he can. I got a handful of scalpels and tons of the blue absorbant cloths from the trauma kits. And they have my favorite word…FREE!!! [:D]
Several years ago, the medics in my Guard unit were instructed to dispose of any and all scapels in their field kits. So I ended up with probably 1500 to 2000 scapel blades (#11 & # 15) and several handles. As they’re somewhat cheaper than Exacto (at least for me, I use them quite alot. Also use hemostats of various shapes and sizes along with a bunch of dental picks.
A couple of items I use that are possibly not actually considered surgical “tools”. The first is a plastic cup made out of polyethene. It’s used to despense medicine in hospitals and nursing homes, about 1 1/2" tall, same diameter at the top and 1" in diameter at the bottom. The sides are graduated in Tablespoons (TBS), Drams, Fluid Ounces (Fl OZ), Milli Liters (ML) and Cubic Centimeters (CC). They’re great for mixing paints and epoxies. And if you turn them over (empty of course) you’ll find a concave area about 1/2 " in dia. and 1/8" deep in the center which is very nice to dispense CA into. I origionally found them in a hospital supply store in packets of 1000 for $10 or about 1 cent each. In the past couple of years I’ve found them in Hobby Lobby and some LHS, costing 2 to 3 cents each in packets of 50. Use em and pitch em.
The other item you can’t buy but if you ask the right person can get a rather good supply. It’s sheet lead. About 20 years ago, FSM had an article on using sheet lead to create more realistic cloth items on models. The article its self was largely about using the thin lead sheets that some wine producers seal the corks in the bottles but it was also recommened that you might check at an x-ray lab for thin lead sheet. A couple of days later I happened to be at the dentist’s office getting some x-rays. I asked the dentist’s assistant who took the x-rays what she did with the lead when finished and she replied they put them in a box and when the box was full, disposed of it. When I asked, they gave me the box (probably 20 to 25 lbs). (When I went home and showed my wife my latest prize, her biggest worry was germs - so I broke out the camping stove and an old aluminum pot, went to the patio and boiled all the sheets - weird way to spend an afternoon.) I’ve still got about 1/2 of the origional box and use it to make seat belts, straps, tie down brackets, blast shields, web gear and various other items over the years.
M -
Looks like we’ve all raided CS at one time or another. Hemostats, forcepts, S/B scissors, scalpels, as well as probes come in very handy. Only problem with scalpel blades is that, while they are sharper to begin with, they seem to dull faster than most “hobby” knives. That’s part of their intented use, as cut once (relatively speaking) knives.
Basically we use what ever we’re most comfortable with. Sometimes hobby specific tools do work better for a given tast, as in the OR, each tool is designed for a specific purpose. Still a little creativity doesn’t hurt.
Archer out.
Quick question for all: How willing are doctors and dentists to part with this stuff? I’m not missing the comments that were made about the dentist having his home remodeled, or the hygenist who gave up the lead sheets, but I’m just suspecting that if I ask my doc or dentist for used tools they’ll just look at me funny…
i have a set of those teeth scraper things that dentists use…they work well for touching up glue or trimming some excess plastic off.
Try getting needles lol
My dentist couldn’t have been happier to get rid of them, presuming they just throw them away. No funny looks either. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
cd -
Most of that stuff is also available over the counter. Most Drug stores that have a surgical dept sell Hemostats, scalpels, forcepts, etc. The only things you can’t buy wothout a RX would be syringes and hypodermic needles.
Having “ahem” easy access to them is great, but most modeling warehouses have similar tiems, and at lower prices.
Archer out.
I live in Germany and here one can buy hypodermic needles and syringes at the pharmacy without a perscription. And they’re cheap.
Swann Norton No 3 and No 4 scalpel blade handles.
My Swan Norton handles are brass and I used to use them during my time as a board draftsman 20 odd years ago
cheers
Mike
Next time you visit your friendly neighborhood dentist, ask about dental drill bits. They’re glad to be rid of them, and they’re useful in any number of ways.
I need to go talk to Doc
As far as purchasing hypodermic needles, you probably need to check with a pharmacy (or the local police) as to what the regulations and restrictions are for the purchase. I live in a small rural town in central Kansas and have no real problem buying them. However the town I grew up with is not that far from Kansas City and you have to have a prescription to purchase them.
Also, if you want larger needles, check with your vet or a farm supply store. The Blue Stem Farm Supply in Emporia has an area for farm animal medicine and they’ve got some needles there I swear would make good 1/32 scale 40mm barrels.
I’ve got a friend of mine who works at a hospital as a respiratory therapist, and one day, we were cleaning out his garage a few years back and he came across a (fortunately unused) hospital vomit tray he had brought home somewhere along the line. I think he was joking when he offered it to me, but I took him seriously and said, “That might come in handy on my model workbench.” It did, too: That tray became the handiest dust cover I’ve got. Its unusual kidney shape fits around odd shaped or multiple sub-assemblies while the paint dries.
I also got from him a box of 200 individual alcohol wipes; those are great for wiping dirt and dust off parts just prior to painting.
I use them all the time — especially hemostats (ratcheting hand clamps),
dental picks, tweezers of every imagineable curve, shape, depth, etc.
They also make clamps where the two clamping jaws are at the end
of a tiny steel tube, controlled by shafts inside the tube. In other words,
you can insert the whole thing through a tiny whole, go in a LONG way (even a foot on the longer ones), and clamp onto something way down in there. I don’t know what these are called, but they are mighty handy.
You can always find these for sale at model, hobby, and train shows — that’s where I buy mine. They are usually seconds or slightly imperfects, so they are pretty cheap — $3 - $10 depending on the tool.