As I sit here at my work bench, on a cold and snowy Saturday … working on my current project, an F/A-18 HORNET for the Community Building Project (see thread under General Modeling) … I was thinking about the various ways of trimming parts from the “tree”.
One of the rules for the CBP is that we can use a limited list of tools to build our project. Sprue nippers, sprue cutters, whatever you call them … are not on the list … we can use our “xacto” knife … this got me to thinking … what are other builders methods of trimming parts ??? [^]
Gee, seems like I/we have come along way from the early days … I used to use an old, kinda rusty, very dull pocket knife with a yellow handle … hmmm wonder what ever happened to that old knife … oh,well …
How do you prefer to trim parts off their “trees” ???
As I sit by my computer on a nice sunny 70 degree day, I used to use an old set of nail clips to cut parts from the tree. I still have them in my tools bin and come across the every so often. The good old day.
Really depends on the kit and the size of the sprue attatchments.
Usually I use a set of sidecutters I picked up at a local department store.
I found some small thin saw blades that fit into the chuck of my number 1 exacto knife handle. I’m not certain what their blade number is, but they’ve often saved the day for me when I had a small part with a big sprue attatchement and the side cutters would have been too big and clumsy for the job.
I’m a BROKE student and can’t afford any fancy tools. use the X-Acto #11 and save the rest of my money for tuition
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I’ve never lost a piece off the tree or ruined a part when cutting. I also remove any flash or seam lines while I’m at it!
As far as I can tell I don’t see an advantage to sprue cutters…perhaps someone can enlighten me on the benefits of a cutter and perhaps I’ll fork out the money! Until then I will stick with my trusty X-acto knife and beer.
I use those fancy aviation sheers. They do a great job because you can cut flush to your piece without damaging it. But before that I used one of those big toe nail clippers. It worked well.
I’ve got the same trimmer that Big Jake noted above. Cheap cutters that do a good job. I’ve found they come in really handy on ‘glass’ parts. Whenever I cut glass pieces off of the sprue, I tend to ‘stress’ the joint and sometimes it damages the piece. Even when I use the xacto blade I get some form of stress in the part (especially windshields). Using the trimmers, I cut well away from the part and then just ‘nip’ away at it until it is flush with the edge of the part. Works good for me.