I’m trying to collect a good set of tolls for building armour. I’ve got the basics, jewelers files, xacto knives, various grades of sandpaper, good forceps, locking scissors, some needlenose tweezers.
What have you found to be a useful addition to your workbench?
Flexi-file sander. Believe it or not, the electric paint mixer (which my wife surprised me by buying!). and, my adjustable, rotatable small vise which sometimes, with the help of a few elastic bands, really helps to set tracks.
QT
Let’s see…
Production Industries Micro-Tool - far better and cheaper than a Dremel and something I can’t do without - with both micro drill bits and grinding heads, a set of calipers, a “third hand” set-up with alligator clips, clothes pins, rubber bands, a gazillion toothpicks, a good metal ruler (several actually), compass, waldron punch set, a box of 500 plastic pipets (for measuring paint), a good pin vise, and a couple razor saws (with a miter box).
Those are the basics for me…
teeny-tiny drill bits. Very useful for drilling out gun barrels and exhaust pipes.
magnifier light. I don’t know what I do with out it. My eyesight isn’t bad, but if I was building with only my un-aided eye, the detail work would suffer.
variety of Evergreen sheet styrene - even if you don’t do a lot of scratch-building, it is really handy to have available for the odd sponson floor that needs to be added or what not.
An X-acto knife, a couple of old tweezers, pin vise with lots of little drillbits, a razorsaw and i recently bought an Etch-mate (which i haven’t realy used yet[:I])
Jan [:)]
Aside from the standard exactos and files, I have a Bendicator from Ausfwerks.com to make grab handles. Soon I will have one of their new Fender Benders to bend PE and will be dumping my Etchmate. I also have a Dremel with a bunch of attachments for grinding, sanding and cutting.
Production Industries Micro-Tool<<
I posted in another thread (under the tools forum) looking for a micro dremel, this may be what I’m after, perchance can you post a pic of it?
Cheers!
Adding onto what the others have listed:
Metal triangle (for 90 degree cutting and to act as a surface to cut my PE)
Xuron sprue cutter
locking non-serrated Hemostats (great for PE)
good visors
self-healing cutting mat
quick-grip micro clamps
and lots of extra no. 11 exacto blades (a sharp knife is a safe knife!)
Try to find an old ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. Great for cleaning your airbrush parts.
HTH
Roy
Razor Saw,
Sprue Cutters -cant live with out’em
etching tool,
swiss army knife,
sanding sponges, and papers,
assortment of mini-drill bits,
straight edge,
pin-vise,
and a collection of styrene bits.
i work from the space where my keyboard to my computer usually goes-- got to put it on the floor to build–space at my house is at a premium right know cause i’m re-modeling-- any way, i have the usual stuff-- most important to me are many drill bits-- always have a few .010 to .060 in .005 increments, GOOD caliper,2.5 million #11 blades,home made cutting and bending jigs,and my cutters,needle nose,pin vice ect are from Snap-On–expensive --very, but last a life time-- also in the pics you will see a very cool little vice my son made me when he was in high school-- holds all kinds of shapes a million ways[:D]-- many times when i need a tool to do something, i build the tool first then the thing–also i keep ALOT of evergreen plastic on hand 'cause it pisses me off when i need .030 and only have .040-- i never use a dremel – imho, it tears the crap out of the styrene-- i use a big cumbersome DeWalt 18v variable reversible hand drill as a mini lathe ect. very slow if needed-- slow is good for styrene-- treadwell
Here’s a link to where I bought mine. Scroll down to the “Rotary Tools…” section to see the picture.
http://www.michtoy.com/MTSCnewSite/supplies_folder/cutting_drilling/cutting_drilling.html
Hope this helps…
This is the one I bought. Home Depot and Lowes has some extra bits, if you live near one
http://www.michtoy.com/MTSCnewSite/supplies_folder/cutting_drilling/drills/60702.html
I found that a flex shaft and stand for my veriable speed dremel was very useful. It provided the ability to do delicate work.The dremel tool by itself was too clumsy for delicate or tight work. Greg
I just use the basics, but I do need to find more drill bits, and some sort of rotary tool that is not too fast for plastic.
Same problem, my dremel rotary tool is to fast, it melts the plastic. I may make some modification to it myself so it will turn slower.
Toolwise, I found the small tool from Tamiya to mix paint very usefull to apply putty also. It got two ends; one in the shape of a spoon and the other end is flat.
A third hand with aligator clips is pretty usefull too. A complete bag of clothepins to old parts while painting them. A syringe to mix the proper ratios of paint.
Also, two good pairs of needle-nose pliers. I’ve found these invaluable in making grab handles, and other wire parts.
One of the most useful tools in my toolbox is a jeweler’s ring clamp, like this one;
It is very useful for holding small parts while you beat them into submission…er…I mean… sand, file or cut them. The thumbscrew allows you to tighten the jaws very tightly, up to about 250 lbs/square inch, but it has leather-lined jaws so you don’t chew up your part. It can also be threaded onto a 1/4" bolt and held in a vise if needed. I highly recommend getting one.
A jewelry supply store is also a good source for other hand tools, like jeweler’s saws, files, vises, pliers, cutting burrs, tweezers, etc.