USS Arizona

yeah my dads broke alot when he used then but i love pin vises. im gonna pick one up soon lol

I was able to pick a few of the 70 & 80 sizes at the annual hobby show in Austin, TX last weekend.

I find pin vises so handy I have five of them with common drill sizes I use a lot hanging on my pegboard tool panel at the back of my bench.

Only problem with them is that the smaller ones break easily even with a pinvise, so I am always looking for good deals on small drills in the ads.  I consider those drills, especially  70 and smaller, to be expendable supplies.

sweet ddp59.. ill maybe get one soon. seems cool to get one and make the detail go on even more

got my 1st dremel tool back in christmas of 76, didn't have a speed control with it or in it so didn't use it til i got a speed control the folling year. i can go from a dead stop all the way to full speed of 30-35000 rpm gradually. still have both & working. i'm currently building that arizona with corrections to the bow, stern, bulges & superstructure.

Matt Obrien's comment brings up one of my old ranting subjects: most rotary tools turn too fast. Every time Dremel comes out with a new one, the advertising boasts about how POWERFUL it is. To model builders, especially plastic model builders, torque in such a tool is just about irrelevant. And the slowest speed on most Dremel tools is 3,000 or 5,000 rpm - fast enough to wander around on the surface, and to melt styrene if the bit isn't perfectly sharp.

I've got a small "power carver" made by a company called We-Cheer. I bought it quite a few years ago from Woodcraft, which unfortunately doesn't carry it any more. (There's a newer model, but it's "more powerful" - yay - and has a built-in speed control, so it turns too fast.) Mine is slightly larger than a fat pencil, has no speed control, and (though the ads don't say so) accepts Dremel collets. I built a super-simple speed control for it, using parts I bought at Loew's: a plastic junction box, a dimmer switch, a duplex electrical outlet, a plastic cover plate, a cord with a plug on it, and a few wire nuts. The tool itself cost $35.00, the parts for the speed control about $15.00. I can set it to run at 100 rpm or less, or set the control on 0, hold the bit in the right spot, and ramp up the speed to whatever I want. If my hands could stay still long enough (questionable these days) I could drill a nice set of portholes in an hour or so.

After I established that my primitive speed control worked, I bought a Dremel bottom-of-the-line, single-speed rotary drill for jobs requiring more power. (I really don't want to burn up the WeCheer.) So far I haven't found a use for it on a model.

One time I went to Dremel's website, which has a users' forum. I did a post complaining that Dremel tools turn too fast for modelers, and predicted that a small, battery-operated rotary tool with speeds adjustable from 0 to 2,000 rpm would be well-received in the modeling world. NOBODY replied to my post. So I guess I can't blame Dremel for ignoring it. But I'm still a crusader for small, slow rotary tools.

thanks for the tip edgune, i will be using a vise because its way easier than a drill

modelcrazy- its a revell model and the scale is 1/426

Don Stauffer- there are rims on the holes thankfully.. just gotta dig out the vise xD

Whatever you do, leave the power tools at home. Any powered drill bit has the potential to "walk" on you,  damaginng the hull and misaligning your portholes. Sometimes the drill's chuck will strike the hull and gouge the surface, too. I've seen where folks have done this and it just looks terrible.

Use a pin vise and take your time. Just my opinion.

Matt

Who's the manufacturer and what's the scale? Revell, Banner, Trumpeter, Hobby Boss?

If there are rims on the portholes it is pretty easy to drill them in the right spot.  But I only drill and glaze portholes if I will be displaying it in an anchored or not combat ready condition.  

It is imperative that all holes which you drill be perfectly straight & vertical.    A line of portholes which wavers will ruin the entire appearance.  

Of course scale matters.   a couple of holes which are a MM off in 1:700 will be more noticeable than holes being off by the same amount in 1:200 scale