Avoiding the "poink!" of losing tiny parts

Holding tiny parts with tweezers is ,as you discovered, a no-no.  Use something sticky like a tiny bit of blue tack or clay on the end of a toothpick to hold and position these parts while glueing. After the glue sets in a few seconds the part will remove itself from the sticky.

There are commercial items sold for this purpose in the form of a china marker like pencil with tacky stuff instead of lead or little plastic sticks with a drop of sticky on the end but you can easily make your own for cheap.  Anything tacky on the end of a toothpick will work  ie. candle wax, modeling clay, bowling grip cream ( available at your local bowling alley), Gorilla Snot or Drum Stick Wax from your music store.

Another tip from your Uncle Jay; stick the whole fret of PE down to a sheet of "Full Adhesive" post it notes.(available at an office supply store ) This keeps the tiny PE thingy from launching itself into the unknown while you're cutting it off the fret.

Great tips, thanks.  There had to be a better way.

As a drummer, I should have thought of Gorilla Snot.

I had tried using the back of artist tape for holding down PE pieces, but post its are even lower tack.

Hi ;

 I am bad . I cannot find the product just now .They come 12 to a container and look like one ended " Q " tips with Gel on them instead of cotton . I have been using the first one for over a month now and it hasn't lost it's sticky yet .

 The gel is sticky enough to even pick up P.E. by the edge . But , it lets go very easy . I got mine from my local Hobby Shop . Yeah ! I got one called  "Hill Country Hobbies " and owned by a Fellow called Gary Emery  !

 Gotta watch him though . It's his shop and he runs it the way he wants to . I love doing business with him !    T.B.

I bought a new set of tweezers about a year ago that really help- they are very stiff in the direction perpendicular to the normal action, so the points do not normally get out of register.  But, they still launched a small styrene part yesterday.  Never did find it.

I have an apron that fastens just below the edge of the bench and rests on and covers my lap.  However, even that does not catch everything.  If the part is small enough, tweezers can launch parts pretty far through the air.  I have sometimes heard the part ping against the back or sides of my bench, or shelving next to the bench.  Because I let my bench and workshop get pretty cluttered, I do loose a lot of small parts.

As far as "Poink" 

 How about " Tink ?"  I was putting a part on the card model of the Edmund Fitzgerald from my Generic P.E.  . One part went " Tink " against my light and I thought it was lost .Cat came by for a pet . Part was stuck in her back hair ! ! !   Lucky this time !

Put the parts tree in a bag and either cut directy through the bag, or put your hand inside with the knife/nipper.

I loose far more when trying to apply parts to model, or when doing some other operation with part, other than cutting it loose from fret or sprue.

Don Stauffer

I bought a new set of tweezers about a year ago that really help- they are very stiff in the direction perpendicular to the normal action, so the points do not normally get out of register.  But, they still launched a small styrene part yesterday.  Never did find it.

I have an apron that fastens just below the edge of the bench and rests on and covers my lap.  However, even that does not catch everything.  If the part is small enough, tweezers can launch parts pretty far through the air.  I have sometimes heard the part ping against the back or sides of my bench, or shelving next to the bench.  Because I let my bench and workshop get pretty cluttered, I do loose a lot of small parts. 

I am with Don, I use a apron made out of an old pillow case attached to the edge of the bench which captures 95% of the parts I drop.  Along the sides of the bench I keep my files, tweezers, paint brushes, etc., in mason jars that act as barriers.  Once in a while though I will launch a part off the tweezers to parts unknown, but not like I use to when first started modeling.