P.E.Tools

I built my own, very similar, but fewer widths.  But I find I do not use it much.  I have a nice small screwdriver that I use as the upper anvil, and use an X-acto blade to get under the piece and bend it up.  That does 90+ percent of my bending, so the big tool doesn't really get much use, and tends to get buried in a drawer.

I'm curious about tricks to keep the tiny pieces from "jumping" off the bench and losing themselves in carpeting!?

Keep your finger on it when you cut or a toothpick.

Bill

I cut and bend my PE pieces on a post it note on the sticky side. I found post it note pads at Wall Mart that have the sticky on the whole piece of paper rather than just a band at the top and they work well holding the tiny PE pieces from flying off the work bench when cutting them off the sprue.

Jay Jay

I cut and bend my PE pieces on a post it note on the sticky side. I found post it note pads at Wall Mart that have the sticky on the whole piece of paper rather than just a band at the top and they work well holding the tiny PE pieces from flying off the work bench when cutting them off the sprue.

That is a great tip!  Thanks so much for sharing it.

Gary

Hey Tex, YW ...even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then.

I find tweezers frequently "launch" small PE pieces if you are not careful.  So I have stopped using tweezers, and make a little PE tool, a toothpick with a small daub of poster tack on the end.  This seems to work well, and has never launched a piece of PE onto the floor yet.

Jay Jay

Hey Tex, YW ...even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then.

  That was one of my late Dad's favorite sayings, exactly like that.  I do often feel like that ol' blind hog, lol!

I use masking tape - not the hobby type but the regular household kind.

Seems like most all of the acorns I find are buggy ..........  

Nice tip though, will be borrowing some of the shop bookkeepers post its for sure on the Phantom build.

Jay Jay- send it to the mag for publication.

Great ideas - thx!

I cut PE parts in the wrapping they come in. That usually keeps the carpet monster at bay.

panzerpilot

I cut PE parts in the wrapping they come in. That usually keeps the carpet monster at bay.

I much more frequently lose the parts applying them than cutting them.

There is a method that was discussed here .Take the fret and put it in a Zip-Loc brand . bag and cut through the bag to free the part or just take your cutter put the tip in the bag and cut the part off  .No more carpet monster conquests .

Until you go to put it in place and the tweezer slips slightly :-)

Don Stauffer

I find tweezers frequently "launch" small PE pieces if you are not careful.  So I have stopped using tweezers, and make a little PE tool, a toothpick with a small daub of poster tack on the end.  This seems to work well, and has never launched a piece of PE onto the floor yet.

I don't know how many times my tweezers have launched styrene parts.  I hardly use tweezers nowadays.

I think I learned the tweezer prob yesterday trying to handle small clear butyl bubble windows!  Got better results with q tip with a dab of "water".

I made this little tool to stabilize the part while cutting,

here is how I made it...

http://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Photoetch/photoetch_for_modelers.html

Paul

Very clever. Gotta try that.

EJ