Homebuilt tools

scribing tool: pin vice+pin

other scribing tool: pin

I've made some 'flexi-files' on my own and it was WAY cheaper than buying them in the store. They work just as well, too. I don't mind paying good money for good tools, but these things were just WAY overpriced for what they are. If anyone wants instructions how I built them, shoot me an email and I'll be glad to write something up.

M.

I have had good luck grinding dental tools with my Dremel into custom scribers and scrapers. One in particular was ground to a sharp 90 degree edge, good for getting crisp inside corners where sandpaper cannot reach.

For larger scale models (I work on 1/96 scale ships) woodworking scrapers can be ground into custom profiles and used for various scraping operations that can replace sanding and give much better results. For example, Burke class destroyers have 10 degree inclined supersructures, so I made a scraper with a matching profile to clean the joint where the superstructure meets the deck.

I also make a lot of custom sanders using both styrene strip and acrylic, gluing on strips of various grits with CA. The nice thing about these is that you can come up with all sorts of handles and extensions to get into small areas.

Ex-acto knife blades can be reground into custom scrapers and smaller knives with caution - wear eye protection and be safe when working with these very sharp objects. Worn out files can also be reground for this use.

Sewing machine needles and pins can be ground into drills much smaller than commericaly available. I have had some success with Etymological mounting pins too.

Just a few tricks!

Kurt

I regularly carve wooden Q-Tips into tools for applying putty and for use on decals.

Something I tried recently was to glue sandpaper on the ends of some of these tools. This enables you to get into tight areas to sand where you can't go with a regular sanding stick.

Fade to Black...

I took a portable recharable screwdriver & bought a chuck attachment for it & made me a small lathe for turning tapers for gun barrels ,masts for ship etc. It works quite well because the speed is low & you can also sand cylindrical shapes with it

jamest,
That's a good one. I've got one in my toolbox at home that is a good candidate for this sort of 'upgrade'...
Made me think of another thing: I bought a 'nail buffing system' from a clearance store. It basically was a very small dremel that operates on a couple of AA batteries. Coincidentally, small dremel attachments fit into the end of it and because it it battery operated, it runs at much slower speeds than the dremel. This way, it won't 'melt' the plastic that I'm grinding. I also made a small 'paint stirring' attachment out of some brass rods I had hanging around. Just found the rod that fit into the collet, and made a 'bend' in the end so that it would stir the paint. I also rigged it up so that I could just use 1 AA battery (instead of 2) for things that needed slower turning power.

Problem is that I've somehow lost the thing?? It was one of my best and most used tools and now it is missing?? It's gonna be hard to blame this one on the cat...

M.

Try replacing the rod with a piece of an old wire coat hanger. It's free, malleable, and you can turn the rest of the hanger into other neat stuff. My wife thought I had started wire scuptures in the basement until she saw all the stuff I had made. She didn't mind when I told her how many things I DIDN"T buy from Squadron..........:) -Ed

PS- you can ALWAYS blame the cat.................what's he gonna do about it?

I glue strips of sandpaper to different sizes of wooden doweling. I also glue sheets of sandpaper to scrap plexiglass. You can also glue plexiglass bits and pieces together to make stand, alignment jigs, and other things. Use acetone to weld plexi together. I work in a door and window factory so I have found uses for scrap plexiglass.

have you ever seen a spinningtie holder??? basically it has 6 brass hooks on it and it spins......... so i just soldered smaller pieces of bras to each hook, then i mounted it to the inside of my paint booth, so now i can just spin what ever i'm paintinf to get all areas covered......

another one that i forgot about, actually i didnt make this tool, but just took a regular tool and improved on it.......

did you ever cut something with your diagonal cutters, only to have the smaller piece (usually the one you need) fly off into the voids of your carpet???

Well all you need to do is .....close the cutters, and fill the open space with silicon, when the silicon dries just cut the silicon down the middle... now when you cut something the piece will be held in place by the silicon......

For rigging sailing ship models make some rigging forks by cutting off one half of the eye of several sizes of sewing needles and insert the needle point into various lengths of dowels.

Also bend some of the needles into various angles to reach hard to reach places.

They work great............

jamest, I have a question for you.

Where did you find the attachment that you spoke of for a rechargeable screwdriver? That sounds like a must have. And I'll finally have a use for that rechargeable my brother-in-law gave me a few years ago...