The most useful makeshift tool you have ever made?

Francisco P. de Nanclares · Fri Jul 08, 2005 6:37 am

I am not pretending to start a poll or something. Just ask about the most useful tool you experts

have manufactured at home or designed specifically for a certain purpose. Hopefully the answers may give some ideas to the crowd and help improve skills, which I, for starters, am looking forward to.

Thank you in advance.

Guido · Post by **Guido** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:44 am

Hi, Francisc!
Interesting question! I am looking forward to see whats coming up.
Well I did not make a real tool, still...

I drilled one hunderted holes with into the workbench surface. Each hole has a 1mm diameter. The hole are positioned 10x10 with 1cm space in between them. I have 20 or steel pins each about 1'' long with diameter to fit the holes tightly.
I use this to fix styrene sheet material for cutting. Bend styrene beams and pipes, etc. It prooved to be very useful at times.

Otherwise, I more frequently "misuse" things not meant for modelling.
Like a battery powered milk stirrer for mixing paint.

Guido

Ron Smith · Post by **Ron Smith** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:25 pm

Post by **JWintjes** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:04 pm

A thick piece of hardwood to bang my head against after another one of my modeling desasters...

Jorit

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:45 pm

Take a small piece of wood, balsa, whatever, maybe an inch or two long. Sick a sewing needle into it. Cut the head of the needle in half (where the thread would go). Makes a perfect super glue applicator. You can even use different size needles to hold more or less glue.

Owen

Francisco P. de Nanclares · Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:07 am

Thank you all.

Jorit, I think you waste time with that tool. I just turn straight to the wall to my left and crash there!

Post by **JWintjes** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:34 am

Francisco P. de Nanclares wrote:Thank you all.

Jorit, I think you waste time with that tool. I just turn straight to the wall to my left and crash there!

Ah, but that wouldn't be very sophisticated, wouldn't it? Better have a tool for it...

Jorit

Francisco P. de Nanclares · Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:46 am

Yep. Guess you are right. Problem is I am getting too old, and after all those hits against the wall my brain would not run as smoothly as it should so as to devise so a complicated tool.

The end result is the same, though.

Cheers

atago46 · Post by **atago46** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:07 am

Hey JWintjes
you have me rolling on the floor, Boy the piece of wood is funny as hell
I need to make a 4x4 beam for myself..
Thanks for the laugh, I really needed that.
sincerely
Robert.....
Glassboro,NJ

Quincy · Post by **Quincy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:22 am

I agree with Ron on the guitar strings. As a former musician I have alot of old guitar strings and I use them mainly for masts and yardarms. The unwound ones of course.

Bob Pink. Who wishes he was going to Atlanta.

seaphoto · Post by **seaphoto** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:48 am

I like to use and modify single edge razor blades. By slightly relieving the edge, you can make a scraper to give you very nice inside corners - where the superstructure meets the deck, for example. Just a couple of degrees of taper will prevent the vertical surface from being marked

Kurt

JNSekas · Post by **JNSekas** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:55 pm

I usually end up having a bottle of CA that is past its useful life (e.g. thin glue that is now more like medium). I cut up strips of 280 and 400 grit sandpaper into strips about 2x8mm. I set up a pile of flat toothpicks and put a drop of CA on the flat end of the pick. I paint the back of a sand strip with accelerator and touch the pick to the strip. Voila!! Instant mini sanding stick! When you get everything set, you can crank out dozens of them in no time at all. I have found them invaluable in reaching those hard to get areas and places where you want to minimize destruction of adjacent detail.
HTH John.

Rob J · Post by **Rob J** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 2:58 pm

JWintjes wrote:
Francisco P. de Nanclares wrote:Thank you all.

Jorit, I think you waste time with that tool. I just turn straight to the wall to my left and crash there!
Ah, but that wouldn't be very sophisticated, wouldn't it? Better have a tool for it...

Jorit

The right tool for the right job mabey you should switch to a baseball bat

Kjetil L · Post by **Kjetil L** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 7:30 pm

Not homemade, but I got a little pen like thing with a stiff glass bristle brush at the tip from a model railroad shop. very effective for cleaning up and sanding in corners.

j.fiebke · Post by **j.fiebke** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:38 am

The most useful thing I've done, though its not a tool, is to put a sheet of tempered glass over my desk. I work on a desk handmade by my late grandfather, and after getting paint on it I bought a sheet of glass at the hardware store and laid it over the top with black paper underneath. Now, I can see all the parts clearly, phototche doesn't disappear before my eyes, and I can make precise folds of PE ladders, railings, etc, with opposed razor-blades right on my desk. I can get paint and super glue all over it, then go back with a striaght edged razor blade and it just scrapes right off. I love it, its the most useful change I've made to my workspace.

The Ship Model Forum

The most useful makeshift tool you have ever made?

The most useful makeshift tool you have ever made?

my tool....

Great use for old CA

Its not a tool, but useful anyway...