Sanding small parts when tweezers suck

[Cuppa_joe]

Hey all, I'm sanding small items needed for a scratch build, and came up with something to hold your parts when a set of tweezers are not strong enough and or too small.

Example 1 

with bent tweezers 

grab a pin vice used to drill by hand with small drill bits 

 

 

 

And after 

 

 

 

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Great idea 👍

[ckw]

Sheer genius in its simplicity! I've got two pin vices sitting on my desk, have lots more bits than I can remember to small parts pinging out of tweezers, but this never occurred to me.

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[ColonelKrypton]

that is a very good idea, never tried it for non round parts however but I do similar for round bits.

 

I have one of these which I find invaluable to working on small bits:

 

http://redroosteruk.com/wire-twisting-hollow-hand-vice-steel-4-small-part-wires-craft-wooden-wood-handle/

 

This one is similar but a bit smaller: http://redroosteruk.com/hand-vice-steel-for-small-parts-under-2mm-diameter/

 

Something else I find handy is to use CA and glue the small bit to a piece of scrap plastic that is larger and easier to handle. I can then easily drill, file, shape, sand the small bit, the plastic becomes sacrificial. A drop or two of CA debonder or acetone releases the part without too much effort.

 

cheers, Graham

[Cuppa_joe]

11 minutes ago, GrahamCC said:

that is a very good idea, never tried it for non round parts however but I do similar for round bits.

 

I have one of these which I find invaluable to working on small bits:

 

http://redroosteruk.com/wire-twisting-hollow-hand-vice-steel-4-small-part-wires-craft-wooden-wood-handle/

 

This one is similar but a bit smaller: http://redroosteruk.com/hand-vice-steel-for-small-parts-under-2mm-diameter/

 

Something else I find handy is to use CA and glue the small bit to a piece of scrap plastic that is larger and easier to handle. I can then easily drill, file, shape, sand the small bit, the plastic becomes sacrificial. A drop or two of CA debonder or acetone releases the part without too much effort.

 

cheers, Graham

i like it!

didnt know about the debonder or that acetone works! so thank you too!

[ColonelKrypton]

I was working away just this morning at filing and sanding some small bits using the aforementioned idea using a pin vise to hold the part. Everything proceeded nicely and just as I was finishing my fettling I reached for a number 2 exacto knife ( not really an Exacto but rather an inexpensive Chinese version ) and had a light bulb moment.

 

One of these dead common exacto or similar hobby knives could also be seconded and used as a tiny vise for holding tiny bits while being worked on. Genuine Exacto handles typically have a single slot whereas other brands and copies are often cross slotted, at least the number 2 size Chinese version I have is.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

[Cuppa_joe]

On 07/01/2021 at 23:49, GrahamCC said:

I was working away just this morning at filing and sanding some small bits using the aforementioned idea using a pin vise to hold the part. Everything proceeded nicely and just as I was finishing my fettling I reached for a number 2 exacto knife ( not really an Exacto but rather an inexpensive Chinese version ) and had a light bulb moment.

 

One of these dead common exacto or similar hobby knives could also be seconded and used as a tiny vise for holding tiny bits while being worked on. Genuine Exacto handles typically have a single slot whereas other brands and copies are often cross slotted, at least the number 2 size Chinese version I have is.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

I like it! Thats exactly it. The key is to have 2 parallel surfaces clamp together, and you get the best clamping force, otherwise the (hinged) clamps (think tweezers) effectively squeeze out what ever they are holding if the don't come together flat.

The exacto type knife is great as you can hold larger thicker parts.