What tool works best to remove PE from the sheet?

[Stalker6Recon]

5 hours ago, dnl42 said:

like Zap Formula 560 Canopy Glue or a PVA.

I have a sinking suspicion that I will never find that glue, since I live in the Philippines. The bug? I will have to look that one up, but sounds fun! You don't know how happy I am that soldering is not the only answer, I have never used one before, and something tells me that it's an acquired skill over time. I would probably do more harm than good, if I tried that on delicate PE.

 

3 hours ago, Ray_W said:

What size PE and application are you bending?

Thanks Ray, that response on the other thread was just that, my practical mind at work, but I believe the theory holds true anyway. In the Philippines, its difficult to find any tools, I actually made an effort to make my own PE bending tool, but I am concerned about its function being below that of the real deal benders, so I am apprehensive to use it. I found this last night during one of my insomnia search hours. This is from aliexpress. Its a combo of the PE bending tool and a table top vise. Its has UStar printed on the tool, but I am not sure if that is what you would get, aliexpress can be tricky at times, but its one of the only places that I can find tools and kits. The Philippines has a terrible lack of support for modeling.

 

Anyway, here it is.

She looks pretty, and the cost it far lower than the tools separately purchased. My friend recommended a table top vise, he can't live without his. I also bit the bullet a few months back, and bought the RP-MAG60 madnetic handle, another item he swore by for painting. I can already see how useful that will become.

 

So the PE bender and the table vise are a few of the tools I need to put in my stable, this looks like a way to kill two birds with one stone. Thanks for helping me out with wisdom, I will watch those videos tonight, right now, I need to head out for donuts. The wife is missing our rides on the motorcycle, so she created the excuse to hit the road today. Cheers,

 

Anthony

[Ray_W]

The bender looks like it will do the job. One thing that comes with "The Bug" that makes folding very easy is just a normal single edge razor blade. If this does not have one I suggest you get one (or 10 for that matter).  Makes sliding under the PE and lifting easy. 

 

 

Ray

[Stalker6Recon]

4 hours ago, Ray_W said:

Makes sliding under the PE and lifting easy

I have always planned to used clear tape. Put the part on the end of the tape, sticky side up. Place part in tool, where bend is required and lock it down. Then just lift the tape.

 

If that doesn't work, then I will have to buy single edge blades. They scare me though,   I would worry about damaging the paint job on pre-painted PE set, which make up quite a bit if BigED sets these days. Cheers,

 

Anthony

 

PS. Found the xuron cutters on micro-tools website, but they do not ship to the Philippines. Its a great price though, so I am considering my options.

 

 

[dnl42]

 

1 hour ago, Stalker6Recon said:

I have always planned to used clear tape. Put the part on the end of the tape, sticky side up. Place part in tool, where bend is required and lock it down. Then just lift the tape.

Tape won't work for that. You do indeed want something rigid to create sharp bends. A single-end razor blade is ideal because the blade edge is thin enough to get under the part when it's clamped down and rigid enough to give you a sharp bend.

 

1 hour ago, Stalker6Recon said:

PS. Found the xuron cutters on micro-tools website, but they do not ship to the Philippines. Its a great price though, so I am considering my options

A rounded blade (such as an X-acto #12 or Swann Morton #10) and a hard surface (glass, tile, or a steel rule) are probably readily available and an excellent solution for cutting PE. 

 

As for your tool+vise combo, I'd suggest just a purpose-designed PE bender as it's very convenient to be able to arbitrarily position the tool. To be sure, this is a personal preference item, so do think about how you would use the tool.

I have a large PE bending tool (left, below) that's quite useful for bending long parts, such as ships railing, but too bulky and awkward for virtually any other usage, especially considering I have the small and handy 'Bug' device (right, below).

[Stalker6Recon]

6 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

As for your tool+vise combo

I think I am going to pull the trigger and purchase this. I did find a large bending tool by trumpeter for around $20, a very good price. With as many BIG ED sets that I have, it is almost required tool before I begin my builds. As a rotorhead, the amount of PE and resin is off the charts!

 

Once I have the tools in my inventory, I will review the combo vise/bending tool on this thread. At minimum, the vise will certainly be perfect to paint figures,  and I have plenty of those, thanks to my cash of Kitty Hawk kits filled with figures.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

[Stalker6Recon]

On 6/14/2021 at 12:57 PM, Ray_W said:

Paul Budzik

 

On 6/14/2021 at 12:57 PM, Ray_W said:

Plasmo's video

Very interesting, I finally found a bit of time to watch the videos, amazing how they use completely different techniques, but end up with the same results. Plasmo soldering appears better suited for someone like me, its fast and easy. I finally understand how important flux is to soldering, so I will have to go out and pick up new supplies. My soldering iron is a cheapo, plug in and hope not to burn the house down chinese crap, I think an upgrade might be warranted.

 

In the first video, the technique closely matched the way I would sweat coppers pipes for plumbing. I would heat the pipe on the front side, and hold the solder to the back side. Once the pipe was sufficiently hot, the solder would instantly liquefy, flowing around the joint and sealing it up. Soldering is the same, just a much smaller scale. This technique of heating the PE to a point that the solder begins to run, seems slow and prone to damage if not careful. Obviously it isn't safe on pre-painted PE.

 

The plasmo method seems the best to avoid thermal damage to the PE,  since the only metal thats heated is the solder itself. If the flux is good, it should fill the gap quickly and relatively cleanly, leaving just a bit of sanding to finish the job. I think that might even be safe on painted PE. I will put that theory into practice, once I get the right gear anyway.

 

Thanks very much Ray, that was extremely helpful. I believe that soldering is the best way to handle large joints, it seems to be a very strong method to keep the parts in place. Cheers,

 

Anthony

[Stalker6Recon]

On 6/15/2021 at 12:58 AM, Ray_W said:

The bender looks like it will do the job. One thing that comes with "The Bug" that makes folding very easy is just a normal single edge razor blade. If this does not have one I suggest you get one (or 10 for that matter).  Makes sliding under the PE and lifting easy. 

 

 

Ray

Ray, I bit the bullet and bought the UStar 90633 combo vise/fold from lazada. $18 was a steal, since both items bought separately costs nearly $60 in most online stores. I was nervous about what would actually show up, since everything comes from china and they can't answer simple questions from buyers. Anyway, it just arrived two days ago and she is gorgeous, but smaller than I expected. But it appears to be on par with many other brands. I really bought it for the vise, since I already have a DSPIAE hold'n'fold, but it will be nice to have the fold right in front of me if I need to make a quick bend and don't feel like pulling out yet another tool. I don't have a workbench like most guys do, so I have to clean up everything after I finish working for the day, which really sucks.

 

Anyway, here she is, came with the razor blade as well. Nice packaging helped keep it safe during the travels. Can't wait to see what she can do.

 

 

 

[JPuente54]

@Stalker6Recon Micro-Mark has the Xuron cutting shears/pliers. You can email them to see if they can ship the to you. https://www.micromark.com is their website address. Tamiya and Trumpeter also have similar sprue cutting shears;  contact their suppliers to see if they can send theirs to you. HTH

Joe

[Stalker6Recon]

2 hours ago, JPuente54 said:

Micro-Mark has the Xuron cutting shears/pliers. You can email them to see if they can ship the to you. https://www.micromark.com

Thanks a lot, I will check it out. I also emailed the company direct and they said that because of you know what, they can't ship to the Philippines at this time. Maybe micromark will have a different story, we shall see.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony 

 

 

 

[Procopius]

I have the Xuron shears and found them totally useless. For me, putting the PE fret on a piece of masking tape, laying it flat on a cutting mat, and using a fresh scalpel blade has worked well.

[JPuente54]

@Procopius which model(s) of the xuron do you have? I have the 410T and the 440 shears. The 410T is used to cut parts from the plastic sprue and does a fine job with that. I bought the 440 for photo-etch as that was its description in the catalog. I am not as certain about that and have a new Xuron scissors on order from Micro-Mark that is labeled as "Professional ET Photo-Etch Scissor". Your method looks good as well; if it is working; that is a good thing.

Joe

[Procopius]

9 hours ago, JPuente54 said:

@Procopius which model(s) of the xuron do you have? I have the 410T and the 440 shears. The 410T is used to cut parts from the plastic sprue and does a fine job with that. I bought the 440 for photo-etch as that was its description in the catalog. I am not as certain about that and have a new Xuron scissors on order from Micro-Mark that is labeled as "Professional ET Photo-Etch Scissor". Your method looks good as well; if it is working; that is a good thing.

Joe

I have this one: https://xuron.com/index.php/main/consumer_products/4/80

 

Very unimpressed with it.

[Ray_W]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I have this one: https://xuron.com/index.php/main/consumer_products/4/80

Same as described earlier in the thread - the 9180ET - although when I bought mine, a long time ago, they were just labelled 9180 and these did not have the serrated edge.

 

As with most things modelling we have techniques that work for us. I really like mine. 85% of my PE cutting is with these (1/48 aircraft, 1/35 figures and vehicles).

 

One thing I have noticed. If you're left handed (I'm not) then they may not work as well for you.  For a right handed person you can clearly see the cutting edge. It does not matter which way around you have the cutters that edge is visible. It allows some very accurate cuts or trimming. Even to remove a very small amount of a residual PE nub and eliminate the need for filing.

 

 

Put this in your left hand and the top blade hides the edge. I think a little awkward.

 

 

Ray

[Space Ranger]

Here’s a handy tool to have:

 

https://www.ipmsusa.org/reviews2/misc/products/small-shop_pe-cutter/small-shop_pe-cutter.htm

[Stalker6Recon]

1 hour ago, Ray_W said:

One thing I have noticed. If you're left handed (I'm not) then they may not work as well for you.  For a right handed person you can clearly see the cutting edge. It does not matter which way around you have the cutters that edge is visible. It allows some very accurate cuts or trimming. Even to remove a very small amount of a residual PE nub and eliminate the need for filing.

Great observation!

 

Thanks again to everyone for their feedback, as a right hander, I think I will ultimately buy the Xuron sheers, when I can get the shipping sorted out. There seems to be an over all consensus that these are indeed the best. If it help make life easier and doesn't break the bank, then it's a tool for me.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

[Procopius]

2 hours ago, Ray_W said:

 

 

One thing I have noticed. If you're left handed (I'm not) then they may not work as well for you.  For a right handed person you can clearly see the cutting edge. It does not matter which way around you have the cutters that edge is visible. It allows some very accurate cuts or trimming. Even to remove a very small amount of a residual PE nub and eliminate the need for filing.

 

I am indeed left-handed!

[JPuente54]

@Procopius the scissors you highlighted are the ones I have on order. @Ray_W's post is something that didn't occur to me; i am right-handed; so, the point he shows wouldn't have been as obvious. I am happy that he sowed this; it will help you and me.

[Stalker6Recon]

On 8/6/2021 at 2:13 PM, Space Ranger said:

Here’s a handy tool to have:

 

https://www.ipmsusa.org/reviews2/misc/products/small-shop_pe-cutter/small-shop_pe-cutter.htm

Just took a look at that set, pretty clever! One thing though, the price is now $12.95 for the standard size, while the large size is sold out. Apparently the link that gives members a discount, no longer works, at least for me anyway.

 

Thanks for the tip, I will buy one if I can find one here in he Philippines. Cheers,

 

Anthony

[lesthegringo]

On 6/13/2021 at 12:40 AM, dnl42 said:

A round-edge blade on glass or tile. The round-edge can be rolled over the part to be cut. The glass or tile prevents deformation of the part. Be sure to hold the to-be-cut part firmly to avoid a hyperspace jump. A 4-cut Swiss-pattern needle file run along (not across) the edge cleans it up.

 

Mr Metal Primer readies the part for painting.

 

HTH

-- 

dnl

Yes, this is my method too, rolling the curved blade over a glass sheet is the best way I've found to reduce dstortion, plus it's less likely to result in the part pinging off to distant lands.

 

As for the primer, there are some photo-etch frets that use a type of stainless steel, and the metal primer does nothing. I suggest testing on a corner of the fret first to make sure you don't waste time and expensive primer, if it scratches off with your nail after drying it's not going to help.

 

Cheers

 

Les