(I have to vent)

I gotta come up with an entrapment system..........for evil PE escaping my clutches.......... it doesn't happen a lot but now and again a piece of PE I'm cutting off or touching up goes flying off into the abyss.............. never to be found again.

The worst one I hate is accidentially knocking of a piece of PE on a painted or finished model that evapourates into thin air........... and of course there's no spare part.............. and naturally the piece it replaces off the kit sprues kit was reduced to fine ashes by the ever so efficient dremel tool.

The stuff now-a-days is so small and one slip ......................... and the sh*t is gone forever. Some of it you can *fudge* over with a tarp or some piece of equipment.............. but still. PE is great and yet inherently evil. One day I swear I'm going to find the PE hide-out under my work station and take them all prisoner ............... put them in the iron pot and melt them all down for scrap !!!


(vent over)

Know the feeling. I think the pieces go where socks go.

Tony

Tom, I certainly hope you feel better after that! And I do feel your pain and not only with PE but any fiddly little bit I'm supposed to use. I've read the suggestions about putting the sprue in a plastic bag before cutting, but I never do and invariably I'll launch something across the room never to be found again. And they say hobbies are supposed to be relaxing!

Tom, I know your pain, I once had a part bounce off the floor and glue itself to the underside of my chair. A trick my wife taught me is to rubber band a piece of her old nylons across the hose nozzle of our vacuum cleaner. After you vacuum the floor around your work area, carefully remove the nylon and you just might find your missing part among the debris. Al

Al, That is a great idea. Of course, I suspect you need to start with a relatively clean floor to begin with.

Tony

if you feel like you might launch something (a small part) lay down a strip of double stick tape on your workbench. once on, hit the tape with your fingers a bit to remove some of the tackyness on the "up" side, then position your fret on the tape with the part over the tape, cut, and remove the part from the tape...

simple, effective, and much better than medication!

Wonder when they will come out with the no attachment system like Mig is starting to use on his.

Flying away when cutting them? Look Here ! Trouble picking them up? Toothpick and spit! Falling off after they're attached? GatorGlue!! Really, really want them to stay put? A little cyanoacrylate after the GatorGlue.



That sounds like fun, too! Pure satisfaction

I swear,,,,this has to be one of the more funny, hilarious posts I have read in awhile. Dont get me wrong, I feel the pain,,yet it was GREAT RANT !!!

Surrorund your work area with strong magnets.....

One of those things I swear I'm going to buy every time I drop something, but forget about when I find the item is a jeweler's apron. It's essentially a work apron that ties around your neck and then the bottom of it attaches across the front of your work bench. Anything you drop gets caught by the droop.

See one here: http://www.micromark.com/PARTS-CATCHING-APRON,8108.html

Or course proper use assumes one has the discipline to remember to detach it before standing up or pushing back away from the table!

For cutting PE I picked up this trick from elsewhere on the forum here. As Cary mentioned earlier, I put my ceramic cutting tile in a large size ziplock baggie. I position it as far in toward the closed end as I can. I reach into the bag with my hand and Exacto knife and do the cutting inside the bag. It's easy to position and hold the PE fret on the tile from outside the bag with my other hand. For real tiny pieces I have actually stuck the whole fret to a piece of masking tape before cutting the pieces free. First I go through a process of sticking and peeling off the tape several times to reduce the adhesion depending on how sticky the tape is. I often leave the pieces stuck to the tape until I am ready for them. Usually, peeling away the large fret is little problem leaving only the pieces you cut off.

Hello Tony, A clean floor does make the job easier, a dirty floor just gives you a little bit more 'stuff' to sort through to find the AWOL part . By the way, it also works well on carpets. Al

Nothing like smokin' around on the dirty cement floor using your hands like a mop................ and finding absolutely nothing .............. well, except maybe a piece of cheese from that sandwich or that big juicy boogie ya flipped under the work bench cause you had no kleanex to wip with from a few days ago. The underside of the workstation............. a treasure chest of excitment whence you arrive...............

Oh, and catch this.......... my *recycled* work bench table top is white in color ........ which sounds so far pretty good, until you add in the black and gray spackle finish to it.................. a combo that can hide things right infront of your face. Nothing like recycling old counter-tops though !!


But seriously, there's some good ideas above. May try and put some of that to use.

Yep, all the above things James mentioned (well, except the spit part ).

By seriously, the Small Shop PE system is absolutely great! You get a couple of (in the case of the bigger size) nice acrylic sheets and holders so you can cut PE wit no problems. As the picture shows, just old the acrylic 'holder' on top of the PE you want to cut and you'll have the piece in its place withiut it flying off. The other advantage to this is that the sheets are black and any PE piece shows really well so you always know where there are. I've had mine for a year or so now and could not do without it.

Rob

Or to add to the hell of PE that one little part that just will not glue no matter how much cleaning ,sanding,alcohol washing it will not stick to where it is supposed to go, but to the knife tip, the tweezers your thumbnail this is the part I like the best.
One thing about PE will make you get patience if not forget it.
And use only kit parts.
Then some Aber parts that must of been made by the devil himself.
Just to get you to use some choice words in it's use.

well don't hold back. Tell us how you REALLY feel!!!

Just a bit of help. Here are a couple of tips on the subject. Rough up the back sides with sand paper. Then put the fret back in the bag. They come in clear zip loc or taped envelopes. Cut them from the fret while their still in the bag. Cut a corner notch out of the bag and let it slide out on a white sheet. Use a toothpick with tape wrapped around the tip - sticky side out to handle parts. Apply glue (semi thick gel) to the surface and place piece down. When dry pull toothpick away by rolling the tip off the attached PE.