Hello Everyone,
Just wanted to ask something I have struggled with a long time. How do you remove sprue attachment points from parts that are rounded, i.e. road wheels, fuselages etc.. without creating a 'flat" spot on the part.

Any help/tips are greatly appreciated!

Best,

Walter

If it's a delicate part - wheel rim, spinner cover, etc. I use a heated blade to cut through the sprue, less change of damaging the part.

The from there I use a new blade and carefully carve away as much excess as possible. Then from there I use a piece of sand paper cupped in my fingers to match the diameter of the circle. Then I slowly (key thing) sand down the nub.

I use sprue cutters
Cut the part + Sprue off, as the sprue acts as a handy erm...
handle to hold the part while cleaning up.

Then I cut the part from the sprue with the Sprue cutters close to, but not butting up to the part, & do the final cleanup with files & enerypaper, etc.

Don't try to cut the part from the sprue right up against the part. Leave a tiny bit of sprue left on the part, and then use a file/sandpaper/blade to carefully carve the bit of sprue away while making sure to keep the part itself rounded in that area.

With tires though, a flat spot isn't all that bad. Where tires rest against the ground, the wheel flattens out a bit where it contacts the road. If you get a flat spot while removing from the sprue, just make sure that part of the wheel is facing down touching the ground.

Cut close and then a Flexi-file to finish it up.