Do those fancy sprue cutters work as advertised (i.e. completely eliminating cleanup of the cut-out part)? I'm thinking of getting one, but if I need to clean up the part by sanding and cutting after anyway, it won't be much of an improvement over what I do now.

Blank:
I use the exact cutters you mention. They are the best thing at least for me for cutting parts off the sprue. I have use Xacto knives,wire cutters, and scissors but these cutters are great.
As for the clean up they will cut the piece off the sprue flush to the part. If you hold the blades to the cutter flush to the part and clean up is near nonexistance at least where the cut is made.
The big thing with these cutters is the back of the blades are ground flat. Otherwise I would say try a small pair of wire cutters or if you have a pair of wire cutters already you can grind the back of the baldes flat and whola' one pair of sprue cutters.
Hope this helps.
Paul

I own three pairs... one for styrene, one for resin and the other for Photo Etch and all are marked accordingly.

While they are great for removing parts from sprue, I still find that there is a very small 'nub' that needs to be filed or sanded off of the part. Cutters won't tear parts off the sprue like other methods will. They are not perfect.... very close, but not perfect. I do however highly recommend them. Nothing beats an X-Acto blade for removing PE.

My $0.02 worth anyway... Your mileage may vary...

I don't think I would be able to build anything without my Xuron sprue cutters. These things make removing parts from the sprue pain free. They sometimes do leave a small piece which needs to be filed or scraped, but I swear by mine.

Patrick

I use both sprue cutters and a tool called sprue nippers. The nippers are a model railroad tool but can be found in the Micro-Mark catalog. They just about eleminate clean-up and make it much easier to detach small and fragile parts from sprue.

The sprue nippers are really the best way I have found for removing the smallest parts from the sprue. Leaves very little to be cleaned up.

I succesfully use a pair of Revlon nail clippers my wife bought at WalMart
You should have at least one tool that fills this void, but you MAY get by on a regular household item for this purpose.
I have to figure a purely model specific device may be better but a little more pricey.

I picked up a pair of flush cut wire cutters from Fry's for $5. Unfortunately they weren't to even but I took them to work and used a belt sander to even them up. Works great now.
Eric

I have a pair and they are nice to have. You will still have to clean up a little. Better a tad, than a ton. In my opinion, go for it and get it.

~Chip :-)

Thanks for the replies guys!

What I do now is get those pliers with blades on the ends (not sure what they're called) and cut off a huge chunk of sprue. Then I cut close to the part with a hobby knife. The problem here is, a lot of the time (especially with rounded and/or delicate parts) I either cut off too little or way too much (squaring off wheels, for example), or the knife blade breaks! I was hoping a sprue cutter would take the hobby knife out of the loop here... I guess I'll try it...

Hey blank,
I don't know if you have access to a Radio Shack but they sell a set of flush cut nippers that work well and don't cost much. A little clean up is still required but it sounds like that's common. They work just fine on plastic and even soft brass. But anything harder and you'll put nicks in the blades. But at $5.00 (US), I have a set of plastic and a set for harder materials.
Hope this helps,
Craig

I bought the squadron sprue nippers..Great!, I highly recommend them..not expensive either..Funny they say MM on the side (model master?)

Humm, Since the beginning I've been using a electronic wire cutter, and X-acto knifes... Of course I try to cut as many sprue as I can, leaving almost no sprue to be sanded... But I'm onlu in the modelism hobby for about a year so... And nail cutters are also a very good tool too...

See yaaa

Try using this tool: Tamiya Craft Tool Set

I've just given it a review and be sure to read all about it. I bought mine at JMN for 690 Phil Peso or roughly $13 USD. Better than the Revell sprue cutter which costs 300 Phil Peso ($6 USD) which only comes with the sprue cutter. This one's a package

I got the Revell sprue cutters anyway, I already have all the other things in the Tamiya set.... They're OK, but sometimes either leave something you have to clean up, or a nasty gouge... Also a bit tough to fit into tight spaces... I'm thinking of getting some despruing tweezers from Micro-Mark (my mom's in the States now, and can bring it home for me). Are these any better than these plier-things?

I'm not sure if there is such thing as a sprue cutter that can eliminate cleanup. I use a pair of small clippers made by some company called Xuron Anyways, they look like little miniature hedge clippers. They work great for me, and they were cheep too.

I use the nippers and three sprue cutters. I don't always get a completely clean cut but they do help minimize the stub left behind making clean up a lot easier