The ancient Greeks and Romans didn't invent a steam engine because they lacked the ability to cast an iron object much bigger than a plow. So Hero's toy remained a toy. No such excuse for a potential printing press however. Wouldn't have met Gutenberg's standards, but there's no real reason they couldn't have put something together that would have beat slaving over papyrus or velum. Nobody saw the obvious I guess. Or maybe they were making ship models.

I just picked up a PE cutting device from Small Shop that redefines the word "simple" and makes me wonder why I didn't figure it the first time I saw PE. It's called a "PE Cut-Out Kit" and goes for about $10. It is several square pieces of jet black plexiglass that comes with an angled clear plastic holder to put over the part. The idea is to cover the part with the holder and use a #10 blade and gently rock pieces off the frets. (A #10 is a scalpel blade and I have them by the gross. Sharp they are, but I never thought they'd work well with PE. They do here. Other blades will do.) With the holder on, small PE pieces can't go flying. You can also make extremely fine cuts and eliminate burrs. Best of all, the black glass makes it very easy to see the PE, so if you have strong glasses on, you can work on the smallest parts. (If they're too small for this device, I doubt I'd get them on the model anyway.) There are several pieces so you can move cut pieces onto other pieces where they stand out very clearly. I also bought their smallest bending gadgets they call "mini-hold and fold." It's actually pretty effective, but I've got a $10 gadget from White Ensign that works almost as well. But no bending tool will do the job if the part has been damaged during removal or you can't find it. The stupid black plastic really helps in both categories. I'm sure wiser heads are using some home made scheme that works just as well, and the parts must cost Small Shop about a dime. But this is one of the best $10 I've spent on modelling. Pic below: check thesmallshop.com for details.
Eric

Eric, I'll second how good this is. I've been using mine for about 5 years and still have 1 unused acrylic piece...and I do a fair amount of PE work! Even though I received mine as a review sample I'd happily order another when the time comes. For the price it wouldn't be worth my while to pick up and cut the black acrylic squares. I prefer using a #10 curved blade too.

My old review

I'll have to go check out that "mini bug" as this is the first I've heard of that

I didn't note that the mini-bending tool is on top of the plexiglass. It's small but very heavy. I like it, but people with smarter hands seem to be able to fold PE almost any way.

I posted this on some other boards and got some of the reactions from your first review. True enough - you can get plexiglass bits for almost nothing at a plastic store. But it's the color that makes the system work. And the clear holding tool, as simple as it is, works like a charm. So, yea, you could make your own version, but I solved some big problems for $10 and consider it a steal.

Also surprised how many people talked about preferred blades and how to keep them sharp. I buy blades by bulk and when you get them down to about fifteen cents each, there's sure no reason not to change them regularly especially when cutting PE. I'd like to have a dollar for every error I've made due to a dull blade.
Eric