Hey guys, I have a sprue snipper tool now, however no matter how close to the part I cut, I get a lot of parts that just have horrible edges or are rough from the cut. I was curious to what else is out there and or what brand most of you might be using.

Xuron 410 Micro Shear. I love mine.

One of the many Xuron....you cant go wrong!

I concur. Xuron is the way to go.

I have one I got in Japan, which I love, but am not sure of the brand. My experience has been that it is often better to cut a bit farther away from the part than as close as possible to it. That avoids crimping the part, which even the best cutters can do if the plastic is soft.

I recommend not using a sprue cutter at all! I found that a micro saw blade works much better and leaves alot less cleanup..... I bought a package of them from Micro Mark, and made some simple handles for them...I snapped the blades in half along the long axis, so I get two saws for each blade. 5 minute epoxy each half onto a coffee stirring stick and you have a nice saw that you can get almost anywhere... sometimes you will still need your nippers, but I have found since using the saw that I rarely ever go to snips anymore.

Interesting idea. I'll have to give that a try. I have some microsaw blades I picked up in Japan, but I'm not sure they are fine enough for that kind of work.

In these photos you can see what I did and who the manufacturer is. My first idea was to melt it around a piece of sprue, which truthfully didnt work as well as I wanted because it bends. The second piece I epoxied to the coffee stirrer and it works VERY WELL. The blades snapped easily along that long axis, and it feels like each edge has a different tooth count so feel for the finer side for most work. I might try and snap another one down the middle and then in half again for a tighter space ( the blades are very flexible to a point)

The intriguingly named Japanese 'God hand' is rather good, if somewhat pricey. I only use it for cutting through the thin part of the sprue next to the part though. For chopping through the thick sections of sprue, my Xurons are fine.

Having said that, sometimes I draw a sharp scalpel blade across the join repeatedly until it separates - particularly for thin parts like the brake linkages on the MiniArt GAZ or for tilt frame parts.

Thanks for all of the help and good direction, in headed to my local hobby store today to take a look and see what they have. I have one now that's cheap and does a poor job, so no better time then the present to upgrade right?

Brian,
Thanks for sharing that. Definitely worth trying. Question: Any reason why a whole blade couldn't be epoxied straight to the stick without snapping it in half? Seems like that would simplify things a little bit and give you one tool that could be flipped over depending on the tooth count needed.

Theres really no reason why you CANT just glue it right to the stick, but at that point you might as well just use the tool handle that you can buy for it. The reason I snapped them in half was because I often found it difficult to get the blades in between the sprue gates of some of the smaller finer pieces. Snapping it in half made it alot easier and I like it for the smaller pieces because its absolutely less damaging than sprue snippers that pressure the plastic out of the way and can sometimes break things like grab handles rather than cutting them cleanly.

Makes sense.

Personally I eschew trendy hobby brands that may come up short in quality. Channellock, Klein Tools, Proto, etc all make very high quality miniature sidecutters and all have a lifetime guarantee.

I have a really decent Mac tools side cutters. Although I always seem to need it, so running back and forth from the tool box to the hobby bench is getting old.

I figured no better time then the present to get a dedicated sprue snippers.