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Small parts and the Twilight Zone


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I am curious if anyone else spends more time on their knees looking for small parts and photo etch that goes flying into the Twilight Zone than actually building a kit?  I just spent the better part of 30 minutes looking for a piece of plastic that fell straight down on the floor and disappeared.  It managed to go around a corner of my desk and fall between a box and the wall, totally defying gravity and the laws of physics.   On the bright side I found the piece of photo etch I lost yesterday and gave up looking  for and fabricated a replacement part.  I am looking for solutions.

 

Does anyone have a way of securing small parts while they need to be sanded, scraped or painted, etc?  I try holding them with tweezers and if the part does not have perfectly flat surface to hold on to it will squeeze it with enough power to launch a saturn 5.   If I try holding it with my fingers then I can't really work on it because my fingers cover most of the working area of the part or my fat fingers can't hold on to it as it wiggles free and dives for the floor.  

 

The other part of the problem is once it does launch into outer space how can I confine the recovery zone to an easily searchable area?

 

Your ideas are welcome.  Please reply before the committal hearing is scheduled!  🤣

 

Geoff M

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Lately I have been cleaning up my tiny parts (that didn't sound good???) while on the sprue! Of course the area where the sprue is attached can't be done but usually it can be attacked once the part is glued in place? I have done a lot of 72nd armour in the past few months and these manufacturers have found ways to mold the smallest pieces!!!

What I would like to see made is tweezers with a fine (say 1200 grit) texture or even sand paper at the end area of the arms. I have a pair of tweezers that have a lovely chrome like smooth finish on the inside of the arms and that is what drove me to working parts on the sprue. You probably know the metallic 'thwack' that would announce the launch of a plastic part into a low earth orbit!! I mean smooth plastic on shiny polished metal - what could go wrong????????????????????

Lately if I don't hear a part launched land somewhere I don't even bother to look just start making a new part from spare plastic!!

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I feel your pain; it happens all the time; here are some tips that worked for me.

 

Put a piece of masking tape on small parts before cutting or sand them; this way, they fly less from tweezers and find them easier. Also, don't use tweezers to position small parts; use a toothpick with a drop of dried masking fluid in the tip instead.

 

For plastic parts, I drill a hole where the part will be attached and insert and glue the tip of the leftovers of stretched sprue for easier handling.

 

Keep my desk and the area underneath and around as clean as possible and a hand lantern ready; if I can't find the part at first glance, then I search in sectors (tiles on the floor in my case), one by one.

 

One tip for finding pieces on surfaces without solid colors, put a hand lantern close and parallel to the floor or the surface you are searching and move it side to side and you can see the projected shadow of the pieces.

 

Here is a picture of the tiles on my floor; I like challenges.

 

MaFEWDA.jpg?2

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Will be following this to see what some good solutions might be; I don't have the ultimate solution.

But, yeah, something is making getting down on the floor less easy than it was 30 years ago and I don't know why.

Although, it is a way to interact with the cats when they arrive to see what I'm up to down there.

10 minutes ago, cruiz said:

Here is a picture of the tiles on my floor; I like challenges.

😮

Oh my ... the only worse thing I can imagine is if the floor was foot deep sand ...

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