I *SO* want this, but the price ....

[cteno4]

Jeff, there's not really a crafts store nearby, and the 1 or 2 I know of all recommend the universal glue, which I really don't want to use. I'll go to the hardware store soon-ish and just grab a new bottle of the standard white wood glue.

 

I'll have to check the windows and see if they fog over, it seemed a reasonable enough idea to use it. I've never really seen it fog over any other plastic over time with the exception of when you spill superglue on much of the part in the first place :)

 

plain old white glue is usually pretty good as well.

 

actually the last time i saw this was on the first sankei kit i built! i had forgotten about clear acetate and cyanoacrylate reacting like that but it makes sense similar polymers! i finally tore mine out and replaced.

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Inobu, have you ever built a Sankei kit? Because more often than not, the corners shouldn't actually line up at all. It's not uncommon for the top sheet to have like a 0.2mm margin all around, meaning it needs to be centred on top of the bottom sheet. No jig, other than one custom made for exactly that purpose, is going to be any use there.

 

I'm already VERY careful glueing the parts, and many parts are actually pretty nearly perfect, but especially for the larger bits I'd prefer the slightest little bit of play. I'm not worried about smudges considering I really don't need to move the parts more than 0.1mm at the most.

 

 

Jeff, I'm really not that good with all the different glues, which is weird considering how many kits I built made of either metal, wood, plastic, paper or a combination of those materials :) I know the hobby shop I visit from time to time in Germany (they have trains as well) has a LOT of different glues. They have an entire display that's probably about 4 meters wide and 1.5 meter tall just filled with various types of glue. I normally go right past it though ;)

[inobu]

ok lol

[Martijn Meerts]

Don't get me wrong, I wish a jig of sorts would work, it'd make it easier, or at least somewhat quicker, to get the kits done, but the Sankei kits just have so many sheets and detail bits and pieces, and they don't seem to be reusing much (especially not for the unique on-off kits like the Ghibli ones)

[cteno4]

Yes as i have looked at my larger sankei kits i do see they are not quite as easy fit as some of the smaller ones i started with. They do seem to keep doing the rabit joints on the corners with the multiple layer walls being slightly different sizes from each other. this is one subtly that these kits require attention on to get good joints. also the thing that really take writing the part numbers of pieces and prefittng to make sure you have the right part in the right place in the right orientation! the difference in some wall sections on the first one i did (the little police station) was litterally about a mm and hard to tell from the instructions. I think thats their one drawback is the instructions are a bit weak. I can see drafting out these instructions is not simple or cheap though.

 

it would be nice if parts could get labeled and maybe some orientation code, but that would be a big extra production step though. I just mark all the bits before popping all the parts out then on pre assembly i try and make little marks for what should align with what in pencil on the inside.

 

i use little hair clips to hold parts together when sandwiching parts. on these i use the more dilute white glue so there is a bit of wiggle room to slide the parts to the correct orientations and then clip to dry. clips are like a dozen for a dollar at the dollar store. very handy little suckers. you can bend the tines how you need them to put even pressure for what ever thickness you want. usually as is the first half inch of the tines gives very good, flat pressure. trying to press the walls under a book can be a problem as things can slide on you and you dont know it till its dry. with the clips you can watch things as you clamp them and it helps to start at one end to work to the other end.

 

also since they usually stagger the wall pieces to make rabbet joints for the corners. i have a bunch of little strips cut up of the waste material to make sure each side has the proper clearance in the right places.

 

on the corners here is the little corner clamp i made up. this one is really crude but works well. I want to modify it using some plastic !" L stock and then cut out an inch of the corner next to the clips so you can get at the back of the joint for applying glue.

 

other little things are making sure walls are really flat before glueing. they usually have some little bows in them. i have a piece of very flat smooth wood i put them on to see where any bows are and then just tweak them out gently.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

forgot to mention, great little brushes for applying white glue on larger areas are the cheap little nail brushes you can get on ebay.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-PCS-UV-Gel-Acrylic-Nail-Tips-Nail-Art-Builder-Brush-Pen-Drawing-/290798489162?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b4f0ce4a

 

or for corners and details

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3pcs-Acrylic-French-Nail-Art-liner-Painting-Drawing-Pen-Brush-Tools-/221135762340?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337cb7f3a4

 

just keep them soaking in a little nail bottle and wipe on a rag between applications so the glue doesn't gum up on on the brush

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Nail-Art-Brushes-UV-Pen-Holder-Cleanser-Cup-Bottle-/180776485834?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a171e43ca

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I wish there was a dollar store (or euro store) over here that had all that useful stuff :)

 

Right now, the cheaper stores don't have these kinda things, and the stores that do have them, the clamps would likely be 2 euro a piece or something.

 

Need to check if I can order some of these things from the US, and toss in some other useful little things while I'm at it.

[cteno4]

I had to search for these in stores, finally one of our dollar stores had them. places with cheap women's hair stuff would probably have them as well.

 

i find them very very useful to have a bunch. at 10 cents each if i need something special to hold something i can just bend one all up and if it ruins it no huge loss! they have that just enough clamping w/o marring thats great and hard to find in all the other clamps i have laying around. plus the fact that you can modify them!

 

ebay is your friend! little bit more but not much with shipping (sometimes free).

 

this kind has a pointy little tip that gives good flat spot pressure out in the end portion

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/U-pick-45mm-Silver-Metal-Alligator-Prong-Hair-Clip-Craft-Wedding-Party-F108-/320902121440?pt=US_Hair_Accessories&var=510063470153&hash=item4ab741c7e0

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-pcs-New-Silver-Flat-Metal-Single-Prong-Alligator-Hair-Clips-for-Bows-/271084861656?pt=US_Hair_Accessories&hash=item3f1deab8d8

 

these guys are nice for larger flatter stuff.

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-DOUBLE-PRONG-ALLIGATOR-ALIGATOR-CLIPS-BABY-HAIR-BOWS-METAL-HAIR-CLIPS-/300612548722?pt=US_Baby_Accessories&hash=item45fde77872

 

and then a third kind that are flatter and crimps in them to keep the tines more rigid (but you cant bend these well due to the crimps)

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Double-Prong-Alligator-Clips-for-Hair-Bow-1-9x0-39-FASHION-/150850632564?pt=US_Girls_Accessories&hash=item231f65fb74

 

you dont want the kind with any teeth as that could potentially mar things. i was thinking about gluing some 400 grit sand paper onto some to see if that would help on anything that is a bit odd shaped from moving have not really had the need yet to experiment.

 

I even have some smaller all plastic ones that are great to hold small parts for painting, drying, spraying, etc. very gentle and plastic is very soft.

 

these are some of the best tools i have in the hobby bench!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Jeff, thanks :)

 

I'm going to have to put in some orders soon-ish 

[inobu]

irony..........

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jig_(tool)

In metalworking and woodworking, a jig is a type of tool used to control the location and/or motion of another tool. A jig's primary purpose is to provide repeatability, accuracy, and interchangeability in the manufacturing of products.

 

Inobu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A common scenario for me....lol

[cteno4]

jigs are probably the most fun things to build. my shop is full of them, most i cant bare to toss even though i probably wont do that thing again! others i need to remember to write on them what they are so i can remember a year later what it is and not toss it!

 

then you can always dance a jig when the jig works... i wonder where the root of it for tool use came, perhaps to stop parts from moving when being machines and not jigging around...

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

a jig is a type of tool used to control the location and/or motion of another tool.

 

So according to the definition, a jig is now what I'm looking for, because I don't need a tool to hold another tool in place =)

 

 

Either way, those clamps could be useful for a lot of other things, especially since you can bend them. I have 2 halves of a Nippon Maru hull screaming to be glued together, and some good, custom-shaped clamps would make that much easier :)

[cteno4]

these little hair clips dont give a lot of force, just enough for cardstock and some plastic, but usually plastic stuff needs a bit more force and i move to the cross clamping tweezers or other type clamps.

 

but ive found a lot of little uses for these suckers in all sorts of ways and bending them up is really a the big plus!

 

well you could be the tool that is being used on the piece being held by the jig tool... sorry to call you a tool...

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

The problem with the hull pieces is that there isn't a lot of room for clamps. Basically, you need to glue the keel, but it's so small that none of the standard plastic kit clamps actually works. If I use enough of these clips, bent correctly, I should be able to clamp the keel just fine.

 

 

Oh, and I can be a pretty decent tool at times =)

[KenS]

a jig is a type of tool used to control the location and/or motion of another tool.

So according to the definition, a jig is no[t] what I'm looking for, because I don't need a tool to hold another tool in place =)

 

I think wikipedia is being overly strict.  I've heard "jig" used for something to hold work in place, or parts in place during construction (example: a jig for building model bridge trestles), and Webster's gives the defintion as:

 

b : a device used to maintain mechanically the correct positional relationship between a piece of work and the tool or between parts of work during assembly

 

My "Shorter Oxford" dictionary (which isn't short at all...) agrees with wikipedia however.  That doesn't make Webster's wrong, as it could be either an Americanism or new usage that hasn't yet made it into other dictionaries. The nice thing about English is that there's isn't any one true definition. Altering it as we go isn't just allowed, it's normal. And the alternative, "fixture", is too awkward to survive outside specialist jargon.

 

I make jigs all the time, and I'm not about to start calling them "fixtures" just because they don't guide tools. 

 

Back on the not-quite-original topic, those hairclips are cool tools.  I need to go find some of those.

[inobu]

People are so funny.....

 

You can get quality work out of using jigs.

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, just ordered 100 of the exrell ones (with the pointy tip), and 100 of the double prong ones. Should be enough for a while =)

[cteno4]

Woa! you went at it! you can always pretty up your hair with them as well!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, total cost of all clips, including shipping, was about 20 dollars, so it's not like they're expensive.. And now I have a bunch to try and bend into various shapes for various kits :)

[Martijn Meerts]

Just paid for this kit, it'll be interesting to see the insane amount of cardstock once the package arrives :)

[Mr Frosty]

Do you have any more details/link for that assembly jig?

 

I have been using this glue with some success. It is very thin which gives it some "working time". It also slightly absorbs into paper making the join incredibly strong.

https://www.eileensemporium.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=eny_fly_default.tpl&category_id=370&product_id=6639&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=9

 

 

I have bought some coloured artists pencils for dressing white edges. I have the Derwent Graphitint ones, as these are nice earthy colours.

http://www.pencils.co.uk/streamblob.ashx?blob=%2ffiles%2fproductchart%2fGraphitint+Pencils+Chart__ns2odwzk.pdf

[cteno4]

Sorry I remember taking some Picts of my corner jig but I guess I didn't post them. I'll find them tomorrow.

 

Jeff