What are your home made or ad-hoc modeling tools?

[Yonez 180]

I had to extract some AA batteries from an old Acoms transmitter and they were impossible to pull out, so I needed a soft tool to lever them out. I found this:

It's a feeding spoon for babies. Luckily my son is too old for that particular one now.

I've found that it's ideal for any work that requires a soft touch, such as applying decals, gentle levering, pushing wires into gaps etc.

It is especially good for decals as it has lots of curved surfaces that can be used on different curves on the body and the tip of the spoon is great for pushing the decals into grooves on the body.

I think I will steal the rest of the set

This got me thinking: What else have TC Members re-purposed for the hobby?

[Sayer 742]

Curved nail scissors for cutting out lexan wheel arches and nail clippers for removing flash from sprues

[mr crispy 2293]

I have an old wooden paint brush handle that's tapered just right so it makes a wonderful bearing/bushing removal tool 😉

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I have a small block of wood (2x4x6 inches) that has served me in several ways.

- It sometimes acts as a cutting board when I want to trim flash off parts with a knife.

- It can be a solid base for pressing ball cups onto ball connectors on some parts (saves my thumb).

- It makes a good temporary pit stand. I can leave a work-in-progress on it with the tires off the table.

- It's a sacrificial solid base when drilling holes through plastic with a cordless screwdriver.

I also have a copper pipe cutter that I use for trimming body posts; I inherited it from my grandfather. Just twirl it around the post (or spin the post in the cutter) while slowly screwing in the cutter, and I get nice clean body posts as a result.

[Mad Ax 9329]

Hmm, might have to check my tool set when I get home to see if there's anything I've forgotten about. I was forever bodging automotive tools together when I was working on old cars and the specific tool needed to remove a specific part was an expensive special order part and I'd probably only need it once. Making tools out of scrap metal is a trick I learned from my old man

These days I tend to pick up whatever is lying to hand when I need something, a few minutes later I'll use it for something else. Especially bits of styrene.

I keep meaning to cut a curved section out of an ellipse and use it as a press for shaping styrene. I have a crazy idea that a suitably thick strip of styrene sheet, pressed between a wooden curve and baked in the oven for half an hour, might make a good strong leaf spring, at least for light (tarmac) running if not for full-on crawling. I might have to glue two strips together to get enough strength in it. But until I have time to try it, I don't know it if will work.