Specialized tools you've aquired/discovered/created?

[Ronnyhotdog]

I was just searching for a little plastic type spatula with a very thin edge that could scrape up the edges of decals without damaging bodywork and cannot find anything suitable, although surely it must exist somewhere under another name. So, I was thinking over the years you must have found tools or implements that serve a purpose that is unique or specialized and added it to your collection and at times it has been a life saver. I guess I'm talking about re-appropriated tools or implements. Like hairdryers used as heat guns and matchsticks as hole place holders

[Ann3x]

You need the plastic spatula that comes with shoe goo. 

As for created tool, I guess I've hacked together some crazy stuff at times, mostly when I have something stripped / sheared that I need to save. 

[TurnipJF]

For decal removal few tools beat a guitar plectrum. Mere pennies from most music shops or online.

[WillyChang]

Plecckies good for opening plastic gizmo cases too, although these days the phone repair crowd have made stronger versions that can bear more leverage.

To lift stickers off glass, razorblade is sharpest edge.

If you must pick sticker edges off paintwork, a stampsized sheet of brass 0.001" shim is handy. (Brass shim commonly used by modeltrain track builders)

 

Best omnipurpose tool? Disposable chopsticks!

Every toolbox keep a few pairs. Bamboo vs soft wood, have both.

Sharpen tip with rotary pencil sharpener, they become even more useful.

[speedy_w_beans]

A few things...

• Use old tires/wheels to raise models so the tires aren't touching the shelf.  This means the tires don't develop flat spots.
• Use old truck or buggy wheels/tires to keep dampers upright; this works for building onroad (shorter) dampers.  After filling them with oil, cycling the piston a few times, and filling with more oil, I just drop the damper shaft through the middle hole of the wheel and leave the dampers alone for 15-20 minutes.  Almost all the air bubbles come to the top of the oil and pop.  Cheaper than a dedicated damper stand.
• Use long (0.5 m / 18 inch) paint stirrers or wood shims with duct tape to hold Lexan bodies while painting them.  I use the duct tape to attach the end of the shim or paint stirrer to the outside of the windshield of the body (where there is a paint mask on the inside), and then I can rotate the body in any orientation while spraying it.  On a nice spring or summer day with no wind, I'll stand outside and spray the body away from the house, the cars, etc.  Once a coat of paint is in place, the stirrer makes it easy to wave the body around and get some airflow inside to promote faster drying.  It also helps fight paint runs if one spot has too thick a coat if you wave the body around in all sorts of different orientations -- side to side, up and down, etc.  If I need to let the body dry for a few more minutes, then the shim or paint stirrer is handy because I can trap it in the edge of a garbage can or the jaws of a bench vise and just walk away for awhile.  The reason for attaching the stick to a window is because the duct tape (or any tape for that matter) can act like a thermal insulator and affect the rate of paint curing.  Metallic and pearl paints look noticeably different wherever that layer of tape or your hot fingers were touching.  So keeping the stick and tape in contact with an area that is not being painted, and keeping your hands off the shell, will give the most uniform paint job while providing the opportunity to accelerate curing for each coat.
• I have a small block of wood near my work space, a scrap of 2x4 pine lumber that is a few inches long, which gets used for several things.  It makes an ok surface for supporting a plastic part while removing flash with a knife.  It also helps with pressing bearings into uprights, or adjusters onto ball connectors, if they are a tight fit without destroying my thumb.  Sometimes it becomes a support for a plastic part when I'm drilling through it, and the block becomes the sacrificial support as the drill goes into it a little.  There have been a few times where I've marveled at how useful just a little block of wood is in general.
• A hook-shaped dental pick is handy for coaxing a bearing out of a hole sometimes.
• Rubber bands can be helpful when gluing tires to wheels.  Just install one or two wide rubber bands around the circumference of the tire, or a few narrow rubber bands, to make the tire bead press into the wheel a little more effectively.  Some of the tire companies sell their own "gluing bands", but basic office supply rubber bands work the same way.
• Duct tape is handy for balancing some monster truck tires; this reduces vibration at higher speeds.  On a CW-01 / Lunch Box, for example, the tires always seem to have a heavy spot.  This is most obvious on the front tires/wheels as they naturally oscillate around the heavy spot.  Mark the heavy spot, remove the tire from the wheel, and lay three 4" strips of duct tape on top of each other inside the tire.  Reinstall the tire on the front wheel and check the balance by spinning it - it should be much better.

 

[Ronnyhotdog]

On 1/10/2018 at 1:48 AM, WillyChang said:

 

Best omnipurpose tool? Disposable chopsticks!

Every toolbox keep a few pairs. Bamboo vs soft wood, have both.

Sharpen tip with rotary pencil sharpener, they become even more useful.

Why what do you use them for?

[iluvmud]

23 minutes ago, Ronnyhotdog said:

Why what do you use them for?

Lunch......

 

i had had to look up what you were saying for guitar pick

[Juggular]

I take out a few bits.  And then stick damper shafts in the holes.  So they can stand upright while air bubbles go out of oil.  Works like the wheels Speedy was talking about.  The cylinder thing on the left can take all 4 dampers.