Subject:
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Re: Do you mind if I modify the topic? (Larry Puns Again)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.parts.mod
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Date:
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Wed, 4 Aug 2004 04:12:32 GMT
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In lugnet.parts.mod, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
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In lugnet.parts.mod, Bruce Schlickbernd wrote:
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Unless of course someone actually wants to comment on the part mods, in
which case never mind. ;-)
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Do you mind if I ask a question(1) about these fine mods rather than comment
directly?
I was wondering how you shaped these? Xacto® knife or equivalent? Dremel®
cutoff tool or equivalent? Something else? Would you be willing to share that
info? Do you have any advice for budding modders(2)?
++Lar
1 - Would you believe several questions, actually?
2 - Other “than try not to cut your finger off”, that is?
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It suddenly dawned on me that I couldn’t recall that I had ever seen a
lugnet.parts.mod forum so I ambled back here to see that it is in fact new.
X-Acto® hobby knife? No. Dremel® rotary tool? No. Victorinox® Swiss Army™
Knife! I always have it with me...oops, sigh, can’t take it with me on
airplanes any more...I almost always have it with me and I don’t want to go on
safari through the Art Bin™ box for the #11 classic triangular blade hidden
under the darkest tubes of Winsor & Newton™ watercolors and forest of
Prismacolor® pencils. I have actually been trained in banging things into shape
on an anvil (no Kobe jokes), true silver soldering with a torch, polishing with
grinders, sanders, and rouge, cutting with jeweler’s saws, hand-cranked drills,
annealing, tempering for color, but I just tend to hack away with a good old
Swiss Army knife - the thin blade, not the big one.
Advice: experiment on beat up, old, or really common parts if you do not have
familiarity with your tools. Don’t try and do a cut all at once: it’s better to
work a little away at a time and reduce the part in a controlled fashion.
Always consider where the blade will do if it should suddenly give way (I will
never forget my life sculpture professor demonstrating not to back up the clay
with your hand while pushing a sharp tool towards it - we all figured out at
once he wanted us to know why his off-hand twitched constantly). I suppose that
counts as “try not to cut your fingers off”. Sorry. :-)
Heavy or sharp pressure will cause the plastic to lighten from the compression,
so cut a little bit short of the mark and then flake away the rest with shallow
cuts from your favorite blade. Really thick parts might be better cut with a
Dremel - I use padded jaws (if you don’t pad the jaws you might mar the plastic)
to hold the part for that. Be cautious when drilling Lego parts - the plastic
is soft and will kind of “grab” the drill bit and the tool will want to twist
out of your hands.
Sanding, even with very fine paper, tends to “frost” the plastic and give it a
satin look.
Cackle maniacally and ululate things like, “It’s alive! It’s alive!”
occasionally.
Or did I just screw up everyone without DSL or T1 connections?
-->Bruce<--
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