A daily updated blog typed by someone with painty hands, oil under his fingernails and the smell of solder in his nostrils who likes making all sort of models and miniatures. And fixing things.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
You can't have too many clamps
Most modelmakers own a few clamps. Those cheapo plastic ones sold in pound stores and every cheap tool stall at an exhibition are popular. More traditional types will prefer the Bulldog clip, preferably in a size that once gripped memos on a civil servants desk and painted black, trendier types opting for smaller colourful versions.
Me, I've got the lot and sometimes I need them all.
You see, when clamping bits of wood together you often have to fight the material. When I usually want it to form a curve, it wishes to stay a flat plank. Except when it wants to warp but that's usually the point I wish it to remain flat. Stupid stuff.
Anyway, the photo illustrates a typical situation. Bending the roof over the formers on the Groudle coach involved me working along clamping the two bits together. During the process, I grabbed clamps as I worked and at no point did I wish to run out.
Today's lesson therefore: when you see clamps, clips or anything else that grips two parts of a model together, buy them and keep them to hand near the workbench. If you don't, one day you'll be wishing you had.
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