Tweezers

[chris02719]

I am having a tough time finding any sort of really good tweezers. Most of the ones I can find ate either bent out of the package or have some other form of defect which prevents them from being any good for what I need them for. Where do you guys get yours? I'd rather get something quality that will last me a while then some cheap ones which will get all jacked up and ruin a project. Thanks in advance for your help.

[1930fordpickup]

Have you tried Sally's beauty supply? They have sanding sticks nail polish, for paint jobs, acetone and other things.

mscdirect.com is another place for tools.

[High octane]

I saw some at my local Hobby Lobby much like the ones I use ALL the time. They're 'bout 6 inches long and have 'bout a 45 degree bend near the tip. They're also great for removing excess BMF. I wouldn't build models without them.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Like the man said, a beauty supply store or cosmetic department in a larger store is always a good bet. Great way to meet women, too.

And like the other man said, most craft stores usually have a decent selection of various tools to do all kinds of things. And more women.

I've found that some of the tweezers sold specifically for model work are made from cheap, soft metal, and won't stay aligned. This CAN be helpful if you need to bend a pair to get to a particular oddball part in a weird location.

[blunc]

having worked in the electronics industry for a while, I had to get "good" tweezers of various shapes/sizes to perform my work properly. The brand I prefer to use is Excelta ( http://www.excelta.com/ ), I'm sure there are other brands...I just don't need to explore their products.

It takes a LOT to abuse/deform their Cobaltima line of tweezers, I know this because I used them in a production environment. They are not cheap but you shouldn't have to replace them.

Edited August 2, 2014 by blunc

[slusher]

I use a pair like Nick uses from Hobby Lobby. I think their Testors. they work really well...

[Harry P.]

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/stainless-steel-jewelry-tweezers-111724/

[jbwelda]

I think there is a place called tweezerman dot com or something, I saw it mentioned in another thread somewhere here once, might search around for it. I ordered six or so pair from them and the results were interesting.

there are really cheap composite material tweezers and more expensive metal ones...some very expensive (20$+). I bought three of each, straight, 45 degree bend tip and some with serrated jaws. what I have found is that I use the composite ones the most, they are light (not much of a big deal though) but they just feel right and I like not exposing say painted surfaces to metal. all pairs pick up the smallest thing I ever do (typically a piece of very thin detail master detail wire), without undue strain. the serrated jaw pairs are a bit too crude for that small an item but they do hold a little larger stuff well.

my biggest problem with all the pairs I had (that I liked and used anyway) was that they would not reliably pick up very tiny diameter things like that detail wire. They were blunted on the ends or they had been stretched apart through misuse (guilty as charged) and no longer picked up really tiny diameter items well.

I really have a hard time picking out tweezers that I will actually use without having them in front of me to try on tasks I typically use them for. I have a drawer full of tweezers that I never use simply because I thought they would be comfortable but I found myself unable to use them conveniently for some reason, many of those even when I had a chance to hold them in my hand before I bought them. most of it is they are too long, I find about 4" length is right for me.

some years (decades) ago I was at a flea market where this guy had a whole table of tweezers, hemostats, dentist tools etc and all of them were field use items, and made of this strange composite material, colored green. I swear I still have those hemostats here, use them every day mostly to hold things on toothpicks for painting, and I have looked high and low for some like these with no luck. they were cheap too like 8 of them for 5$, I wish I had bought at least a dozen.

jb

[MADDOG]

I use dental grade tweezers and picks. But it helps that my wife works at a dental office.

[scalenut]

the tamiya high grade are really nice , heres a review

[Pete J.]

If you really want great tweezers you have to go to a jewelry tools supplier. These are not cheap but the quality is beyond reproach. They are designed for handling diamonds so they are parallel and very precisely ground. I have had two pairs for probably 10 years now and they are a go to tool. After all this time, I can still pick up a piece of photo etched lying flat on the table edge to edge without fear of it taking a flyer. Here is a search that I did at one of my favorite web sites for such things. I give it to you with a warning, there is a lot of stuff which will suck the money right out of your pocket, but remember pay for a quality tool now or a cheap one now and a good one later after years of frustration. After that, here is the site. http://www.ottofrei.com/search.php?mode=search&page=1

Edited August 3, 2014 by Pete J.

[southpier]

tweezers (affordable, not rocket surgeon quality) are like most tools: they need to be tuned. I go over the ends with 320 grit wet/ dry sandpaper until the tips meet uniformly. then fold over a piece, squeeze it with the tweezers, and surface the inside of the tips to meet evenly.

"it's a poor workman that blames his tools"

[Art Anderson]

From my perspective, I find the commonly available hobby tweezers to be far too long, too cumbersome to be of much help--so I generally rely on the old-fashioned, about 3" tweezers with the flat, square or angled tip which is formed to a flat mating surface on the inside surfaces. Now, even those tend not to be completely mating, often being ground at a slightly "off angle" so that they don't close evenly all over. My solution has been to take a piece of 400-grit sandpaper, gently scribe the back side with a #11 blade and straight edge (scribe, but do not cut through the paper backing!), then fold that sandpaper back, tightly with a bit of CA glue on the paper surface. When set up, this gives me a two-sided, flat bit of 400-grit that is straight and flat. I simply close those tweezers gently against the double sided sandpaper I just made, and sand the mating faces of the tip until they close precisely.

A couple of weeks ago, while in Walgreen's, I stopped by the cosmetics department, picked up a pair of stainless steel pointed tweezers, like women use to pluck their eyebrows, and those work just great for handling very small parts. Inexpensive too, like only a couple of dollars or so.

Art

[Pete J.]

"it's a poor workman that blames his tools"

I stand before the group and declare that "I am a tool geek". There I said it. My wife has said that I have too many, but I love the feel of a finely crafted tool and will go to great lengths to posses them. My favorite saying is "I could build a house with a Swiss army knife, but why would I want to?"

To that end, tools that I use with great frequency are the best I can get and tweezers are one of those. I do a lot of very small parts whether they are photo etched, machined aluminum or plastic. At $1 each, very little can be more frustrating that having a .015 turned aluminum nut fly off into the ether because of a cheap pair of tweezers. At $25 for a finely crafted pair of Swiss made tweezers can pay for itself in a very short period of time, not to mention the pleasure of using them. I have a drawer full of inexpensive tweezers and once I got a good pair of Peer-Vigors that is where they stayed.

It is a poor workman that blames his tools, but the tool box of a master craftsman(no I don't claim to be a master craftsman just a guy with a lot of experience) will be a collection of tools that work and don't frustrate. Those tools will have been discarded long ago.

By the way, of the two pairs that I have, one is a pair of hardened brass tweezers. They are great because they are non-magnetic. From time to time I run into parts that are magnetic. Nice tool to have around.

[Ace-Garageguy]

It is a poor workman that blames his tools, but the tool box of a master craftsman... will be a collection of tools that work and don't frustrate.

Exactly.

[jglen490]

Just restarting this hobby after a "break" of a some decades. The detail and quality of the models toady is light-years beyond what I had those years ago. But, anyway my favorite tool of the moment is a pair of reverse tweezers with a 45^o tip I got at Hobby Lobby. I've used them to hold small parts for painting and for picking up and holding peices without the need to constantly squeeze the tool. The pressure at the tip seems to be appropriate for not causing dents or other damage. I'm sure everyone has one, but it's a great and flexile clamping device.

[chris02719]

Thanks guys. I figured you guys would have a lot of great ideas. My modeling mission this week is to get some decent tweezers.