If you read the 7 Habits of highly effective people, one particular habit is called sharpening the saw. Which means taking a step back from your usual activities and maintaining or upgrading your equipment! As modellers we always subject our tools to extreme use. And its even worse for those with sweaty palms…our tools tend to rust more!! Today gonna share how I maintain my trustworthy 1 year old side cutter. As you can see…its badly rusted and its creaky already lol…
Step 1 : Sand with 600 followed by 1000 grit sandpaper
As you can see, its shinier already!
Step 2 : Repeat sanding for the bottom too!
Step 4 : Dab a bit of oil with a tissue and apply onto the blade
Mellisa highly recommends the cheap and good singer oil! Maybe she should go for karaoke later haha..
Tadaa!! Now you are all set for another few good months of cutting. So by sanding the edges, it will result in a cleaner cut! Happy building!
Till the next post!
The Toy Room 
indeed tools tends to rust..especially blades of knifes..and this is were files comes in handy XD
haha files are really good too. I also put a few drips of oil for maintaining them ^^
i also do this on my wire cutters and other tools I use on school when they get really messy and rusty. though I haven’t got those gunpla side cutters, this post served me as reminder that even hobby tools needs to be maintained. now if I can only find a suitable straw to cover my Xacto Knife. 😀
Ouch thats dangerous lol! What i do is take leftover cardboard and wrap it with tape to make a cover for the knife 😛 Plus if you don’t remove the rust, its sometimes leaves a brown mark after you cut!
yes the stain is very much a pain in cleaning.
haven’t thought about using cardboard as a cover… haha cause my mom told me a straw will be suitable, I dunno why Xacto knives in this day and age doesn’t have lids anymore like they used to.. remembered seeing ones on a hobby shop here where every knife has a lid in the case you got rid of the packaging, now my knife rests on its packaging whenever it is not used
Haha actually I am afraid the straw might be too thin man. Think cardboard still safer 😛
hahaha ok will do.. since I”m getting nervous that the opening on the packaging is getting bigger as one day the knife may fall
Thanks to you,now my side cutter has been revived! Suppose to buy a cutter tomorrow but looks like there isn’t a need now!
haha cool man. Save up more cash for more gunpla later 😛
nice tips to keep in mind. my cutter is still pretty new but i damaged them a bit cutting my bass guitar strings, now they have dents XD ill see if sanding or filing them can smooth out some of the damage.
Ah, tamiya cutters are only meant for cutting plastic lol. But if the dent is deep don’t think its possible to sand / file them down!
may I ask why the Bass Guitar strings? those are thick strings
That’s good tip. Always keep your cutters sharp. =D
And if you are a certain regular magician, keep your wands nice and charged 😛
Nice tips, tools are an investment. we need to make sure that it can be used for a long time 😀
Yep you are so right man. Our tools are investments that must be maintained from time to time! 🙂
does sanding mean sharpening here?
Nice tip! 😀
Great tip! Will do it if cutter turns rusty too…
Ohh.. That’s a really great tip there. The two pliers of mine have already rust quite badly. ^^;
woo~ looks like this cutter really old by looking its rust
My cutter has dents thanks to my brother because he was cutting alot of ABS plastic.But i managed to file them and now they are sharp.Plus i use your maintaining method and now they are very shiny and sharp^^Can use more money to buy paints,tools and gunplas
Great to hear that man!
How old that Side cutter ?
1 year old ^^
That side cutter is only 1 year old? O_O My five year old side-cutter looks practically brand new compared to yours! :O
haha well I have this sweaty palms problem probably that is why mine has accelerated rusting!!
That side cutter of yours seems to be really trusty enduring all the wear and tear plus the rust. Mine still looks really new because I seldom use it. ^^;
Haha well like mentioned to Z, the rusting what I believe is due to my sweaty palms haha ^^
Those are some intensely sweaty palms, man. But yeah, I get you. Nerve wracking activities do that to my palms too. That’ll certainly be useful… Once my cutters start looking like that. Darnit, I can just not get myself to get off my ass and work on my gunpla.
Ah I know that feeling of just wanting to start but just not having the spark to do so!! Maybe do like one part a day? That got me started if I am not really in the mood to do model kits 😛
Whoa. I needed a tutorial like that .My BAKUC cutter is getting really rusty. Thanks!
No problem! Glad you find it useful!
great tips, thanks for sharing bro!!
um, sometimes I also use the iron/steel polisher instead of those oil… I’m not sure what it is called in your country, but in Indonesia the mayor brand name is: Brasso X D