Saturday, April 04, 2009

J.Norad's Tool Rack

Finally decided to organize my tools. I spent a few minutes trying to find my hand drill, which was buried underneath a pile of markers and my scissors. However, the local Target was less than cooperative in supplying me with a desk organizer that wasn't utterly useless or made of pastel Easter colors. Well, considering I have on me several large boxes of the world's greatest building resource, that's not a problem! Time to bust out those LEGO.

I've now sorted my tools by shape and function. The back row has my cutting and scoring tools and markers. The middle row has all the odd elements: tweezers, screwdrivers, scissors and my special set of tube making rods. On the far right is my drying rack for stuff that I'm painting, held up by a set of bamboo sticks. Lastly, I've added a small section to hold all my heavily used Dremel bits. No more hunting down things for five minutes.

The local Target was more than cooperative in assisting me with obtaining a set of pliers. These were the Stanley 6 pack of assorted pliers. Unfortunately, one came with a defective spring that I had to replace. Got to love quality American tools. I rarely work with wire, but when I do, it's rather delicate. I've been cutting my paper clips and wire with regular scissors, which is a really bad idea. Diagonal cutters to the rescue!

I already own a set of beadmaking jewelry pliers for shaping those rounded elements. However, for the next task of making belt buckles, I needed a better, square shaped tool: needle nosed pliers. These aren't too bad, but I could have probably gone for a finer tip.

Making belt buckles is like making miniature paper clips. You sure don't want to have to make a lot of them. These buckles will be used to hold the skirt flaps in place for Aelia. I won't be putting them together until everything's been painted unfortunately.

No comments: