Pin vise confusion

The Serene Badger

The Serene Badger

Vassal
Morning all. It's been an up-and-down model week for me this week but on the up side I've finally found all the bits to this beautiful lump of nurglish lead. This is how I exactly got him 30 years ago, and I'll need to pin his left arm. I'm really looking forward to restoring it. I've also got a multitude of other things to pin, from Imrik on his dragon to the (wheeled) anvil of doom banner, and a rather nice chimera's scorpion tail.

I've been looking for a pin vise and am boggled by how many there are. I'm assuming that the cheap £5 ones on Amazon aren't worth it, but would really appreciate advice on vises and drill bit sets from sub-millimetre up to bigger jobs. Any general pinning tips would also be appreciated, like is brass rod best?
 

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the drill itself doesn't really matter in my view. the drill-bit do. My main drill is an Archimedes screw drill as that can give some quick and nice help with the drilling, but sometimes still get the bit stuck (not too hard to deal with, might be because they are cheap-ish ones ^_^)

The bits were a set from Expotools (.com), in fact the '11516 16pc HSS Twist Drill Set' which is pretty good set and work well, though I will admit my main drill doesn't allow different sized.. erm.. whatever the bit which holds the drill bit is called, so it limits the range which can be held in it, but I have another drill which is a double sided (which is kinda a bugger as it makes it a bit tricky as I prefer putting a bit of pressure at times on the top of the drill.. a double sided one like I got doesn't have a way to do that, but I have been wondering about making a cap. Anyway, that has 4 different sized holder things (2 of them but they are doubled sided as well so you can flip them for different sized bits) but as I mostly used the same size of wire and what I'm drilling into is normally something which can take a hole that side it's mostly fine.

For pinning material, I also cheap out and use paper clip wire. while it does give a bit of bend, the wire is pretty strong and good enough for pinning in my view. also very cheap and I got tons of paperclips of various sizes


while I superglue the pins in and then the joint itself, if it's gonna take some particular pressure or strain, I use a two part resin expoy glue for a bit if added support.
 
I use an old army painter drill I got about ten years ago, cost me about £5 and still working well. I'd invest in some good drill bits though, some cheaper ones I've used snap easily or go blunt after a few uses on metal minis.

For pinning I use cheap paperclips. And be careful, I have slipped and stabbed myself many times drilling minis.
 
ManicMan said:
… my main drill doesn't allow different sized.. erm.. whatever the bit which holds the drill bit is called …
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Chuck.

Agreed with what's been said about using good drill bits, swivel ends & super glue. I tend to use a couple of old GW ones which are fine though mine struggle a bit with smaller drill bits. I generally use steel pins (watch your eyes when cutting them!) though I sometimes think I should use brass rod like a proper modeller.

FWIW, I use 0.5mm drill bits for nearly everything. For heavy parts, consider putting more than one pin in. You might also want to consider glueing parts together, pinning afterwards and patching any holes for some jobs as alignment can be a PITA.
 
AH! of course, the same name for a electric drill ^_^ mind went completely blank there.

Oh and rarely, but sometime for really big or tough stuff, Dremel works wonder
 
I'd second the Expo 11516 drill set as a decent set of drills. As for pin-vice there are really two types:

pinvice_4.jpg

The silver one has several chucks for different sized bits and you pick a suitable one.

pinvice_3.jpgpinvice_1.jpg

The black one has a more conventional three jaw adjustable chuck.

pinvice_2.jpg

Not a huge amount to choose between them, marginally I think I prefer my silver multi chuck one, but that's probably because the build quality is better (the other one was cheap and came with a load of bits the manufacturer had forgotten to actually sharpen), but both work just fine. The black on the end of mine is just some Sugru to make it more comfortable.

There are some small electric drills, but to be honest if working with 0.5-1mm pins into metal a hand drill is better.

Pin wise I'm going to break from everyone here because I always use brass rod for my pins (well mostly), either 0.5mm or 1mm typically.
 
Eric said:
I'd second the Expo 11516 drill set as a decent set of drills. As for pin-vice there are really two types:

View attachment 14914

The silver one has several chucks for different sized bits and you pick a suitable one.

View attachment 14913View attachment 14911

The black one has a more conventional three jaw adjustable chuck.

View attachment 14912

Not a huge amount to choose between them, marginally I think I prefer my silver multi chuck one, but that's probably because the build quality is better (the other one was cheap and came with a load of bits the manufacturer had forgotten to actually sharpen), but both work just fine. The black on the end of mine is just some Sugru to make it more comfortable.

There are some small electric drills, but to be honest if working with 0.5-1mm pins into metal a hand drill is better.

Pin wise I'm going to break from everyone here because I always use brass rod for my pins (well mostly), either 0.5mm or 1mm typically.
Click to expand...
Oh? you don't rate Archimedes screw drills?
 
Eric said:
I'd second the Expo 11516 drill set as a decent set of drills. As for pin-vice there are really two types:

View attachment 14914

The silver one has several chucks for different sized bits and you pick a suitable one.

View attachment 14913View attachment 14911

The black one has a more conventional three jaw adjustable chuck.

View attachment 14912

Not a huge amount to choose between them, marginally I think I prefer my silver multi chuck one, but that's probably because the build quality is better (the other one was cheap and came with a load of bits the manufacturer had forgotten to actually sharpen), but both work just fine. The black on the end of mine is just some Sugru to make it more comfortable.

There are some small electric drills, but to be honest if working with 0.5-1mm pins into metal a hand drill is better.

Pin wise I'm going to break from everyone here because I always use brass rod for my pins (well mostly), either 0.5mm or 1mm typically.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the really detailed answer. I've ordered the bits. Now I just need to settle on a handle.
 
Citizen Sade said:
Chuck.

Agreed with what's been said about using good drill bits, swivel ends & super glue. I tend to use a couple of old GW ones which are fine though mine struggle a bit with smaller drill bits. I generally use steel pins (watch your eyes when cutting them!) though I sometimes think I should use brass rod like a proper modeller.

FWIW, I use 0.5mm drill bits for nearly everything. For heavy parts, consider putting more than one pin in. You might also want to consider glueing parts together, pinning afterwards and patching any holes for some jobs as alignment can be a PITA.
Click to expand...
Two pins sounds like a great idea, will really help stop rotation stress
 
Just to add, these days I prefer electric ones, especially when needing to drill more than one pin. The electric one also made me use more pins, like two for a big wing, where I would only have used one with a manual drill, out of laziness and finger soreness.
I use a Proxxon Micromot MM-60, allows for variable RPMs.
This is of course a larger investment, but one I don't regret, especially in the long run.
 
KingOfTheLeadPile said:
Just to add, these days I prefer electric ones, especially when needing to drill more than one pin. The electric one also made me use more pins, like two for a big wing, where I would only have used one with a manual drill, out of laziness and finger soreness.
I use a Proxxon Micromot MM-60, allows for variable RPMs.
This is of course a larger investment, but one I don't regret, especially in the long run.
Click to expand...
I'll look this up, especially as I tend to get a fair bit of hand pain from stupid tendon things
 
I like Proxxon tools and have a few. I'd wondered about their drill, but have always found them (in general - Dremel like tools) too heavy in the hand to feel confident working with. That said I did eye this adapter for the drill that might make things lighter in your hand. Maybe I should look again more closely at the Proxxon.
 
Eric said:
I like Proxxon tools and have a few. I'd wondered about their drill, but have always found them (in general - Dremel like tools) too heavy in the hand to feel confident working with.
Click to expand...
I agree. I started with the FBS 240/E, and that indeed is a bit too heavy to work comfortably on small minis, like drilling out barrels etc. Then I gave the Micromot 60/E a try, and it is lighter, less back heavy, and overall more comfortable to work with with miniatures.
 
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