Spartan 420
Member
Hi there! Welcome to another one of my mini tutorials.
When working on my builds I sometimes discover tips and tricks that make builds easier, ones that you don't see posted around often, so hopefully these mini tutorials will help you guys out with those 'Little things' that don't have tutorials.
Cleaning Up Excess Hot Glue
Step 1
Quite obviously, locate your overflowing/excess glue you want gone. (I had to purposely make this overflow as I had fixed all of mine.)
Step 2
Locate a lighter or a high source of heat and an old/spare Xacto blade. (To be honest any knife will work, I used scissors one time.)
What I'm using is a spare blade that's useless for cutting foam, but perfect for this, I'm not sure of its purpose, it just came with my blade.
Step 3
Using the lighter/heat source, heat up the tip/flat edge of the blade. MAKE SURE you are not just holding the blade, it will heat up FAST. I' blu-tacked my blade to a post as I couldn't hold it, light it and take a picture all at once. I'd suggest just using a standard Xacto-blade handle. Whatever it is make sure it's large enough to keep your hand far away from the heated blade.
Step 4
In a paintbrush motion, slowly brush the flat edge of the blade across the seam, this will remelt the glue and spread it flat like butter. If the glue isn't melting, lightly jab into it with the hot blade to soften it up. After one stroke, wipe any glue off the blade with a cloth or cotton-bud (Again be careful IT'S HOT). Reheat your blade and repeat the process.
Step 5
You'll notice any glue left on the piece is in a very thin film, using your nails or a blade, you can pick the film off when it's dried, it will usually leave some rough edges over the seam, so go over the seam once more with the hot blade to straiten any glue left in the seam.
Step 6 (Optional)
You can repeat the first 5 steps as much as necessary, the more you do it, the better it will look.
You can also heat the blunt udge of the blade and slide scape under the foam, it won't cut through the foam but will pretty much lift up any hot glue.
I hope this helped some of you guys!
-S420
PS: Props to anyone who can guess what I'm building.
When working on my builds I sometimes discover tips and tricks that make builds easier, ones that you don't see posted around often, so hopefully these mini tutorials will help you guys out with those 'Little things' that don't have tutorials.
Cleaning Up Excess Hot Glue
Step 1
Quite obviously, locate your overflowing/excess glue you want gone. (I had to purposely make this overflow as I had fixed all of mine.)
Step 2
Locate a lighter or a high source of heat and an old/spare Xacto blade. (To be honest any knife will work, I used scissors one time.)
What I'm using is a spare blade that's useless for cutting foam, but perfect for this, I'm not sure of its purpose, it just came with my blade.
Step 3
Using the lighter/heat source, heat up the tip/flat edge of the blade. MAKE SURE you are not just holding the blade, it will heat up FAST. I' blu-tacked my blade to a post as I couldn't hold it, light it and take a picture all at once. I'd suggest just using a standard Xacto-blade handle. Whatever it is make sure it's large enough to keep your hand far away from the heated blade.
Step 4
In a paintbrush motion, slowly brush the flat edge of the blade across the seam, this will remelt the glue and spread it flat like butter. If the glue isn't melting, lightly jab into it with the hot blade to soften it up. After one stroke, wipe any glue off the blade with a cloth or cotton-bud (Again be careful IT'S HOT). Reheat your blade and repeat the process.
Step 5
You'll notice any glue left on the piece is in a very thin film, using your nails or a blade, you can pick the film off when it's dried, it will usually leave some rough edges over the seam, so go over the seam once more with the hot blade to straiten any glue left in the seam.
Step 6 (Optional)
You can repeat the first 5 steps as much as necessary, the more you do it, the better it will look.
You can also heat the blunt udge of the blade and slide scape under the foam, it won't cut through the foam but will pretty much lift up any hot glue.
I hope this helped some of you guys!
-S420
PS: Props to anyone who can guess what I'm building.
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