X-Acto 'thingy'

[misterfish]

I'm currently working my way (slowly) through all the stuff in my late father-in-law's shed - he was a fine advocate of not throwing anything away as it might come in useful!

Amongst the things is a (possibly) bakelite device/tool with the name X-Acto on it, but which I am stumped as to what it actually is or does. It's about 9cm long and the two knurled screw thingies are about 3cm apart. The slot in the base at the blunt end is about 1mm wide and about 2 cm long.

Has anyone got any idea of what it is designed for - I've searched but not found anything.

Here's a couple of pictures

Misterfish

 

[MickCheese]

There is one here

http://blog.dugnorth.com/2011/10/all-that-is-x-acto-deluxe-hobby-tool.html

Still don't know what it is though.

Mick

 

[AES]

@misterfish,

I recognise it immediately (being an aeromodeller, I have one and use it a lot).

As you say, it's by Xacto (a good US firm) and it's called a balsa stripper.

The idea is that you use those 2 screws to set a certain distance between the ali "fence" underneath and the knife blade, then run it along a sheet of balsa of the required thickness. The result being that you end up with a strip of balsa of width X (the dimension you set on the fence) by thickness Y (the thickness of the sheet you're stripping from).

Although balsa strips of "standard" sizes are available from model shops (sometimes!), if you want a certain density of wood (i.e. weight) then you're far more likely to get it from a sheet where it's easier to see the grain pattern and weight the sheet. Also useful if your model calls for strips of a non-standard size.

Can also be used for THIN hardwood (about one sixteenth max) such as spruce for strengthening wing spars. I doubt it would be of much use to a "proper chippy" such as the members we see on here unless he was doing small stuff such as making dolls houses, etc.

I don't know what they cost now but they used to be about a fiver (quid).

Hope this helps.

Krgds
AES

 

[AES]

P.S. to the above:

Sorry, I forgot, the blade is missing but should be available from any model shop.

AES

 

[denboy]

Ur tiz as they say here in Somerset

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Xacto-B ... 0945444291

 

[RogerBoyle]

yes its a balsa stripper as AES said
Good bits of kit for a modeller

 

[misterfish]

Thanks. That makes perfect sense as he was always keen on model aircraft. in fact there are several large model aircraft boxes full of balsa wood and piles of plans. I'll have to sort through them and decide what to do with it all.

Misterfish

 

[misterfish]

P.S. to the above:

Sorry, I forgot, the blade is missing but should be available from any model shop.

AES

I've just had another look at it and can't work out which blade it uses and how it fixes to the tool? I've found a load of X-Acto (and X-acto clone) handles and blades including fine saws and carving blades but can't see how any of those fit.

Misterfish

 

[AES]

@misterfish:

As said, Xacto do make a special blade for their balsa stripper (looks a bit like a small flat rectangular chisel) but they're quite hard to find (model shops should stock them but often have to order them in specially). So after I finally ruined the blade that came with the tool (that was years & years ago) I didn't bother any more.

You need a fairly thick-ish blade to match the width of the slot in the base of the tool, but you don't mount the blade into the tool at all, just hold it in position with the handle, as follows:

I normally use either Xacto No. 11, 21, or 25 blades (the Swann Mortion blades which are even better than Xacto are a bit thin for this tool). Just set the blade up in the approrpriate handle (the No. 25 blade uses the big red plastic handle, the other two use any of the Xacto slimmer ali or plastic handles). You must strip the sheet while it's resting on a hardwood cutting board (or a plastic cutting mat) as the amount the blade pokes down below the tool only needs to be a tiny fraction more than the thickness of the sheet you're stripping from and basically that's controlled simply by the point of the blade coming into contact with the wood or plastic beneath the balsa sheet being stripped.

Assuming you're right-handed you "just" support the knife handle at about a 45 degree rearward using the right hand and then using the left hand slide the whole tool and blade/knife combination along the sheet while at the same time making sure that the ali "fence" stays in contact with the edge of the sheet (observe the direction of the grain and make sure you don't strip in a direction which would tend to drive the fence away from the edge of the sheet, so messing up your nice and accurate even width strip). DAMHIKT!

This all sounds a bit crude and remarkably hit & miss but it works surprisingly well after a bit of practice.

There are other, more complicated and "better" balsa strippers on the market, including very expensive ali plate-based tools with built-in micrometer width adjusters but as you may imagine, these are the province of the indoor guys with micro film models.

By the way when you've sorted out the boxes of balsa and plans from your Dad's collection they will almost certainly have a greater value than you imagine (assuming you're not an aeromodeller yourself). The world-renowed magazine "Aeromodeller" has just re-started publishing again after a few years layoff and when you have a list of stuff to sell it would be well worth your while to get a small ad into that mag. I don't think they charge a lot for small ads.

The new publishers are ADH, details:

ADH Publishing Ltd; Doolittle Mill, Doolittle Lane; Totternhoe; Beds, LU6 1QX.
Tel: 01525 222573; Fax: +44 01525 222574; no E-mail listed, sorry.

Hope this helps and is not too much info.

Krgds
AES

 

[RogerBoyle]

Or you could always join www.rcmf.co.uk and put a for sale thread on there for the modelling related items :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[misterfish]

Thanks for the info on the stripper. I've got a larger chunky aluminium handle X-acto knife that holds the saw blades, the chiselling blades, the router blades and the bigger flat blades.

I'll have a session finding all the modelling plans and balsa and see just what is there. Quite a few of the plans seem to be for vehicles and there are also some small pieces of thin ply - I think a lot of this stuff came from Hobbies.

I had a quick look at the rcmf forum site, but need to spend a bit of time to find my way around.

Misterfish

 

[Losos]

I'll have a session finding all the modelling plans and balsa and see just what is there.

Small sheets of balsa in various thicknesses are IMO very useful so if it was me I wouldn't sell them or chuck them out. Find a spare shelf, wrap them in some paper, and there will come a point when you need them, and as mentioned above model shops don't seem to stock as much of this stuff as they once used to do.

 

[Plane Paul]

Just bought one from Amazon. Rolson still sell them. You use it with a craft knife for making strips of balsa. Here's a demo