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Joint Pinning Made Easy
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Rating: 9.96 Votes: 25
Views: 11862
By: Jester
Category: General Subcategory: MiscDate: 2007-05-13 09:16:07
Hi People, heres my guide to easy joint pinning, hope you find it helpful

One of the things I ALWAYS do is pin joints when dealing with resin or metal, as these materials just don't bond like styrene plastic does. If you miss this step, you paint a beautiful model, a slight knock later and the arm falls off. Not good!

I'm sure all you hobbyists have seen and used the GW technique where put red paint on a short pin and push the parts together to mark the other side, yes??
Anyway I always found this to be time consuming and not always very accurate, so over time I developed my own way of marking joins to be pinned.

I've detailed it below, it's quick & easy so I hope it'll hepl someone Cheesy.gif
The photo shows this technique being used on a large joint, to make life easier; but it'll work just as well on small joints like arms and heads even.

1) Obviously you'll need a hole drilled in one piece first.
2) Next roll tiny ball of "blue-tack"; work this round and round til it's very sticky.
3) Apply a special non-stick liquid release agent (that's spit to you and me Tongue.gif ) on and all around the hole.
4) gently apply the tack ball to the hole; if you're careful the surface tension of the spit will hold it in place, if not you'll just have to hold the piece with the tack on top.
5) carefully push your two pieces together and press joint very firmly.
6) As you pull the join apart you'll see that the tack has stuck to the other part, leaving a squidge of tack with a little knob sticking out where the opposing hole is; whilst your spit has stopped it sticking to the first one.
7) Use your pin-vice with a tiny drill bit to push though the middle of this little knob and drill into the second part; just go a little way in just to mark it, you can then peel off the tack and any swarf material and bin it.
8] Now you have a guide hole, you can drill out the hole to match the size of your pin; just remember to drill in the same direction as the hole in the first part and you'll get a purfect pinned join every time.



Have fun trying this out

Jester Wink.gif
russ c
24 January 09
Rating: 10
Excellent Idea! I was in the process of magnetizing some of my plastic miniatures to swap parts for tourney gaming and placing the magnets in exactly the right spot is the same issue as pinning hole alignment. Your solution is far superior to any I've used for lining up holes! Thanks!

Sterlingspider
17 March 08
Rating: 10
Exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. I am finally getting to some figs that I've been sitting on for a while and I have so much pinning to do. This officially made my life a million times easier.

Jester
16 November 07
daemon boy, close but no cigar, it's a titan shoulder joint; the finished model can be seen here http://www.coolminiornot.com/160054
cheers for the feedback guys, glad you found it helpful.
daemon boy
16 November 07
Rating: 10
nice i am always finding myself with thousands of wholes that dont fit but now theres a way!!
is that a titans leg ?

JesterzUSMC
15 November 07
Rating: 10
Love the article...Clear and easy to follow.
I've been using this non-stick agent for decades to keep my brushes pointy...now I have another use.
Seems to be a multi-purpose agent.
--heh, heh, "spit around the hole"..heh, mmh, he-heh--
Sorry, I couldn't resist...

genotype
06 November 07
Rating: 10
Sorry to be a ninny here but a vice is a depraved habit, and a vise holds things tightly. A pin vice sounds like something an unethical acupuncturist would be guilty of; otherwise, excellent article.

meanmuttley
11 September 07
Rating: 10
Thank for the article! I'm going to start pinning my mini together! 10 points!

Sgt Azza
07 August 07
Rating: 10
Tried it last night on my prized FW warhound Titan kit.
Flawless! (although i really shouldnt use this technique after eating curry!)
Worked superbly all the same. :oP 20 out of 10

Yetie
28 July 07
Rating: 10
brilliant, I was having a real problem with pinning the other night could of done with this then. Cheers for the info

Arma
11 July 07
Rating: 10
Great idea. Thanks for sharing.

dennis.
02 July 07
Rating: 10
Doh! This is the dogs danglies, thanx for clearing my pinning anxieties, tried this and it works soooo well. grats.

howtofoldsoup
23 June 07
Rating: 10
Good article. It's better than my current techinique - eyeing it.

Borscope
09 June 07
Rating: 10
I love it! Simple, effective, and something everyone and anyone can use.

aftermath
09 June 07
Rating: 10
Whats wrong with spit my mouths full of it it doesnt seem to have done me any harm. Good tutorial I ve always guessed it it the past and then filled up the resulting gaps with green stuff. Speaking of green stuff heres a tip to stop it sticking to your utensil....spit on the back of your hand and dip your modelling tool in the resultant puddle. works great and saves loadsa time Heh heh Richard (aftermath)

Brother Bart
09 June 07
Rating: 10
"Apply a special non-stick liquid release agent (that's spit to you and me) on and all around the hole."

Brother Bart
09 June 07
Rating: 10
"Apply a special non-stick liquid release agent (that's spit to you and me) on and all around the hole."

pez5767
19 May 07
Rating: 10
to quote the guiness... BRILLIANT!

i can now pin my penitent engines with impunity... thanks dude!

p.s. spit yuck... oh well.

freakinacage
19 May 07
Rating: 10
much better than the gw way. and also the way i use - guesswork!

CreepyBasementStudio
17 May 07
Rating: 10
Girly whines about looking at spit aside (eww....grody! what are you? Paris Hilton?!) This Tute ROCKS! Great idea, I hate the GW way, I usually put a slightly longer pin in that the original hole and scrape a location out, this is much better!
Thanks! I wil ltry this on my GD entry, TODAY!

Jester
15 May 07
yeh sorry about that Canopicdoll, I didn't realise just how grosse that would look into I was editing the images, by then I'd glued the joint so there was no going back
Canopicdoll
14 May 07
Rating: 10
What a clever idea! I'm turned off by your spit in the photos though. :p

NINJAWIZARD
14 May 07
Rating: 10
Brilliant! I knew I hadn't bought 2 packs of Elmer's Tack for nothing!

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