Everyone here eventually settles in with little helpers that have been collected or added to his arsenal of tools. I'm probably the guiltiest of those people but hey, what comes free and helps out, what the heck. Soon after adding all these little trinkets to the bench-top necessities comes the problem of keeping them corralled so they do get in the way when they aren't needed. Now I'm a cup and jar guy for keeping these items tamed. Here's a picture of my two primary cups [or jars] and what they hold.
Popsicle sticks are my general tool of choice for stirring plastic while cooking it. For reheats I depend on knitting needles. The red and silver rods in the front of the small cup are two of them. I use fairly small needles to stir the re-melts so I don't get air back in the plastic while it heats and gets stirred, but they also work great to move small plastic parts around in the mold for re-shooting too. Of course the thermometer is right there ready to use and a pair of scissors is always a useful tool, but those large nail clippers probably see more use for trimming and cleaning things up than anything other than my single edged razor blades. The blades can be seen on top of the bottle of hi lite in the back behind those long bamboo skewers. I keep an exacto handy for some trim work too. I seldom do anything without my spoons and a couple of those can be seen here, standing at ready. You may notice a couple of white button-like items along the front of the larger jar, those are q-tips kept handy for cleaning up little spills of color while I do my core colors. That paint brush is used to oil mold cavities either for easy bait removal or for re-inserting small pieces for a second color shoot. In the smaller container we can see some shortened skewers that are used for dipping color for dotting line colors or for adding very small amounts of color to a recipe.
In the upper left corner you'll see a pile of folded paper towels I keep handy for all sorts of things. That blue surface is a thin cutting-sheet. I buy these in packs of 4 and they are handier than handy for laying out freshly shot plastics, especially small ones with very lithe tails that I want kept straight. I have about fifty of these sheets. The white surface is a commercial cutting board. This one is small and about 3/8" thick. It tolerates high heat well and is solid for injecting. Immediate spills are just left the set up and will roll right off the surface when cooled so clean-up is a snap. Underneath all of the goodies I set on my work surface to actually work off from is a double layer of heavy terry cloth toweling. I never work off a metal surface with a metal model and the bench top is clad with stainless steel. You can see what's still white on the towel to the left of the cutting board. If a mold gets dropped or slips from a hand while working this "softer" work surface helps protect against bent hinges and or dents in the mold surfaces.
Not easily seen in the pic is a telephone which sits at the back of the bench so I can answer if I am working and the only one home. Not seen is a clip board with a ton of paper on it. I am a notorious note taker and when I start off on a new idea every addition, every stir and times between stirs is noted. Notes where good, bad or ugly are made of each new adventure. Also in the back ground are of my hi lites, stabilizer, uv powder, worm oil, softener. Glitters and colorants are kept in a closet in the house and come per need....I'd have to build a bigger bench if I kept those on it.
So.....I've shown my little tool tricks of the trade. What have you all gathered over time that makes your bait making a little easier?
