I often need to sand a little something…To make a smooth surface rougher so the paint will stick better, to make a seam (mold line) disappear on a vintage toy, to smooth a 3D printed piece or refine a sculpt, etc.

Most of the sanding can be done with sanding paper. It’s easy to find, it’s cheap and if you don’t already have some at home, you might find it quite useful. But custom projects often mean working with small pieces and hard to access recesses. That’s when to needle file will come into play!

Unlike working with metal or hard materials, plastic is easy to work with so tools don’t need to be of the highest quality. I got myself this cheap set on Amazon and I love them :

As you can see on the picture above, they come in various sizes and shapes to fit your needs. I often carry my projects around so I like to keep my toolbox light, but these files are now following me everywhere!

And if you don’t want to buy those or you have a problem that needs to be fixed right away and you can’t wait for them to be delivered, you can always wrap some sanding paper around a rod of some kind or a sturdy wire or something or even just roll a piece of sanding paper onto itself. I did that a lot.

As always, your comments and questions are most welcome!