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The Handle Bender Tool
RP TOOLZ is a Hungarian based company making specialized tools for the modelling community. The tools offered by RP TOOLZ range from Photo Etch (PE) Benders, Rollers, Punch and Die Sets and more.
The diamond shaped Handle Bender Tool from RP TOOLZ is a two piece galvanized handheld press bender designed to bend various length handles for model building through the use of various gauge wire stock. There are two black thumb knobs at either end of the tool that are used to tighten the bending surface down to the wire stock that is being used to bend into a handle.
The Handle Bender is 5.9 inches long and 1.9 inches wide at its center. There are 24 individual steps down both sides of one half of the bender tool. These steps are the specific bending points to create different size scale handles. The smallest bending point is 0.045 in./ 1.15mm wide and the bending points and increases in size by 2mm until you get to the largest bending point of 1.85 in./ 47.06mm.
The Handle Bender Tool is fairly easy to use; after loosening the two black thumb knobs slide your choice of a particular size wire gauge into the tool at a selected step on the tool and then tighten the black thumb knobs. Depending on the thickness of the wire will depend on whether or not you may need to use a tool to aid in bending the wire to the 90 degree angle desired.
After using the tool on a couple different gauges of wire I found the tool works very well at creating a crisp, clean handle bend of various sizes.
A quick look at the Handle Bender Tool will show us that the handle bending part of the tool encompasses only half of the tool. The other half of the tool has flat jaws as seen with most photo etch bending tools. This side can be used to bend photo etch parts as well as various flat stock pieces. The concept is the same as with the bending of the handles described above
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Conclusion
This is a great little tool to help the modeler bend perfectly sized handles for various projects. The twenty-four different sizes cover most if not all of the sizes encountered scale modelling. The repeatability of exact handle size is an added bonus to the tool endurance on anyone’s bench.
Taking the flat bending side of the tool into consideration here, this tool would make an excellent starting point for the photo etch novice as the $30.00US price tag and the Handle Bender side of the tool is a “win, win ,win” situation. I highly recommend this tool to anyone who enjoys trying to spruce the look of their models by adding metal wire handles replacing the plastic kit supplied handles and have had problems in the base of getting them to be exactly the same each time. This tool will help with that for sure.
I wish to thank RP TOOLZ for this review sample provided to Modelers Social Club Forum.
Please visit RP TOOLZ for a complete list of venders around the world offering RP TOOLZ .
