Tools! Part 3

I use these so often now, I don't know how I got by without them before.

Q-Tips (or cotton swabs) are great for picking up excess glue.
At the top of a fin, where the leading edge meets the body tube, there is always a little white glue "roll-over". You won't see it until the primer goes on.
Use a Q-Tip over that spot and pick up the glue before it dries.
These also work to smooth fillets in areas that are smaller than your fingertip can reach.

The only drag - you can only use them once. Use it and toss it!
(You don't want to go over a new area with half dried glue on the tip.)

The rotary punch can make engine hook (movement allowance) slots in centering rings.
Sure, the "slots" are rounded, but the cuts are cleaner than you could make with a knife.
I also use the punch to make the rounded end of a launch lug slot in a tail cone.
Again, the round punched end will be cleaner than any small circle you could cut with a knife.

Turn the rotary head to the smallest barrel to make holes for tying a shroud line on a parachute. (You do have to make the punch with a card stock backing. The thin, flexible parachute won't punch clean unless it has a stiff backing board.)

A standard single index punch makes a clean hole in a body tube.
This is probably what Estes used on the early Scout models for an ejection charge port.

Try it - you'll be surprised how clean the punched hole is.

Finally, one of the most used tools on my bench, long tweezers.

Next time you are tying on shroud lines to a parachute, try using a long tweezers.
You'll get the job done in half the time.

Long tweezers are handy for fishing out a Kevlar line from the motor mount through the front end of a body tube.