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Hey guys, I need a bit of assistance from you fellow modellers. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I am looking for a metal sander, preferably a small electric one with a small sander end to sand and smooth metal parts of my miniatures e.g. shoulder pads. I have found metal files are not working as well as I'd hope, so I believe a metal sander would do the trick more efficiently.

So guys, any ideas. Write a post. All ideas would be welcomed and appreciated!!!

A jewlers grinder might help you out. They are pretty small and have a finishing wheel as well.

Dremel

You can't go wrong. They make a whole range of types and a HEAP of different attachments.

I have this one:

http://www.dremel.com/en-au/Tools/Pages/ToolDetail.aspx?pid=1100

And I use it all the time for grinding, sanding, taking off mould lines, cutting arms and legs to repose, polishing metallics, drilling holes in barrels and to place magnets and a whole heap of other stuff.

Dremel / electric hobby drill.
Don't use a grinding wheel or sanding wheel if you're just taking off a bit of mould line or surfacing. A brass brush works extremely well to polish up white metal.

99% of the time a dremel is over kill. Instead look into getting some diamond needle files, don't go perticulary cheap on them or they won't last but they shouldn't be to expensive. You will be amazed how quickly they remove material.

I don't agree, mine is just right for the task, it is a much smaller and finer tool and I find I have far greater control with it over a file.

The diamond needle files do work, but I have found a Dremmel is an incredibly diverse tool when working with metal minis. The cutting wheels (or milling wheels) really let you take off pieces when you need to and you can polish the model up to a very fine grade as well.

On top of that I have used my dremmel to fix my car, dresser drawers, and other metal/wood (for the wood I use the mill end) projects around the house.

Have you tried it for helping to paint eyes? , Mark the Iris with a pencil and muck about getting it right, then using a really small router bit make the tiniest depression that will take the paint and viola no more mucking about for HOURS !!! trying to get eyes right.