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Recently, i have been working an expansion on my ork army.. Ive started getting into magnetizing models. I'm just not sure what the best tool to use for drilling the plastic is? i was just curious what your guys opinions were.. Thanks for your time and help

honestly I use a little pin vise with some nice drill bits. Works for both plastic and pewter. I use it to pin pretty much everything when I'm working with no plastic models, and sometimes with plastic depending on the conversion.

My technique is to use the bit closest to the size of the magnet and drill it out. I use my hobby blade to get it the right size and then pop in the magnet with just the smallest dab of glue. The tighter the fit the better.

The way I do it is by drilling a hole with pin vice. Then I use successively wider Hobby knives to widen the hole.
Lastly, I use the rounded file to smooth out the opening.

There may be easier ways, but this way worked for me even when working on FW small resin models.

3mm magnet, 3mm drill bit, power drill. Use a smaller bit for a guide if neccesary. I guess a pin vice if youd rather but it will take ten times as long.

 spears wrote:
3mm magnet, 3mm drill bit, power drill. Use a smaller bit for a guide if neccesary. I guess a pin vice if youd rather but it will take ten times as long.

i would highly advise against the use of large, high speed electric devices when working with small plastic/metal/resin models... seriously, just dont do it, i have several horror stories about that when i wanted to just get it done fast and ed up my model...every one of which was an expensive character model.

be patient, use a pin vice, and a sharp drill bit, dull ones tend to move around and you end up with a lopsided hole that is rather unattractive.

Your problem was wanting it done fast.

You can go slower with a power drill (but I don't know of many younger than 30 with this amount of patience).

Every one of my resin models that has been magnetised was done using my cordless drill. None of them are as small as a GW SM, though (all bike sized or larger).

For plastic figures, I use my pin-vice, 2 different sized collets and matching bits (1mm and 2mm). It doesn't take a lot of force to get a hole in styrene with a pin vice (if your bits are sharp). 2mm magnets are glued into the holes.

 jordanis wrote:

 spears wrote:
3mm magnet, 3mm drill bit, power drill. Use a smaller bit for a guide if neccesary. I guess a pin vice if youd rather but it will take ten times as long.

i would highly advise against the use of large, high speed electric devices when working with small plastic/metal/resin models... seriously, just dont do it, i have several horror stories about that when i wanted to just get it done fast and ed up my model...every one of which was an expensive character model.

As with all things use care when drilling. Hold the part around where you are drilling the hole, if for example you are placing the magnet in an arm at the shoulder, make sure you hold the shoulder and not the hand to avoid amplifying the torque across the part.

For a particularly delicate part work your way upto the size required, by minimising the amount of material being removed at any one time you also minimise the risks.

To be honest as long as you dont let go of the model or have a particularly twitchy trigger finger you should be fine. I have magnetised all my tau weapons and suits just fine with very little room for error. A ork arm shouldnt be a problem at all.

One tip i rarely see but is worth considering is that sometimes one component doesnt have enough flesh to be drilled, in these cases consider drilling the other component two magnets deep and letting a magnet protrude from the small part into the larger.

Or buy thin magnets and surface mount them.

 chromedog wrote:
You can go slower with a power drill (but I don't know of many younger than 30 with this amount of patience).

Barely 25 and prefer the control of hand tools to power, in almost all cases (at least regarding modeling). Still, a power drill (and power tools, in general) certainly can be used, if used carefully.

I use a pin vice for magnetizing, usually drilling a narrow guide hole first and sizing up to my final diameter. Granted, the stepped methodology was partially due to my bits, as the larger diameters I had on hand tend to bite too aggressively, trying to drill themselves into soft and/or thin-walled plastic instead of shaving the walls down. I may be able to skip an intermediary step or two with my new drill bits, although I'll still likely start with a guide hole to help ensure proper orientation (skewed hole>crooked magnet>decreased pull and friction>parts spinning and/or falling off more easily, even though the holes are in the right place).

I use a 2.5mm drill bit in a dremel I got from the market place. It's powerful enough to cut the plastic, allowing my to expand the hole with the side of the drill. If needed I can then use the sanding bits as well.
It's not that strong though, I can push the drill bit into my hand and it won't cut. If it were anything other than a cheapo dremal I'd be in trouble.

I use GW drill with bit, Then Literally use my hand to drill larger size hole with appropriate DrillBit.

I use a pinvise, magnets and drill bits of the same size, and a battery powered dremel.
That's my entire set up.
The new dremels are a champ at low speed drilling and have saved me a ton of time when it's more appropriate than the pinvise.
If you have the extra cash, that demel is a nice addition to your magnetizing toolset.

This is the one I use.

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