I am looking at having to do a lot of trees for my hills (logging operations) and unfortunately don’t have a lot of patience. I have tried the furnace filter idea and ran into the patience issue again. The hills are fairly close to the viewer but will end up with a backdrop in back to improve the depth of the scene. I have tried the furnace filter idea and ran into the patience issue again. I saw the parts for the Micro-Mark Pliers in my latest Micro-Mark catalog. What are people’s opinions on Micro-Marks Tree Making Pliers? I thought that it would be a good idea but I wanted some guidance before I make the investment in getting the parts. I have seen a post or two on this but I need more opinions. Any help that people can give would be welcomed.
I can’t speak to how they work for making trees, but those things are actually called safety wire pliers. Here is an example from Harbor Freight: http://www.harborfreight.com/9-inch-safety-wire-twisting-pliers-45341.html (I’m not endorsing Harbor Freight, just using them as an example). We used them when I worked at power plants. They were used in applications where there was a concern that bolts would fall into something, even if a lock washer was used.
Holes were drilled through the heads of adjacent bolts. A wire (lock wire) was looped through one of the holes and the ends placed into the pliers. The tool spun the wires tight, and then the two free ends of the wires were placed through the other bolt head and twisted tight. An example of wired bolts is shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_wire
Looks like MicroMark repurposed these pliers for tree making use.
Save your money! Now what size trees are you trying to make?
The twisted wire trees are your basic bottle brush trees. Furnace filter trees do not take that much longer & in my opinion look a lot better. You can make a lot in a short time if you do 1 step at a time & do 50 or so then move to the next operation. You can find bottle brush trees really cheap after Christmas at Home Depot etc. Bought some for my retro under the tree Christmas layout.
Rather than the pliers, I use a cup hook in my electric drill. I clamp the drill to the bench, bend the wire (I use floral wire) over, put the fibers between the two sides, hook the loop over the cup hook, hold the open end with regular pliers, turn on the drill until twisted. I have made some nice trees from 1"-6" high. Have a few less than perfect ones too, but nature has them too.
I happen to use baler twine for my fibers. I have an idea that the ones from Micro Mark would be a lot easier to use, but I have the twine and am not in a rush.
Good luck,
Richard
I can’t speak to how they work for making trees, but those things are actually called safety wire pliers. Here is an example from Harbor Freight: http://www.harborfreight.com/9-inch-safety-wire-twisting-pliers-45341.html (I’m not endorsing Harbor Freight, just using them as an example).
Wouldn’t be the first time Harbor Freight has had railroad-related items for cheaper than the specialty places sell it for. My digital scale is a good example. (My dad got it for my birthday last year.) I saw it in one of the specialty books for about double what Dad paid for it.