So, there I was, meandering through the friendly AC Moore shop. I had a few things I was looking for (wet palette stuff, for the curious) when what to my wandering eyes should appear but... an entire endcap covered in tools for foamcore building.

I already have the rabbet cutter from Dick Blick, so the one they sell didn't do much for me (one pass cutting vs. buying proprietary blades? I'll stick with two passes with dirt cheap 100 pack razors). I pondered the V-groove cutter to avoid having to do all of those rabbets, as well as helping with curving walls. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure lining up the line with the other side of the foamcore will be a pain (not to mention the whole "torquing the sheet that's glued to the board").

The things that caught my attention and kept it were the clips. In the accessories section, they have T-clips and L-clips. Knowing how much of a pain it is to keep my buildings together while the glue dries, I grabbed a box of the L clips, and I'm looking forward to using them as soon as the local laser printer has toner again (whistles innocently while he waits to download the Mayhem Mall...).

Anyway, these tools are now in wide circulation (at least, across the AC Moore chain) and they have a shop finder on their site. Hope y'all find something you can use:

- Steeeeen

Those clips look cool. Their locator says they're at Blick's, but a search of the Blick online store was unsuccessful. Do you remember ho much the clips were? Thanks,

Luckyjoe

The clips were $5 for a pack of 8. As far as the tools go, they were in the $30-$40 range (!), so I'd definitely suggest waiting until a 40% off coupon at the very least (which typically means getting a Sunday paper).

Steeeeen

Thanks, that's a great price for those clips. I'm going to have to locate some. I used to use a small woodworking corner clamp but it was such a pain I gave up on it. These sound like a major improvement.

Luckyjoe

I've bought several tools to make straight 90* cuts, but they've all been crap. I might be willing to try this one if I see it around here, but there site doesn't list any stores close by.

The clamps are cool too. I've been using legos or wood clamps.

Legos! Hot damn, I've got tons of that crap left over from the kids, good thing I didn't chuck it. Great idea!

Actually . I just thought of a stand to keep to keep my Xbox cool, I was using taped stacks of pennies, now I'll just make two cradles from lego.

Someone recommended that I use legos to help make my CWU walls properly square. And after that I sort of used them for whatever was handy since I had them sitting there. They were very helpful when I was making my dicetower.

As an update...

I finally got to putting together some buildings last night using the Foamwerks L-clamps. In a word: SCHWEEEET. I popped the clips off this morning in the hope of setting up a second building before heading off to the office and the glue was holding solidly. Nice, solid, square corners.

I will note that I do rabbet the corners on my buildings, so the extra surface area very likely had something to do with it. In any case, I am very happy with the clamps. I suspect I'm going to need to pick up a second pack on my way home tonight.

The tools look awesome! Now I just gotta save up for all the ones I want!

Skunk

For we who grew up tall and proud
In the shadow of the mushroom cloud
Queen

Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

Hi LordAb,

The V-cutter I picked up here seemed to be left over from a trial import into NZ of FoamWerks. Other than that, they don't appear to be available here.

A quick Google search for 'foamwerks' in Australia turned up a couple of sites that seem to sell FoamWerks ( and ). Might be easier/cheaper to get them locally.

If you are still happy to ship across to NZ, then please let me know the price (with shipping to NZ) and I'll see if it fits into this months budget.

Cheers,
Zen

Found these too - after the fact and then went out for the day. Thanks for that. Now the core of the products seem to be $50AUD and the circle cutter over the $100AUD let me know what you are looking at so I can start looking at prices & shipping for you. I could be cheaper for you to buy direct so I will work that out also.

Talk later & thanks Z.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood