... along with great satisfaction!!

I built by first 2 tiles yesterday night. Took me about 2 hours

As I was working through it on my work bench I kept thinking "what the hell did I get myself into? I have a job, 7 wives to please and 65 kids, did I really need the extra chor... GAH! there goes a chunk of foam (bunching up is a bitch)... jeez, how to I glue my tiles onto the foam without putting glue all over my cutting mat... OH DEAR LORD MY FINGER?? the blood!! it's EVERYWHERE!!"

And so on...

But then I finished the 1st tile and it looked... slick! And great. I felt a real sense of achievement, even though I haven't built anything real yet.

Anyway. I ran into two major problems and have 1 minor question:

1)When I glue my templates onto the foam I have to be careful to get glue on the edges of the template but I always end up leaving a smear of glue on the desk as well (or the cutting mat). I wipe it off but always leave some - and when it was time to glue the tile I got glue on the texture side and made angels cry.

I've had this problem since I was a kid. I never understood how anyone could apply glue to the edge of a paper sheet without getting it all over the place.

Any advice in that department? How can I get better at glueing cleanly?

2)Cutting foamcore - I keep getting bunched foam chunks when I cut the Linx Tabs (90 degree angle straight down) - but when I cut the tiles (70 degree) everything is smooth. Any idea why or what I am doing wrong?

I use a brand new blade - although it is a snapoff.

3)How the heck do I snap off bits of my blade? I can see the notches when it should snap but I am having trouble breaking the blade along that line. I had to use my vice and pliers and it still was a pain. I'm worried about messing up the blade doing it this way.

Any input appreciated!

Foam: When cutting, I find that the bunched-up-foam happens more often when I hold the blade at a steep angle. The closer to 90° you get (holding the blade almost vertically), the more it bunches up. The closer to 0° you get (holding the blade almost horizontally), the smoother the edges of the foam. Also, slow and steady blade movement seems to work better than fast and erratic.

Glue: I always have old, discarded paper (tons of pages of printed stuff for university/work that no one will ever need again) underneath when glueing, to save my cutting mat from nasty stains.
Also, I use the snippets that come off around all the pieces of card I use, cut into smaller pieces (abut an inch square) to kind of scoop off excess glue so it doesn't come squirting out all around as soon as I press stuff together. Meaning: a) apply glue to glueing surface. b) Hold item in one hand, discarded cardboard in other hand. c) carefully scoop up excess glue with the discarded paper, leaving only as much glue on glueing surface as is really needed.

Blades: I always pull the blade back in so that the line where I want it to break just peeks out of the handle. Then I use my trusty to break it off. Yes, it takes excessive force. Yes, bits could go flying! I always hold it deep in a trashcan when I do that, so that nothing goes flying about.

Edith added something to the glue part.

Another thing you might want to try is applying the glue to the board directly instead of to the template/tile, it makes things a lot cleaner. What I tend to do is print out a bunch of templates, glue them all to a board at once, then cut them out (I usually make a day of it when I can get a good-sized table to myself).
Magius out.

For the tiles, as said, applying to the foam itself instead of the template is a great idea. Based on my own learning experience, you may be putting your bead of glue too close to the edges, remember, when you smooth down the paper and put it under some weights to dry, the glue will be smooooshed out. This means if you put the glue right up to the edge, some will squirt out. You'll learn thru some trial and error how much "buffer" you should give yourself. I typically give myself just under 1/4" and then use some scrap cardstock to smooth out the bead of glue, so a lot of that spreading effect is mitigated.

Instead of scrap paper, I do a lot of my gluing on some waxed paper, as well as sandwiching my stuff in wax paper while it dries. It cuts down on the chance of a stray bit of glue making the model stick to the books or whatever I stack on top of it.

Here is a second on using the waxed paper. I always put down a sheet of waxed paper when starting to glue some full sheets or when applying glue to the entire back of a part like when laminating multiple pieces to make thick formers and structural parts.
Any glue that gets on the waxed paper when applying glue close to the edge (any Yes fans out there? ) is easily wiped up before the next glue application procedure. It also keeps the work surface clear of glue. Aluminum foil works good too and is especially useful when using CA type glues.

You can purchase inexpensive rolls of both waxed paper and aluminum foil at dollar stores or their equivalent.