AT-RS Photo Etched Rolling Set

The DSPIAE AT-RS rolling set for photo-etch

A jig with which a flat photo-etched part is rolled into a regular cylinder or arc. Photo-etched sheet is thin and when rolled by hand it always kinks in one place instead of bending evenly, so what should be a tube comes out as an angular shape. The rolling set guides the part between a support face and a roller, so the material bends smoothly across its whole width.

What it is suited to

Typically for trim, rims, covers, shields, funnels, skin panels and everything that is meant to look like bent sheet on a finished model. It comes into play on ships, military subjects and aircraft, that is everywhere a photo-etch set holds strips meant to be rolled.

How to work with it

• Load the part straight and square; sheet put in crooked rolls into a cone.
• Bend gradually and in several passes; one heavy pass will kink the sheet.
• Count on the part returning slightly once released, so roll it a little further.
• Brass photo-etch can be annealed before rolling; the material then bends without springing back.

Who it is for

The set is for modelers who work with photo-etch sets regularly and need to make more of them than flat glued-on parts. It is a complement to a bender with jaws, not a substitute for it: a bender makes sharp edges, this jig smooth arcs.

Before rolling the real part it pays to try the procedure on an offcut of the photo-etch fret left over once the parts have been removed. The material and the thickness are the same, so the behavior of the jig gets verified without any risk. Photo-etched parts have very sharp edges, so be careful when working with them.