Re: [VFB] Handling plastic eyes

[Wes Wada]

As one would hope, there have been a nice variety of replies and innovative techniques to deal with the problem of easily handling plastic eyes.

I am hoping there are some more responses out there, particularly from those of you who have had to wrestle with this problem before.

I find myself agreeing and objecting to bits and pieces of each of the suggestions. The first concern is not to get glue all over the place. Not on the tools, not too much on the back of the plastic eye, and definitely not on the fingers. The worst thing that can happen to the eye is to get glue on the visible face, and that most often happens by first getting glue on your fingers.

Ideally, I would prefer not to get anything on the visible part of the plastic eye that I would have to clean off later.

I did really like the suggestion of using the gel type super glue, but have to build up my courage to use super glue, as I have had pretty miserable experiences with the stuff. Never have used the gel type, however. I still like the glue that comes from a glue gun as it is easy to control, fastens dependably, and is dirt cheap. You can squirt out a bead, dip a needle into it and pick up a controlled size blob by twirling the needle (bodkin).

The type of eye I am using is the solid plastic half dome shaped type with an adhesive back that is stuck to some coated paper. I really like those eyes, but the adhesive back tends to foul up some of your suggestions.

Still would like to encourage the lurkers out there to let us know their solutions.


Wes Wada
Bend, Oregon