Vectric Customer

Can`t believe how good these little things turned out.
First 2 are 3 inch tall.
1-2-3 are form maple.
3 and 4 are 2-1/4 inch tall.
#4 is from mahogany.
Cut with the little Chinese 0.5 R ball nose bit
mark-s

What I like is the difference in a person's face from when they Look at it...to when you place it in their hand:)
They kinda weigh it, then flip it around to feel it, then usually look around for a brighter light and meander there...and usually don't want to put it down
Those little bits don't leave a heck of a lot of finishing to do:)
(Just ordered today a few of their 3" long .25"shank ones:)
IS kind of addicting...Beware!!!
Looking Good!
(Don't forget to sign the backs:)
scott

Know what you mean, the look on there faces and not wanting to put them down. LOL
What were the sizes of the 3" bits, would like to check them out.
Thank you Scott, you do great work.
I have small stickers I put on the back, Name and phone number.
Thanks
mark-s

Bad news, you've got a competitor, Scott
Nice work Mark.
Rather than adding a sticker, engraving the back improves the finishing level.
A little more work, but it's worth it.

Competition is a Good thing Didier...We'll both just keep raising the bar

I agree stickers just won't hack it if Mark wants a high end niche market.
Engraving can sometimes be a pain on tiny stuff(I use an Onsrud 30 degree engraving bit with a .005" flat described as a VBit for sub .15" fonts on bigger stuff).
But when hand signing, I found(after trying a dozen different types of pens)a Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine tip. It writes on an oil finish even when it has Beeswax in the mix, and after 20 minutes dry time won't smudge with fingers,and 24 hours later I can start applying more finish. It can even be washed which is why we used for buttons and keyfobs.
Not sure with other finishes due to different thinners.
I like to add the wood species, as people always ask...good for adding a dedication if people can wait 20 minutes.

Thanks Mark:)
When I bought the 1/8"shank tiny ones, I didn't know how they'd cut. As soon as I had used a couple times, I re-ordered for spares, and added 1 3"length .25mmR to see if they cut as well as the Tiny ones from the same seller. Satisfied after a cut in River Red Gum and Black Walnut branch.
Ordered from the same seller again;
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... d&_sacat=0

And stocked up in case I get the "Dropsies". Keep up the good work Mark!
scott

This is an interesting topic (signing pieces vs putting a label on).

I had used engraving bits with mixed success (to put my business logo with e-mail, website, etc). It looks very good when done well, but due to the nature of the majority of my pieces (military unit badges that are 3D) they are very difficult to get level on the spoilboard after removing them from the waste material (I usually leave about .1" on the bottom (pretty thick onion skin....) so that the pieces don't life while cutting, so I couldn't just flip the piece over and engrave the piece while it's still flat on the front.

I have decided to go a slightly more "upscale" route (my pieces average $200-$250 CDN): engraving brass plate with my logo and then securing it to the back of the piece. I started with 3" x 6" brass plate from Michael's (craft store) but without the odd 40%-50% coupons, it's not cost effective ($25 for 4 pieces). Initially I searched out trophy blanks, etc and found eBay stores that sold different shaped brass tags (usually for stamping identifying markers for plumbing, etc), but I would have to create a jig, or some method of precisely placing the blanks so they look nice (so I could cut out more than one at a time, to keep it all time/cost effective).

I opted to go to the local Metal Superstore and buy some cutoff pieces of brass to experiment with. Unfortunately I haven't documented my attempts with the craft store brass pieces, which I used a diamond drag bit to scribe the logo, and a 1/16" Amana endmill to cut the pieces out of the brass plate (I did 6 at a time, with thick 2-sided tape to secure to spoil board... it worked very well). 24 gauge brass is a good thickness to start with (IMO) because it is rigid enough to maintain it's shape when I peeled the 2 sided tape off after they were cut out. For the new piece of brass I bought, I am going to try using a very small ball nose (1/32"r) to carve the logo, since the diamond drag experiment was OK, but not great (very faintly marked, but I'm now wondering if a second pass would perhaps improve the appearance/depth). That might have been due to the hardness of the craft store brass (no indication of type/hardness). The cutoff piece I got from Metal Supermarket was "260 half hard" and appears to be a more traditional type of brass (I was in the military and grew to hating polishing brass of all types ). For reference purposes, I paid $12Cdn per pound for the piece I bought (9" x 12") of .032 plate (I believe that is 22 gauge). Not sure what the pricing it is regularly, but for comparison to the craft store, I got 72 sq in of plate for $25CDN (excluding coupon price) and the cutoff piece (with light surface scratches that will have to be buffed off) was 108 sq in for $13CDN. If I nest things cleverly, I should be able to get quite a few tags (I'm going to make 2 or 3 different sizes of tags, to correspond to different size pieces). I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to secure these things once I'm done, though. I was thinking of cutting a pocket on the back so that the badge will be flush with the back of the material, but I run into the "making the badge level on the bed so I can cut it dilemma", since the pocket will be fairly shallow, and any variation will be immediately obvious. I'm considering thin 2-sided tape, perhaps augmented with brass nails (more for decoration but also to secure if the tape fails). I don't like this solution, since I generally use flush mount hardware from Lee Valley, so that the pieces sit flat on the wall if/when mounted that way.

When I have the time I will post pictures (and likely create a new thread instead of highjacking the OP's thread (dig the miniatures, BTW!!! I'm not sure what .5r ball nose is the equivalent to in imperial, but I use the Amana 1/64"r bits on some of my smaller (under 6") military badges and the detail is incredible (cut times are still measured in hours, not minutes, but that's the price you pay for that kind of detail).

Allan

With regard to signing the back of work, I often engrave directly into the piece and I've also got a pyrography pen, recently bought a branding iron from ebay here in the UK which you can see the result of below. Much quicker and they are relatively cheap and come in a variety of sizes.

In terms of small stuff I've been doing some plugs for screw holes recently that are only 40mm across (approx 1.5") - also shown below - these are cut two sided as I put a round plug on the back which covers the screw and secures the part. I'll post an image of each side being machined too.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
James

James,
Loving the little screw covers!
Did similar stuff 22 years ago when building the house, but used a router template or hollow chisel mortiser to make rectangular mortises for more than one screw.
Back then it was simple geometric shapes done by hand, but getting around to replacing some with 3Ds.
I did 2 test cuts that will look good on Atrium trim once I cut tenons to glue on the back(then finish them up).

I can't quite tell if on the 40mm ones whether you used 3D tabs, or maybe a skin layer for cutting out with a knife?
If 3D tabs...which shape and thickness did you use?
If skin layer...how thick for that Walnut?
I've got a TON of single screw holes to cover on my picture rail that runs around the house:)
Beautiful work as always!
scott

Hi Scott,
I use the tapered conical finishing tool to do the cutout and leave small tabs - just a couple of mm thick (around .1 inch) which seemed to hold them ok and then cut these with a knife. I also cut slowly on the profile to make sure the force is low.
Cheers,
James

Thank you Very much James!
Happy Holidays....and LOVE your work!!
scott