Walk the Dog

[workinforwood]

Being in the pet supply industry, I've had a rediculous amount of requests for these. I personally don't care much about them, but they are simple to do and certainly a big money maker. Euro's are my number 1 choice, as these are what the ladies seem to prefer, and they are the once that are the big spenders, at least for me they are.

I turn the pen almost to final size. I draw in the paws, pretty simple to do, just with a pencil and I'm running a tiny carbide bit in the foredom power carver.

Mix up the liquid inlace, just a couple drops of hardener is all it takes. Fill in the holes and let sit at least 4 hrs.

Carve them in about a 1/16 deep or a bit more. Just a gentle touch allows more control, the material removes pretty fast.

Turn the inlace off the top and fine tune pen to size, then sand, finish and assemble. That's it

 

[GaryMGg]

Jeff,
You've got the right attitude: if you're making 'em to sell, make what sells! []
That's well done. My daughter would like it. [^]

 

[gketell]

Very cute.

GK

 

[doddman70]

Very nice!!! i have been wondering about doing something like that but was'nt sure how to do it. would a dremel work as good?

Shane

 

[wdcav1952]

Shane, a Dremel will work, but is very slow compared to a Foredom. Think of a Yugo and a Porsche.

The very high speed allows a lighter touch for control.

 

[Ligget]

Fantastic idea, thanks for sharing your technique, I`m sure you will see many paw print pens appearing now![]

The pen looks great Jeff![]

 

[JavaCrammer]

Now that's interesting! I suppose the same principle could be used for personalizing a pen and writing in someone's name. Never seen that done before. I'm pretty much a noob, though.

 

[txbatons]

Nice work and great idea. I don't think I'd have as much control if I was writing a name or other intricate detail. I'd have to go with the laser guys on those. Hand shakes too much!

 

[R2]

Great idea and great work on the pens![][][]

 

[bitshird]

What a cool idea, I breed German Shepards, maybe I can entice customers by giving them a pen like that when they sign the AKC papers, maybe even get a few bucks more for the pups [] or give one or two to our local humane society for fund rasing, [^]

 

[Milpaul]

Thanks for sharing, great idea. Where do you get the liquid inlace from?

 

[airrat]

Very nice job on those.

I have been wanting to do that using our 400xs engraver but have not had time yet. Glad to see it being done. Here are the stats of a high speed engraver. You can see what William means in his comparison.

I have not done any writing with it yet but we did do some engraving.



EDITED sorry don't want to hijack the thread. Took the picture out and will just put in my album

 

[workinforwood]

I got my inlace from csusa. It's about the cheapest I've found. You can get it cheaper elsewhere , but then you have to calculate the size and do the math, then realize it is not cheaper. It's a simple task. Writing an actual name wouldn't be so simple, I'd leave that to a laser or cnc. But it's the general idea that you can do cool stuff with simple tools, like even a dremel would be fine, but if I did use a dremel, I'd use the flex shaft attachment, and it will do the job until of course eventually the dremel breaks down like mine always used to. You can get other colors, and I'm sure carve leaves, flowers and many other types of simple things.

 

[toolcrazy]

I can't let my daughter see that, then I won't here the end of it. Nice work.

 

[dlindquist]

Thats good stuff. How much do you charge for them?

 

[louisbry]

Nice touch Jeff. I noticed that you have come up with several inovative ideas previously.

 

[gwilki]

Jeff
I don't want to hijack this thread, so if the members here say so, I'll start a new one in another forum.

I'm a bit confused about the tools used. You mentioned that you uses a Foredom. On their website, Foredom shows that the fastest woodcarver runs at 18,000 rpm.
Cav said that dremels are not as good as they are slower. Dremel shows on their website that the Dremel that I have runs at 35,000 - clearly much faster than the Foredom.
Tom came on and pointed out that SCM's machine runs at 400,000. Now we're talking FAST here. It's an air-powered tool.

So, did you use the 18000 Foredom to do these great pens? If so, I should be able to use my Dremel, except that it is not near as comfortable to hold as I would imagine the small Foredom unit to be.

Thanks much.

 

[RONB]

Nice job. Good idea. I love all of the fresh ideas found here.

 

[nwcatman]

csusa has a POWERCRAFTER that runs at 400,000 rpm and runs on air. is this the same thing?

 

[wdcav1952]

Originally posted by nwcatman
<br />csusa has a POWERCRAFTER that runs at 400,000 rpm and runs on air. is this the same thing?

Actually, I think that is what I was thinking about. I could have sworn the foredom tools were higher speed, but obviously I was wrong. The "dental" type of handpiece allows better control than holding the usual dremel. That being said, perhaps a quality dremel with the flex handpiece attachment might do quite well. Since I just got a $300 bill from our vet, maybe he should buy a few pens from me!!

 

[gwilki]

Cav
You should do some "dog" pens and pay off the vet that way. Barter is really in just now. []

Oh, thanks much for the clarification.

 

[workinforwood]

I can't answer the questions of speed. I didn't dissagree that a dremel would work either, like I said, a dremel will work, but best use the attachment. Dremel is junk as it is plastic, the brushes wear fast and it is very uncomfortable. It's good in that it's cheap and allows you to know if you would be interested in power carving without dishing out the cash for a real machine. I have done lots with dremel, I suggest use the flex shaft attachment for comfort and better control is all. The thing with the foredom is that it is overhead and heavy duty. I can't tell you the speed difference, but it is foot controlled. It is power, it does not stall under load. The brushes are big as the motor is 10 times the size. The shaft does not get hot. The handpiece comes in many sizes and styles to meet your comfort and at times to meet the type of carving you need to do. I do use the dental bits too, which I get used ones at the dentist for free and they still work fine.

The main idea of the whole thread of course is just to tap into some more imagination...give out some new ideas. Lasers are awesome, the work they do in most situations just can't be beat. But how many of us have one and how many of us can afford them or even the cost of contracting out some jobs? If you want a company name that really should be precise, you have to go laser. But you can have fun and come up with ideas that involve just a pencil and a small carving bit with some inlace of one or even several colors. Dog paws are a great example. I can imagine flowers, leaves, flames and who knows what else you could carve into your pen and then re-fill, or perhaps just leave it carved out too. I appreciate all the nice comments, and the comment about how do I come up with these intersting, and I quote you not me as saying "inovative" ideas...it's all just from the way my day job is. I drive a truck, and I log thousands of miles where I have nothing better to do than think about what and how to do something. It's as simple as that. I don't consider myself inventive so much as I think it's probably all been done by someone somewhere at some time. Otherwise, it's possibly just one of those things staring you right in the face and therefor you don't see it...we've all know what that's like! []

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Very nice work with the 'paws'. Not to highjack but I think that a woodburning tool would also be 'effective' in terms of adding a special design element to pens. Very, very affordable alternative.

-Peter-[]