Still not ready

I got a small polishing motor last week. It is a bit under powered, and it doesn't have a dust collector, but I think it will be good enough.

I'm still not ready to complete any picks. Due to some delays in requesting the sanding belts be sent to me, I don't have them yet. And the other thing I don't have is some kind of wood finishing oil. I haven't been able to find what I want. I think I need to talk to a woodworker here about what to use.

Getting ready to make lock picks again

I got a drill press today, and have a grinder and belt sander coming next week. I will start making lock picks again soon. 

working again

I'm set up to do basic jewelry work in my home now. I have most of my important hand tools, micromotor, and a small torch. So far I have just done some work on the pieces I started in the jewelry class at my school. It's good to have my own bench and tools here, even if it is just a small fraction of the workshop I had in the US.  

First visit to a tool store in Taipei

Saturday I went to a jewelry tool store called Jin Bao Shan, in Taipei.  I bought a torch, soldering stuff, and other random small tools. It's not Rio Grande, but they seem to have everything I need for now.  I'll be going here again in a week or two  

I loved these oversized display burs. But I couldn't get my phone to focus on them, and finally gave up on getting an in focus shot. Maybe I'll try again next time.

They had a fairly good selection of hammers and stakes.

Draw plates, hammers, and rubber wheels in the little drawers.

Decent selection of rubber wheels. I just wish they all listed the brand name rather than just which country they are from.

A bench set up for demonstrations.

One part of the store was tools, the other part of the store was display and packaging stuff.

First time at my bench in Taiwan

I finally started working at my new bench last night. I started on a pendant. But I really need a light before I can do much. I'm planning to go to a jewelry tool supplier this weekend, I'll try to get one there. There are a lot of other little things I need, but I have all the other essential things to work here.

new bench

My new workbench arrived yesterday. I'm excited to start making things again. Now I really feel like I am living here in Taiwan, not just visiting for a while. 

workbench

I ordered a workbench today. It should come next week.  It's the same design as the bench I have been using in the US since 2000.  Cost was $227 USD, including shipping, which is much less than a similar bench in the US. 

A workbench is the most important thing for me to be able to make things here since I do everything at the bench: jewelry fabrication, wax carving, lock picks, carving, etc.

I have a lot of tools here, but not everything.  I will go through my tools this weekend and see what exactly I have.  I should have tools here to do some fabrication and carving.  I will go to a tool store in Taipei and buy some more stuff after I get the bench and figure out what else I need.

Lindsay Airgraver Classic

I recently bought a Lindsay Airgraver Classic.  I like it a lot so far.  I like how the power can be adjusted on the handpiece.  It feels different from my Gravermax, not better or worse, just different.

Airgraver Classic with foot control

Here is the Airgraver regulator and my old Gravermax.  The power is controlled in the handpiece of the Airgraver, while the Gravermax uses an air pulse from the control box.  They both have a connector for a high speed air handpiece, but it is controlled with a foot pedal on the Airgraver and with a knob on the Gravermax control box.

Airgraver regulator and Gravermax

pitch bowl

I want to try repousse so I got a pitch bowl and some pitch recently.  I've never done it before, except to play around with it a little in grad school.  I never had much interest in it before and the pitch looked messy and I didn't want to deal with it.

I saw some pieces in Japan that I really liked and the kind of got me interested in trying it.  I am also looking to go in a new direction with my work.  After being away from the studio and not making anything for about 5 years I didn't want to go right back to making the same things I had been making before I went to Korea.

This is the 6 3/4" pitch bowl from Rio.  I melted about 4 or 5 lbs of lead in the bottom of it to give it some weight before adding the pitch.  The pitch is from Northwest Pitchworks.

CAD toys

I got two new toys to use with Rhino while I was in the US.  I got a Logitech G600 mouse with 14 extra buttons so I can program them with the commands I use most often.  Today is only about the 3rd time I have used it, so I'm still learning the buttons.  The button functions are what's on paper between the keyboard and the screen.  I like it so far, except for the cord.  It's been years since I have used a mouse with a cord.  I can't stand cords, I don't even know why they still make them with cords.

 I also got a 3d mouse, the Spacemouse Pro Wireless.  It is for moving the model around while you work.  The knob in the middle moves in all direction so you can move, rotate and zoom any way you want.  So you would work with the normal mouse in your right hand and the space mouse in your left hand.  It's much more difficult to use than I expected.  It's probably overkill for the simple CAD work I do, but I don't care. 

The space mouse can also be used with Google Earth to fly around.  It's pretty cool.  

 

I got them at the same time, set them both up and tried to work but it was too confused having an unfamiliar tool in each hand.  So I decided to put the space mouse away till I am more familiar with the new normal mouse. 

Tool stores in Seoul

Last Saturday I went to two jewelry tool stores in Seoul.  Both were in Jongno-gu, Seoul.  The first one (in the photo below) had a pretty good selection.  I bought a nice solid plastic ring mandrel, a ring sizer, and a needle file.  I had been to the store once before in April or May, when I found it accidentally, but didn't have much time to look around.  The other store my Korean friend in the US told me about.  It was much smaller, but had a bigger selection of hammers.  Both stores had a lot of the same stuff you can find in the US, but they also had a lot of Korean made tools and some Japanese tools.  I'll probably go back later and get some hammers, pliers and maybe a few files and other random things that look interesting.

Jongno 3 ga Station, Exit 7

September update

Lately I've been working more on some tools. I made some more carving knives, and some handles that I have not put blades in yet.

I had pics of this one in my last post:


Here is a random process photo, below. I don't know much about wood working so I just put the wood on the lathe and treat it like metal. It's working ok so far.  


The handle below is ebony and ivory. I still need to properly photograph most of these handles. After I get all my handles and blades made then I will decide which blades to put in which handles. 


I also ordered some more wood and started on some saw handles. The top one is leopard wood, the bottom one is ebony.


I made two graver handles so far. They are finished except for the ferrule, which I will make out of silver.


It's still unfinished in this pic. The little thing sticking out on the left side is just something I left on it to help hold it in the lathe.


Cocobolo on the left, ebony on the right.




I got a commission recently to make a belt like the scale neckpiece I finished in 2009.  It's going to be much thinner and shorter than the neckpiece so it won't take nearly as long. 


To keep the cost down she gave me some silver things to melt down to use for the belt.  She gave me these two sterling goblets, but I think rather than meting them down, I will keep at least the big one and use some of my own silver instead. 


She also gave me six of these hand engraved napkin holders. 




I'm happy to get the work, but not all that happy about doing more scales. 

new tools and new wood

Recently I have been making some small wood carving knives. The blades are made of either drill rod or old burs.



In the photo below, the top knife I made over a year ago. The blade is really good, I think it's probably my favorite, but the handle is not that nice looking. I am going to make a new handle for it later. The one below it is snakewood, I made it recently. The ferrules on both of them are sterling. The handle at the bottom with no blade is ebony with ivory at both ends. I really like that one, I just haven't decided which blade to put in it yet.



I would like to make a handle completely out of ivory, but it's a little expensive for me right now, and I might get in trouble with customs if they find me trying to bring it into Korea.

I received some new wood today. Some I got to make lockpicks, and some I got to make more tool handles. I got more ebony, snakewood, and boxwood. I am not sure what I was thinking when I ordered the boxwood in that size. I could have ordered cheaper thinner pieces, since I'm going to end up cutting most of it away.

I also got some lignum vitae (two light brown pieces on the right), which I used once before in a hammer handle, and two woods I have never used before, pyinma and buckeye burl. The longest piece is the pyinma, I sanded and oiled the right half of it so I could get an idea how it will look when it's finished. The buckeye burl is the black and white piece below it.



I ordered it all from Griffin Exotic Wood. I have ordered from them several times now and have always been happy with them. I ordered from another company a couple times that wasn't very good. They didn't have their wood graded. They just had "ebony", they don't say anything about the quality, if it's black, or brownish or has brown streaks in it. I don't want ebony with brown in it. If I wanted brown I would buy some other kind of wood. Griffin has most of their wood priced and sold according to a grade they give it. Since I am just buying these little pieces I usually buy the best quality. There may be other companies better than them but I don't order wood very often so I just stick with one I like.

Below are all the picks I am working on right now. The types of wood are, from the top down:
ebony
holly
zircote
micarta + wood handle scales x2 (I can't remember what type at the moment)
ebony
cocobolo x2
boxwood
snakewood
boxwood



The two picks at the top I probably won't finish. They both require a lot of detailed carving, and I don't even like them that much, so I think there's better things I could spend my time on right now.

In the low quality photo below are a pair of picks I am keeping for myself. I just finished the ebony one last night. It was almost finished before I went to Korea last year, but I never epoxied it together for some reason. The white pick is holly, I need to find something to seal the wood so it doesn't get dirt worked into the grain of the wood from being handled.

I cannot remember if I mentioned it before, but some Chinese or Korean company is making plastic copies of this design.

fuses

A little over a week ago I decided it was time to start working again. My micromotor is 110v, so I have to use it with my 220-110v transformer. Electronics, like digital cameras and computers usually can handle either 110 or 220v. Since that's all I really use, my transformer has been sitting there gathering dust since I got it.

I knew i needed to use my micromotor with the transformer, but I wasn't thinking and put an adapter on the plug and plugged it in to the 220v outlet. Luckily there are two easily replaceable fuses in it so I didn't destroy the micromotor. But since they are 125v fuses I figured they are probably not available in Korea, so I had my parents send me some from the US.

I got those yesterday, so now I am ready to work. I don't really know what to make. I might just start carving a wax, just anything, to get back into working.

new tool catalog

I got the 2010 Rio Grande Tools and Equipment catalog in the mail today. Getting the new tools catalog and seeing what new stuff they have used to be a really exciting day for me. But now I have just about everything I need, and the new things in the catalog usually aren't anything I am interested in. There are still some things I want for my studio, but it's mostly random tools I would probably never use or expensive equipment that Rio doesn't sell.

My favorite tools

I love tools and I'm not joking when I say that tools are one of the main reasons I went in to the metal working field, so I thought I would make a list of my favorite tools. Not necessarily the ones I use every day, but the ones that I really like.

I'm also working on a list of my least favorite tools.

After the first two items on the list the rest of the list is in no particular order.

10x loupe - I am starting the list with the 10x loupe, because it is one of two tools I own that is always out on my bench. My tools are usually scattered all over my bench, but when I clean everything gets put away, except for my loupe and caliper, they stay out because there's no reason to ever put them away. Everything has its place and the place for my loupe is on my bench top right in front of me.

I am always inspecting everything with a 10x loupe while I am working and when I am finished. There is so much more to see when you are looking at things under magnification.

Mitutoyo digital caliper - This is the other tool I own that is always out on my bench. I am constantly using calipers. I used a cheap vernier caliper for about 4 1/2 years, then I got a cheap digital caliper. It was ok, but I always had to close it and make sure it was zeroed before using it. In 2006 I got my current 6" Mitutoyo digital caliper. It's much better. It never needs to be zeroed, when you close it it always returns to 0.00. It's also sealed against dust and moisture to a certain degree. I'm sure other quality brands make good calipers too, like Starrett, but I haven't used them.


Ultrasonic - There was a period when I didn't have one, and that period sucked. After polishing all the little 3mm pieces of tubing on my teapot I had to clean all 109 of them by hand with a toothbrush because I didn't have an ultrasonic. The ultrasonic is also the best way to clean a piece of aluminum before anodizing.

For some reason they aren't really into the ultrasonic at universities I have been at, and the art center I taught at. I have no idea why. When I worked as a bench jeweler the first thing I would do in the morning was turn on the heat on the ultrasonic, and turn on the steam cleaner. At these schools and the art center the heat is never turned on, usually it needs water added, and I rarely saw anyone using it.

I am ashamed to show this photo of my Chinese made ultrasonic, I needed one but I couldn't afford an American or German one.


NSK E-max micromotor with belt sander - This sander is the reason I bought the E-max micromotor. It saves me so much time making my aluminum pieces and shaping the wood handles of my lock picks. When I say it saves time, I mean it saves so much time that if I no longer had this tool I would probably quit working in aluminum.

This isn't something I use to put a final finish on a piece, but it is perfect to use after filing or grinding with a bur, which is how I shape all my aluminum pieces. Hand finishing can come after that. Belts come in 4, 6 or 8mm widths, mostly I am using 4 or 8 mm in 120, 240, or occasionally 400 grit. Belts are available between 80 and 800 grit, they also have diamond belts up to 1000 grit, and felt belts. They are kind of hard to find though, the only place I have found them is here.


The E-max is adjustable from 1000 RPMs to 35,000 RPMs (someone else can figure out what that is in SFPM, I really don't care), so you can turn it up when you want to remove material quickly, or turn it way down for sanding around details.

The problem with this stuff is the price. I have bad news for anyone who may be now thinking they want to buy one of these belt sanders... they are around $400 just for the sander, and you still need the $800 E-max. To my knowledge Rio Grande never had these sanders in their printed catalog, but in 2007 they had them on their website in the close out section for $150, thats when I bought mine. A year later Rio still had them in the close out section, now for $50. By that time this tool was so essential to me I bought a second one as a back up. They no longer have them anymore.


Super glue - Not just any super glue, it has to be the one in this awesome "Frustration Free Applicator" made by Loctite. There's just a little tube or something inside the plastic and you squeeze the sides to use it. I won't buy any other super glue. Seriously.


I only use super glue while I am making things, it doesn't get used on any finished pieces. I use it for things like making sure I am happy with the position of a part before soldering it on. Like in the photo below, that square thing on the right end of my teapot is glued on. If I am happy with it where it is I will mark it with a scribe.

I also use it when making lock picks to to glue my handle templates to the steel to trace. I have used it to hold parts I am milling and to hold parts I am cutting on the lathe.


Holding tools/hand vises - I love tools to hold the things I am working on. Beginners or people who have never used some kind of holding device to hold the piece they are trying to file or saw often do not seem to understand how important they are. Within the category of holding tools, these are my favorites:

Bergeon locking parallel pliers - The pliers in the photo below are Swiss, there's also a German version which are black, and a much cheaper version that are probably made in China or Pakistan. Otto Frei sells the German version, Progress Tool apparently sells all three versions, but they show the same picture of the Bergeon pliers for both the Swiss and German versions. I wonder if they have them all in stock? Rio no longer sells any of these pliers.


They work best for holding things with parallel sides, like this piece of aluminum that went on the lid of my teapot.


They also work for some things that have somewhat parallel sides like this piece I have been working on recently in the photo below.


The pliers in the photo below - I don't know what exactly they are called.  Otto Frei calls them "sliding hand vise pliers," Progress tool calls them "chipping tong pliers," what ever that means. What ever they are called I like them. Mine are Italian made, from Progress tool. Otto Frei used to sell German ones, now they only sell Pakistani ones.


I use these for holding small pieces of sheet metal to file or saw. They are especially useful for making my lock picks. With these pliers and the parallel pliers you need to put the piece you will be filing as far into the pliers as possible so it can't bend or vibrate as you file. When I am filing my lock picks I usually have the metal sticking up past the top of the pliers only about 1mm. In the photo below I am using a separating disk to cut some of the notches in the left end of the pick.


Miter vise - Tool catalogs often say this tool is good for holding things for sawing. I never found it very useful for that.  For me its only purpose is to old something to file something completely flat, like the ends of a piece of tubing or rod.


Sil-Air compressor - This one is kind of a luxury piece of equipment.  A compressor is essential, a silent compressor not so much.  At my old job we had a compressor in a cabinet maybe 10 feet behind where I worked.  It sounded like a lawn mower when it ran.  I couldn't stand it.  So when it was time for me to get my own compressor I decided to get a quiet one.  This one is about as loud as a refrigerator when it runs.  I said this one is kind of a luxury item cause it costs around 10x as much as a normal compressor of the same size.  Of course it depends on the brand, but that's approximately how much more it costs.  I hate noisy compressors and I totally feel it was worth the extra cost


Foredom #18 quick change hand piece - For me, this quick change handpiece is better than any others I have used because you are able to push the lever to release the bur with the hand you are using to hold the handpiece without changing your grip.  Changing a bur takes about 1-2 seconds.


There are a lot more tools I love, but this list is good enough for now.  Maybe I will write another post someday and continue this list.