What's a cool gift (xmas or other) you've machined??

[seanreit]

Show some pics! I'm out of ideas and want to make some stuff for friends.

[Alan Wright]

One trivial item that everyone seems to love is little metal tops. They are just discs of any metal you like (though denser metals like steel, brass and bronze spin longest) with a knurled brass post inserted through them (rounded and polished on the bottom). You can get as carried away as you want with making them ornate or unusual. I usually make mine 1/4" thick, 1.25-1.5" diameter, with a 3/16" brass rod post, and add various grooves, lines, bevels, and even CNC spirals. Everyone who comes in my house and sees them laying around plays with them and then wants one. I make batches and people carry them off. The idea came from an old HSM article by Rudy Kouhoupt that I ran across in a collection of his articles called "The Shop Wisdom of Rudy Kouhoupt".

Rudy also had an article in that series (I think) that described construction of a nutcracker that I quite liked the look of. I made several of those as gifts one year. Here is my version:

http://www.swcp.com/~rawright/nutcracker.JPG

Another easy little thing is a "finger treadle" which can be found in one of the "Metalworking" series (vol 2?). People like playing with those too.

I hope to see some more such ideas. I need more of them too!

Alan

[seanreit]

I like the nut cracker, where did you get the handle? and did you machine the brass crusher?

[Alan Wright]

I machined all parts of it except for the "balanced crank" style handle. Also the threaded rod is just regular all-thread. The crank handles may have come from LittleMachineShop, as I remember buying some from LMS for another use but decided to use them on the nutcrackers. Clearly some other easier to machine designs could be used there.

The brass crusher was easy: I used a file to round the top side on the lathe, and milled 45 degree V grooves in the bottom. The hardest parts were the brass legs, but I have a CNC lathe which knocked those out easily. Otherwise something less curvy would have been appropriate.

Alan

[seanreit]

Ya, I'm all setup CNC lathe and a Tormach, that's why I liked it so much, I figured that handle had to be from somewhere though! Great invention, I love it. Got a picture from the backside?

[MrWild]

Back in the 70s I used to make Bongs. Kinda out grew that though....

[rando]

I've made a couple of clocks this year.

Boss's clock
He's very religious, and everyone pitched in for the high priced 6061aluminum plate

Then this one for my Father
made it out of a shop "trophy"
It was my first, and way too heavy.(1" steel plate hollowed out to 3/8 wall thicknesses still about 10 pounds) In fact, he has it sitting on a plate rack on top of his big old timey projecion bigscreen. He lives in California, and is afraid his Insurance rates would increase substantially if he had it hanging on the wall. He asked if I could make him a sign to hang next to it...cauton: in case of earthquake, move away from the clock.

[seanreit]

Where did you get the clock parts?

[rando]

e-bay...I don't remember the seller, do a websearch for clock movements.

They are all over the place and cheap. I just chose e-bay, because I am there all the time, had the idea, and searched it for clock movements.

The metal is the expensive part.

I have thought of doing them with painted plexi glass, as I don't have the rpm to do a good job with wood(it splinters terribly at 2400 rpm), but then using wood to house the clock movement.

One could do full color if you painted the base color, then pocketed one color, painted it, then the next, and on and on and on...could be fun. (would definately be challeging.)

[Alan Wright]

Originally Posted by seanreit Ya, I'm all setup CNC lathe and a Tormach, that's why I liked it so much, I figured that handle had to be from somewhere though! Great invention, I love it. Got a picture from the backside?

Backside is identical. BTW, two of the people I gave nutcrackers to actually use them to crack nuts. They suggest that the base be a bit wider than the little pieces of hardwood that I used. It's a little unstable as designed. In fact, a larger base which also functions as a "catch-tray" for nut and shell pieces would be ideal.