Friday, December 22, 2017

Hypno Coins!

Hi Folks,

Dark and brooding skies here today and we're expecting a few inches of snow later on. Good day for a super quickie sale or two...

Today I have a tiny batch of special titanium Spin Coins. These have a milled spiral in the bottom which gives the classic "Hypno" tunnel effect when spinning. These are so much fun and the two tone anodizing really heightens the effect. Crazy cool stuff!

I have just 13 of these little gems today, all a little different. There is another bit larger batch of ti Game Coins with similar spiral milling which will be coming later this winter as well.

The Hypno Titanium Spin Coins will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you for visiting today and hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Hypno Coins are gone, thanks again everyone!




Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Brass Game Coins with Glow!

Hi Everyone,

The harsh winter weather continues here, bitter cold and gray outside these past few days but a bit sunnier today.

Well we're fast approaching year's end and I'm still steadily chipping away at projects this week. I put in a few hours this past weekend despite the endless distractions and will have some more goodies coming along this week and probably next week as well... I already have some really cool items scheduled for winter too. Honestly though I'm really looking forward to slowing down after the holidays which will give me the chance to hang out in the shop and get some work done at a pace that is a bit more leisurely.

Today I have more Glow Coins for you! These are stamped brass Game Coins with antique finish, and they feature my usual wide ranging assortment of decorative antique stamps. They are so much fun and I want to thank everyone for the many kind words and emails I have gotten after the previous glow coin releases. Glad to hear that you all are enjoying them as much as I have enjoyed making them.

The Brass Game Coins with Glow will run $90 plus shipping and once again this is not a huge batch so one per customer on them please. Thanks for stopping by today and have a great week!


Sold out, thank you so much everyone!











 

Friday, December 15, 2017

Titanium Glow Coins!

Hi Everyone,

Thermometer was reading 7f earlier when I took out the garbage, so nice and frosty out there this morning...we had the oil burner guys here to fix a faulty zone valve and bleed some air from the system so now we should be all set to face the coming months.

With all the recent sales taking my time I haven't been making much progress in the shop this past week, but I still hope to complete some more stuff for next week, probably some beads. The Zr Mini Bermuda Triangles are also contenders but it's looking like they probably won't be done next week after all. So maybe after Christmas for those...in any case, I am looking at all my projects and trying to decide what I can realistically complete before the end of the year. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

Today I have the second round of GID Spin Coins ready! These are turned from solid titanium bar stock with a nifty "petal" pattern milled around the rim and they are anodized contrasting colors. They are quite striking. I used super glue to attach the glass lenses on these and most future glow coins, so they have a smoother appearance rather than the lacy look of the bubble ones from yesterday....also, there are a half dozen without anodizing too, available by request, for you ti fans who just like plain old vanilla. You know who you are, haha...

The Titanium Glow Coins will run $90 plus shipping and the link to purchase is below. It's a very limited size batch, only about 3 dozen, so it will be one per customer again please. As always, thank you so much for stopping by and hope your weekend is starting early!


These are sold out,thank you everyone! :)



 

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Bronze Glow Coins!

Hi Folks,

Brrrr, pretty darned cold out there this morning with the temps hovering around 17f. Ice and snow covers the yard and despite being well sanded the roads are still not quite melted clean from the storm earlier this week. I had to perform an emergency fix on my mailbox yesterday as the town plow had knocked it completely off the post. It's supposed to get down to the single digits tonight so we're staying quite bundled up here in the northeast.

Today I have another really cool drop to offer you, bronze Spin Coins with glow inserts! I've been working on these off and on since the summer and just finally have enough finished to do some sales for them. This is the first small batch, with several more interesting variations to follow.

These non stamped bronze Spin Coins are basically the same long spinning design as the previous batches. But instead of leather inserts, this time I decided to try some glow in the dark effects. I found some GID insert material that works surprisingly well indeed....I'm extremely picky about GID and while this stuff isn't quite on par with, for instance, the C3 Superluminova you might see on some of the better German watches, it definitely does glow nicely all night long so I'm really happy about that. It probably helps that it is a large surface area compared to tiny watch hands.

I did try a comparison piece with epoxy and the best glow powder btw, and these are far brighter. That is largely because it takes an enormous amount of powder plus a white painted base surface to really get a decent effect. I gave up after one test piece because it was obviously going to be a crazy amount of work for no real benefit. I tried glow paints too, same issues plus very messy.   

The glow is really neat, but what makes these Spin Coins extra special is the solid glass lens. Now, if you were to merely set some glass on top of the insert like a watch crystal, the finished object does look interesting and the glass keeps things underneath from getting dirty. But if you take matters further and physically CEMENT the two together something truly magical happens. The glass lens now becomes connected and it picks up whatever is on the underlying surface and projects it around the curved dome. From the side it creates a remarkable three dimensional type effect similar to a glass marble. The underlying surface becomes animated and will move and distort slightly as you tilt the coin. It's mesmerizing and just soooo darned cool. :)

On these first coins, I was experimenting with various adhesives to attach the glass and at first everything was going perfectly. I spent more than an entire day assembling and attaching glass to these, and they looked awesome. But after they had dried for a few days I noticed that tiny gas bubbles had formed under the glass and some of these bubbles continued to increase in size for several days afterward. At first I thought this was a defect and was absolutely disgusted that my hours of hard work were ruined, but then I realized that the bubbles are actually quite beautiful! On subsequent batches I have switched to super glue which is also very tricky but produces a clearer effect, although I am once again toying with the idea of trying some more bubbles as well. We'll see how it goes...anyway, there are more brass Game Coins with glow following these bronze ones, and also some wild alternate designs in titanium.

Bronze Glow Coins will run $80 plus shipping and the link to purchase is below. There are only a few dozen so it's one per customer on them please. A much larger batch of antique brass Game Coins with glow will be coming soon plus a handful of stainless and some titanium. Thanks for dropping by today and have a great weekend!

All gone for today. Thanks so much everyone!






 

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Fancy Titanium Rulers

Hi Everyone,

Well it's snowing pretty hard out there this morning and we're due for another couple of inches it looks like. It might turn to rain later and make a crusty top before turning colder later this week. Good time to make some hot cocoa and have a sale I think.

Well today I have something super special for you guys. It's been a long time since I did any pattern finishes but I had it in mind for some of these R37 Rulers even before I first cut them this summer. These are part of the same batch as the last ones, 5/32 thick material. These tools are also stamped with the same wide ranging variety of stamps that we saw on the previous batch.

So we have stamps as well as patterning...Now, I was a bit limited on the patterns as all of my pattern making materials are very old, worn out and need replacing, so most of these have the gorgeous coral reef pattern on them. That's my own favorite pattern, but there are a few others here as well. The anodized colors vary widely too with many tools having multiple colors and color fades. For those of you seeking unique pieces, these certainly qualify, as every single one of them is spectacular and different from the others.

Pattern anodized finishes are delicate and not repairable so you might want to think twice before mounting on a key ring and banging them up. As with all anodized titanium you should clean periodically with a soft cloth and some Windex to remove finger oils and restore the vibrant colors.

The Fancy Ti Rulers will run $95 plus shipping. The batch is quite small unfortunately so it is a strict limit of one per customer please! Hope you all are staying warm this week and as always I thank you for stopping by today.


Fancy rulers are all gone, thanks so much everyone!



    

Thursday, December 07, 2017

Steel Superbugs

Hi Folks,

Happy Thursday! Almost the weekend...we were due for some snow but now it's out of the forecast for the time being. That's totally fine by me as I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of it soon enough.

I'm still cranking along here, trying to button up the rest of the fancy ti rulers which are taking a little more time than I thought. Also need to tie some cord and get going on some more Mini 5 flute beads. Metric steel Crawdaddies are in doubt as far as finishing this year but in the worst case they will be coming in early 2018. Zr Mini Triangles are still in the running for finishing this year though as are some of the SpinCoin designs. 

In the meantime, today I have the remaining CPM 154 Superbugs available. It's just a few stragglers but enough for a quick sale I thought. They feature extra leverage pry tip/screwdriver, 5/16 open wrench/cap lifter, rear pry/screwdriver tip and my captive bit system which holds any standard 1 inch long 1/4" tool bit, philips bit included as well as spare set of o-rings...This was one of my favorite tools designs this year and a very handy little item. No lefties remain, just right handed ones in this small bunch.

Superbugs will run $70 plus shipping and the link is down below. If you don't see a link it means they are sold out but you can always email me directly and ask if I have any extras or other tools and accessory items on hand. Thanks as always for stopping by today.

Superbugs are all gone, thank you everyone!




Tuesday, December 05, 2017

Smooth Steel Metric Wrunts

Hi Everyone,

Here's a super quickie sale this morning...smooth surface ground CPM 154 Metric Wrunts. There are only a handful of these available.... Thanks for stopping by today!

These are gone! I still have a few metrics with raw bar and some SAE ones left if you care to email btw...Thanks again everyone!



 

Monday, December 04, 2017

Stamped Rulers!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Monday! After a gray and gloomy weekend it is much brighter here today although definitely turning colder. We might be getting our first snow later this week or early next week.

Got something very cool for you guys today...this is the next batch of R37 Titanium Rulers in the "regular" thickness of 5/32 or .160 inches. However, this group has my antique stamps and a beautiful hand rubbed satin finish. They are super sweet.  The stamps are not as crazy as the last batch of SpinWrenches, mostly singles, but they sure do look nice paired with this style of surface finish.

These tools feature a 3 inch measuring scale on the front side, 7cm metric scale on the back side, 8,9,10mm closed metric wrench set, 1/4 hex opening, open 5/16 wrench, cap lifter and center 3/8 opening reamed for a press fit for optional MD Engineering spin bearings. 

And also, a very fancy small batch of these with special anodizing is almost done and coming later this week so you will really want to stay tuned for those if you are a color lover. ;)

The Stamped R37 Ti Rulers with satin finish will run $80 plus shipping and the link to purchase is just below. There is a limit of two per customer on them...please note that due to holiday package volumes, the post office is a bit slow right now. And also paypal sometimes doesn't send shipment notifications but these will all be going out today and tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by today and hope your week is shaping up to be a great one.

Gone for now, thank you so much everyone! Stay tuned for ano patterned rulers later this week!