Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:06 pm
Re: Feed back requested A machining experiment
It's late on a Saturday evening, when all the lucky people in the world are supposed to be out and enjoying themselves. Some of us do not have that freedom, so we flaunt the pretension, and post anyway. Just to fill in my evening I would like to make a couple of suggestions. The first is that any shape of pick can be screen printed direct onto the steel. Take a look at .....
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/moonshadow ... inting.htm
..... and that will give you the basic idea. If you want any more detailed info just PM me. For the second part I have no experience in etching steel, as all my work has been etching copper. However I do expect the etch to leave rough edges which can be removed by ball or tumble milling them. In the simple case, the etched picks are placed in a rotating drum partially filled with an abrasive element. It could be small round stones for example, or even sand. A vibrational action speeds the process up and is often used to 'polish' materials as different as stone and steel.
My final observation is a repeat of some earlier comments, in that I think the form of the tip of the tool is the important thing and not the handle. Wiser men than me may say that the torsion wrench is more important than the pick and I will not question that. For myself I came to the conclusion that I wanted a handle on every pick that was, 'full' and so comfortable, that I could forget about it, and just sit back and listen to what it was telling me. I guess that seems to separate the handle from the business end of the pick. For the pick handle I want comfort, instant orientation and feedback. I have been joking about picking in the dark in the past, but a good tool has to make that possible for me.
So on one hand we need the working end of the tool to suit the needs of the lock ..... and the handle to suit you. One way of separating the two requirements is to consider the two elements separately. We have the blade of the tool and the handle. One thing I am suggesting is that instead of concentrating on the handle, you instead aim at producing the perfect working ends of the pick. This amounts to a much smaller area, into which you can get the profiles of a much larger range of pick profiles, ie in a credit card sized area you could get perhaps 30 pick tool ends. Let the punter decide on their own 'perfect' handle that suites them.
My own pick tool requirements, so far, have been a little weird because all of the cylinder locks I bought have the same Yale Y2 type key way and that meant, much smaller tool ends. It also makes for several extra bonus profiles that could be included on the etched product.
So with all due respect I suggest that you do not drop this idea, but find a process to get what you want at the right price.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/moonshadow ... inting.htm
..... and that will give you the basic idea. If you want any more detailed info just PM me. For the second part I have no experience in etching steel, as all my work has been etching copper. However I do expect the etch to leave rough edges which can be removed by ball or tumble milling them. In the simple case, the etched picks are placed in a rotating drum partially filled with an abrasive element. It could be small round stones for example, or even sand. A vibrational action speeds the process up and is often used to 'polish' materials as different as stone and steel.
My final observation is a repeat of some earlier comments, in that I think the form of the tip of the tool is the important thing and not the handle. Wiser men than me may say that the torsion wrench is more important than the pick and I will not question that. For myself I came to the conclusion that I wanted a handle on every pick that was, 'full' and so comfortable, that I could forget about it, and just sit back and listen to what it was telling me. I guess that seems to separate the handle from the business end of the pick. For the pick handle I want comfort, instant orientation and feedback. I have been joking about picking in the dark in the past, but a good tool has to make that possible for me.
So on one hand we need the working end of the tool to suit the needs of the lock ..... and the handle to suit you. One way of separating the two requirements is to consider the two elements separately. We have the blade of the tool and the handle. One thing I am suggesting is that instead of concentrating on the handle, you instead aim at producing the perfect working ends of the pick. This amounts to a much smaller area, into which you can get the profiles of a much larger range of pick profiles, ie in a credit card sized area you could get perhaps 30 pick tool ends. Let the punter decide on their own 'perfect' handle that suites them.
My own pick tool requirements, so far, have been a little weird because all of the cylinder locks I bought have the same Yale Y2 type key way and that meant, much smaller tool ends. It also makes for several extra bonus profiles that could be included on the etched product.
So with all due respect I suggest that you do not drop this idea, but find a process to get what you want at the right price.
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