Home Made Stuff

[John B.]

This might give a few beginners on a tight budget a couple of ideas.
I thought they may be interested in some old homemade engraving kit.
This is a foot turned engraving vise I made from a bowling ball years ago.
The bowling ball sits on a ring of Sheppard furniture casters.
It has a steel shaft going down to disc below the bench, not shown in the pic.
You can see the brake/drag system I rigged up complete with my farm quality welding.
The actual vise in the pic is a Pan-a-Vise self centering fixture.
It was a bit too flexable so I changed it for a small drill press vise later.
This worked very well for H&C engraving and allowed a full circle cut non-stop.
These pictures were taken at a demonstration class at Trinidad College around 1982.
Thanks for giving it a look.
Best wishes.

 

[Weldon47]

Mr B,

That's pretty neat. It is fun to see all the homemade tools & things we all have come up with over the years. For so long there was nowhere to really get exactly what you needed so, you either had to make it up or modify an existing "something" to get what was required!
I have given consideration to doing an article on just exactly that: engraving on the cheap for those who want to try it but just don't have the money to go at it full-tilt. It might help some folks get started & then once they find that they're hooked they can spend a few dollars to upgrade to a better system (whatever it may be).
Thanks for sharing,

WL

 

[Sam]

John, that's very clever. Of course you always have a clever surprise up your sleeve! Thanks for posting this, and I think it's fit to add to the Tips Archive.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Fantastic photos John!!!

I'd recognise that smile anywhere

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Peter E]

Great ideas as usual John.

Brings to mind that I put my old bowling ball in the swap shack at the transfer station a while back.

I am happy to have a nice engraving vise, but it would have been interesting turning the bowling ball into one.

 

[John B.]

Thanks for looking in and your comments guys.
As Weldon says, we used to have to adapt things to our use.

 

[Leonardo]

Hi John!
Yes, it is a big true and you have done a great work "adapting" that ball!
All the best,
Leonardo.

 

[Mike Cirelli]

John that's pretty cool. Now tell everyone the truth, you sucked at bowling so bad that's how you relieved your anger after you got kicked off the bowling league

 

[rod]

John,

That arrangement really appeals to my instincts.

"Necessity is the mother of invention" (Plato)

Rod

 

[silverchip]

I built one of these after attending school in Lassen while you were there.I still use it and thanks again for being an inspiration to me then as well as now. :big grin::banana::big grin::banana:

 

[John B.]

John that's pretty cool. Now tell everyone the truth, you sucked at bowling so bad that's how you relieved your anger after you got kicked off the bowling league

Yep, Mike....You got that right. And that darn ball weighed more than I did in those days!

Leonardo and Rod, thanks for looking in.
You are both great inventors and innovators and use what you have at hand. We learn much from you.

Silverchip Dave, glad you got some use out of the idea back in the Lassen days. Your work is fantastic.