NEW Titanium Designs (and other cool stuff…)
A few things for you in today's post...
First up (in case you missed it), the crowdfunding for the new Titanium Folding Tweezers has just 24 hours left as I type this.
Click here to grab yours right now if you're not already on board.
Aluminum Wheels
Last weekend I spent some time with my son and made some aluminum wheels to go with the EpicMake™ Aluminum Construction Sets (sorry, I don't have any of these sets left - all sold).
I had Julien design the wheels himself (I helped him a little). He helped with the water-jet cutting ...and I did the cnc milling (because, truthfully, it was a little tricky). I think they turned out pretty good.
Here's some of the making of them...
First thing was to water-jet cut a blank from 20mm thick aluminum (I don't have a lathe ...so the machining has to be done on the mill):

Next thing is to fixture the blank securely for machining:

After the first operation the blanks look like this (kind of look like yoyos :-D):

Here's what the second machining operation looks like:

A close-up of the wheels starting to take shape (only the final, third operation to go after this):

Here's the full set:
(those are bearings in the middle ...so, yeah, the wheels spin for a loooooong time :-P)

Finally finished and on the "car":

Unfortunately, these are not available for sale because they need more development.
Knife Prototype
In the previous blog post I showed you an initial knife prototype.
Well, since then, we've spent some more time evolving the design ...and we're getting very close to something we will be making soon.
It's a fixed blade design and will look something like this:



I'll go into more detail about this knife soon (because there have been a TON of very specific design choices for this knife ...so there is quite a bit to talk to you about).
A couple of quick things...
The blade will most likely not be smooth like in the above CAD drawing - but will have cnc-machined lines in it (we've never done this before - so it's going to be interesting).
The scales will likely be G10.
"Secret" Project
I've been working on this for a little while now...

...and it's been fairly "challenging" to say the least.
This project is for a super-compact bobby-blade knife. The plan is to use a standard #11 Hobby Blade (since they are very common). Also, I've been asked for this a lot - so that's another reason to have a go at this :-).
I'm still not 100% sure we can do it (actually, that's a lie ...because we pretty much tackle anything ...but, time is always an issue, and there is only so much time you can spend on something).
I plan to keep working on it becuase, if we can do it, then it's really going to be a super-slick ...super-compact ...super-minimalist ...super-EVERYTHING hobby-blade knife for your keychain.
And I think that's all I have for you today.
P.S. Remember to check out the Titanium Folding Tweezers because you've only got 24 hours left!
I prefer a key holder to be honest.
I wonder why you don’t reply to your blog anymore? If you decide to finally, are we ever going to see click pens in stock again?
I really only buy practical stuff and a lot of your things have been out in left field lately.
will be the new prototype knife its blade made of titanium blade? If this is really your idea, I would be very super exciting about it:)
The knife prototype rendering looks really good. Please include a lanyard hole near the end of the grip – these are especially useful on smaller knives. Removable scales for cleaning or ‘smallifying’ the knife are a good feature, too.