Coffee bean blanks improved

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J

jfoh

Member
Joined
May 27, 2007
Messages
390
I have been casting and turning coffee bean blanks for a while. They never finished as well as I liked because the beans were so porous. Even super glue did not make them look like the resin they were in. They look good but I thought I could do better.

So I decided to go back to the drawing board. I tried stabilizing the beans in Ultraseal II and then casting them in both resins I use. After soaking them under vacuum and then pressure I dried them for a day. I put the beans on a flat sheet and made sure they they were not stacked up too high when they went into the oven. Wanted them one layer thick with not too much overlapping. They were in effect stabilized separately and then cast into blocks. They came out great. Turn easily and take a shine like like glass. Each bean is quite solid and the surface is perfectly level and with a high gloss.
 
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U be the guy. Can you do anything with decaffeinated coffee. I bought some and hate it. I made an oatmeal pen as a gift and it worked, maybe I could do the same with decaffeinated coffee.
 
Just finished a 30 coffee pen order this weekend. All were done using Ultraseal II stabilized coffee beans. I found that a Dark French coffee bean roast looked the best when finished. Half were white for cream and half were dark brown resin for regular coffee. The finish was easy to do and I have to say they polished up almost like Simlar does. Not quite as brilliant finish but very smooth and the beans were just as shinney as the resin. I did have two blow outs because I was trying to turn them too fast and cut into the blanks too quickly. Not the blanks fault, but my own. Hard to not try to go too fast when doing large orders.

The buyer was so happy he reordered another 15 pens. I bet by the end of this I will hate coffee bean blanks but I will still like the money. He has another office with over 30 people working in it. He gives these pens out after a long sell, sell, sell, pep talk I understand. When I mentioned that it might be possible to have some pens engraved he was very interested in getting a price. Thought I might have them engraved with his company emblem and back fill the space with a contrasting color. Figure three or four bucks extra to engrave and back fill a pen, then another 50 pen order later this year. Sale are where you find them and never refuse to take the money.

I started using my Woodwrite pen lathe to turn the blanks round to .025 over size. Then move them to my Delta lathe to finish shaping and finishing them. If I was careful I could run both lathes at the same time. Turn two blanks on the first lathe and finish one at a time on the second lathe. Sometimes it does pay to have too many lathes in the shop. I have eight. Two metal and six wood lathes.
 
It IS impossible for you to turn on more than two lathes at onetime!
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Think about it ... you only have TWO hands to work with. :biggrin:

Congratulations on the sizeable orders. Glad to see someone has the work!
 
The Woodwrite lathe has a auto feed like a metal lathe. I use it to turn the blanks round and down to about 90% of the final size. It is fairly slow but works without any direct supervision. When it gets to the end of the blanks it stops feeding when the tool rest hits a stop switch. Turn the tool rest another .025 -.050 into the blanks and hit the return button. So I can turn on two lathes at once. I think that the total will be near 100 pens. Wife gave me the OK to buy that little MGB across the street from me with the profits. Life is good and even better when you have a tolerant wife.
 
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