theidlemind
Member
Everybody that has been here for more than a few months has seen the pens with coins in them, both whole coins and scroll sawed coins. Cool stuff.
So where do the thin coins come from? Not coins shops and not Ebay, you gotta do it yourself.
Here is how I do it, any ideas on how to make it easier are ALWAYS appreciated........
Simply put, I grind them on a 12" disc grinder. A 10" or an 8" would be fine too.
Holding the coin against the disc is the problem because the coins get HOT.
Enter a Vacuum Chuck.
Don't make it out of wood, it will catch on fire.
Don't make it out of plastic, it will melt.
I made one from Corian, it seems to work very well.
Aluminum would probably be better.
I threaded one end for a nipple for the vacuum hose, I drilled the other to make a "vacuum chamber" and used a forstner bit to make a recess for the coin. You'll have to experiment to see which bit works for each coin. This one is for a nickle.
Then I used a "whistler", a vacuum pump that uses a venturi to create vacuum using an air compessor. Harbor Freight sells them cheap. I took the plastic off mine and this is all it is......
So now you can place a coin on the chuck, make sure you put the side you want to save TOWARDS the vacuum, and apply vacuum. If you have a good seal the coin will stick to the chuck and allow you to grind it down to the thickness you want. If you do not have a good seal the coin will be torn from the chuck, travel down with the dust, and be thrown out the exhaust chute. If you don't have a dust collector mounted the coin will embed itself in the drywall. DAMHIK.
So now you are grinding the coin (wearing eye protection), some of the more talented members out there will probably make a jig to keep the chuck straight on the wheel, I just eyeball it. You can watch the gap from the chuck to the disc get smaller as you grind, just keep it even.
After you have ground it to the thickness you want,
you will have a very heat blackened coin. Ugly.
Now just polish it. The polish that comes with the "Stick Fast" CA system works very well, so does an automotive type buffing compound.
Now you have a thin polished coin, now what?
Bend it. Measure the tube you are going to wrap it around and use a similar sized punch to push it into a bending jig. The jig is a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it a little larger than the tube diameter. Bandsaw it in half lengthways and you have a bending jig.
I put the marks on the back to align the face of the coin. This is kinda important, you might want the design vertical, you might want the design horizontal. You will not want the design crooked. Again, DAMHIK.
There you go, Thin, bent coins to wrap around your favorite pen tubes, ready to cast.
So go get grinding and casting and post up some results........
Be safeeace:
So where do the thin coins come from? Not coins shops and not Ebay, you gotta do it yourself.
Here is how I do it, any ideas on how to make it easier are ALWAYS appreciated........
Simply put, I grind them on a 12" disc grinder. A 10" or an 8" would be fine too.
Holding the coin against the disc is the problem because the coins get HOT.
Enter a Vacuum Chuck.
Don't make it out of wood, it will catch on fire.
Don't make it out of plastic, it will melt.
I made one from Corian, it seems to work very well.
Aluminum would probably be better.
I threaded one end for a nipple for the vacuum hose, I drilled the other to make a "vacuum chamber" and used a forstner bit to make a recess for the coin. You'll have to experiment to see which bit works for each coin. This one is for a nickle.
Then I used a "whistler", a vacuum pump that uses a venturi to create vacuum using an air compessor. Harbor Freight sells them cheap. I took the plastic off mine and this is all it is......
So now you can place a coin on the chuck, make sure you put the side you want to save TOWARDS the vacuum, and apply vacuum. If you have a good seal the coin will stick to the chuck and allow you to grind it down to the thickness you want. If you do not have a good seal the coin will be torn from the chuck, travel down with the dust, and be thrown out the exhaust chute. If you don't have a dust collector mounted the coin will embed itself in the drywall. DAMHIK.
So now you are grinding the coin (wearing eye protection), some of the more talented members out there will probably make a jig to keep the chuck straight on the wheel, I just eyeball it. You can watch the gap from the chuck to the disc get smaller as you grind, just keep it even.
After you have ground it to the thickness you want,
you will have a very heat blackened coin. Ugly.
Now just polish it. The polish that comes with the "Stick Fast" CA system works very well, so does an automotive type buffing compound.
Now you have a thin polished coin, now what?
Bend it. Measure the tube you are going to wrap it around and use a similar sized punch to push it into a bending jig. The jig is a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it a little larger than the tube diameter. Bandsaw it in half lengthways and you have a bending jig.
I put the marks on the back to align the face of the coin. This is kinda important, you might want the design vertical, you might want the design horizontal. You will not want the design crooked. Again, DAMHIK.
There you go, Thin, bent coins to wrap around your favorite pen tubes, ready to cast.
So go get grinding and casting and post up some results........
Be safe
eace:
