DIY Keyrings.

[paul mott]

DIY Keyrings, just large enough for a telephone number.

Paul.

[Phyllis Meyer]

Great idea Paul! I will have to make some of these! Thanks for sharing!

Phyllis:)

[andrew zen]

Where is best place to get the metal rings?
thanks

[AL Ursich]

http://www.ballchain.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BCM&Product_Code=29mmKR

AL

[Tim Bateson]

Prices on eBay vary and at times you can find some good deals.

[paul mott]

In some ways the waste is more interesting than the part.

Paul

[Scott Shepherd]

You do realize that putting these in a pocket or purse is going to instantly scratch them a great deal? That might be fine for what you are doing, but if someone's seeing this and thinking they will sell some, you might be setting yourself up for an unhappy customer when 1 week after they bought it, it's in bad shape.

It's a beautiful piece, no doubt, but I'd never use a clear acrylic keychain for that reason.

Now, make it bigger, but some hooks in it and you'll have a beautiful key rack to hang keys on :)

[Michael Hunter]

Ther scratching is not as bad as you might expect. I made some clear acrylic rings some years ago - a friend is still using one of them daily and it still looks pretty good.

[Darius Ferlas]

What phone number would be engraved on those?
Surely not the keys' owner's. That would be a serious safety issue.

[Dan Hintz]

The # to the key copying shop giving them away with every order?

[Jim Good]

555-1212 :d

[andrew zen]

(202) 456-1414

Ask for Barry.

[Bruce Clumpner]

These are my first tests of some key ring designs I just received a license to produce for the Military Service Academies. Still working on the final vector cut outline, but getting close.

A great source from split rings is the Worth company, the smaller ring was $30/1000 and the larger one $45/1000...

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I have found ballchain's prices to be quite a bit more expensive then others. Hopefully they have changed (i.e. lowered their prices) in the last few years. Worth (worthco.com) also gets my vote.

[Bill Cunningham]

If you don't need a thousand, Michael's sell both the main rings, and the smaller jump ring in packages of 25 or 50 I think..

[Rodne Gold]

I dont think scratching is a huge issue , acrylic is quite tough , what might be are sharp serrations on the keys however this too is maybve being a little OTT.

What is a great idea is to offer an "if lost" tel no on these keys , put your companys Tel no and an "if found please call" on the key , the customer will have your tel no at hand always and if he/she loses their keys , there is a chance of recovery if the finder calls you...wont compromise the key owner cos it doesnt have their tel no on it , will also encourage the recipient of this keytag to actually use it on something important like their main bunch rather than chuck it in a drawer or use it on the toilet key...

Keytags are , imho , a bit of a waste unless exceptional quality and or being exceptionally useful...I have tons of keytags I get from others and I wont put em on my already overburdened bunch of keys....

[Viktor Voroncov]

Bruce, what is material you have used for military academies key rings?


Rodney - everything depend from acrylic - I have on keyring made from acrylic with no scratches after 1 year of heavy use.
Same time very often I see acrylic which is very easy to scratch.

[Bruce Clumpner]

Viktor,

The keyrings are cut from 3/16" cast acrylic. Looking forward to seeing if there is any demand from the schools, if not, it's only plex and time.

[Viktor Voroncov]

Bruce, but how you achieved second color? Paint filling? Or engraving on black acrylic?

[Bruce Clumpner]

Viktor,

Call it bad photography. The engraving is reversed on back of the sheet, and then I put the key rings on a dark background to take the photos. Used a soft-box for the photo and photoshop'd the drop-shadows. These photos look better in the catalog I'm putting together.

So long story-short...There is no 2nd color applied (for now?) ;-)

[Dee Gallo]

Bruce, since you are putting together a catalog, you might want to consider suggesting the tags can be used for other purposes besides keyrings. I have found people like to use them for plenty of things such as luggage tags, putting on their clothes (like zipper pulls), hanging on ball chains from tote bags/sports bags, car mirror hangers, tree decorations, gluing onto photo album covers, etc. If you think about it, you can probably come up with a bunch of applications specific to your target market.

You might even think about expanding the line to include cake decorations, larger wall hangings, etc. for gifts.

Just my 2 cents, I think they look great! Good luck with it, dee

[Bruce Clumpner]

Dee,

Great ideas as usual, thanks! That's why I enjoy working with acrylic, it's so easy to come up with new things. I'm just starting out, so trying to keep the product line fairly small until I get going, but after that who knows? Fortunately I'm dealing with a captive audience, for families with kids there there's a special attraction to these schools (and hopefully products too). Thanks for your input.

bc

[paul mott]

The series of two.

Paul.

[Mike Null]

I would use a jump ring to prevent the key ring from torquing the acrylic and breaking it.

[paul mott]

Good suggestion Mike, thanks.

Paul.

[pete hagan]

867-5309 of course