Business Card Holder

[Dave Fifield]

I just finished this biz card holder. It's turned, routed and bandsawn walnut crotch lasered with a company logo:

http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271041_s.jpg (http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271041.jpg)

http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271042_s.jpg (http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271042.jpg)

http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271043_s.jpg (http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271043.jpg)

I love my laser :)

:Dave F.

[Todd Jones]

Dave that is very nice I wish I had the skill to make something like that thanks for sharing

[Mike Null]

Beautiful work, beautiful wood.

Have you considered a dark colorfill on the engraving?

[Dave Fifield]

Todd - I'm sure you have the skills in you somewhere and just need time to let them out (oh, and you'll need more tools, of course! ;) ).

Mike - I used an offcut of the walnut slab to get the laser engraving settings right and I tried a couple of filled versions on it too - both black paint and gold paint. Neither of them looked great when actual business cards were placed nearby - the plain-to-see logo on the business cards clashed with the filled logo on the wood, so I scrapped that idea in favor of having the logo on the wood be understated.

Cheers,
:Dave F.

[Karl Laustrup]

Beautiful wood Dave. And the piece ain't to shabby either. ;) :D

I like the way you've done the engraving. The cards are showcased in an extremely beautiful vessel. If the cards don't catch your attention the holder will.

Excellent.

Karl

[Dave Chase]

All I can say is WOW!! That is a beautiful piece. Is this a one-off special or is it a production run for the company? Either way I'm sure they will be very pleased...

[mark garcia]

Hey It Looks Great!!

[Lee DeRaud]

Very nice, Dave. Couple of questions:

1. Is the hole routed before you slab off the slope or are you using some kind of jig to hold it at an angle to the router?

2. What tool are you using to sand the hole?

[Keith Outten]

Dave,

Your business card holder is innovative and beautiful work. Geez I hate everything that is square..the world is full of square symetrical stuff which makes it nice to see something different.

Thanks,
Keith

.

[David Harvey]

Hey! REALLY nice work! I love it.

What's the finish on it...sprayed, brushed? It looks very professional.

[Dave Fifield]

Dave - it's a one off piece - actually, I work for Amalfi Semiconductor - they asked me to make a nice card holder for the front desk and this is what I came up with. I will make them for anyone else that asks nicely (and pays a bit) - I put my contact details on the bottom (lasered, of course!).

Lee - You are very observant! It took me quite a few slices of sketch pad paper to work out how to make it with the card holder section slanted backwards at about 5 degrees so the cards would not fall over. Here's my method:

a) trim a slab of wood to a round using the bandsaw, just like you would for a bowl blank
b) turn and shape the blank on the lathe using a single center screw fitting (mine needs a 5/16" hole drilling for it) held in a chuck.
c) remove from lathe/center screw and using two deck screws, secure a rectangular piece of 3/8" thick ply (about 3" x 5") to one edge (this is the front/top edge that you are going to saw off later) so that about 1/2" of it overlaps the round edge and the rest hangs off.

http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/RoutingOperation.jpg

d) using the bottom flat edge of the ply that's screwed to the piece as a guide on the router table fence, with the thickness of the ply on one edge of the work tilting the work up at about 5 degrees to the router table, route the card hole until you obtain the correct depth. The center hole that you used to hold it on the lathe with should disappear in this operation. Note that you need to route from left to right if you route in strips (rows) from the back of the card hole towards the front (which is how I did it). Route 0.25" depth at a time, in rows spaced 3/16" (with a 1/2" dia cutter) to minimise the work left to do on the side walls. I have an Incra fence on my router table which makes this easy to set up and control accurately. You will need a very long router bit - about 2" to 2.5" long would be best - as the work will be up off the surface of the router table (it should be resting on the inside edge of the ply and a single point contact on the outside of the work piece).
d) using the two screw holes that you used for the 3/8" ply guide piece, replace the ply so that when the work is placed vertically on the bandsaw, the blade will cut the correct angle through the piece. Actually, thinking about this, you could plan ahead in the routing stage and made this piece of ply the correct size right from the start (I didn't plan ahead that well, but will do it right next time). Make sure the bandsaw blade clears the ends of the two screws holding the ply guide! I used a few washers under the screw heads to ensure the blade wouldn't come anywhere near them.

http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/BandsawingOperation.jpg

e) clean up the sides of the card hole with a sharp chisel (there will be bumps where you routed the rows - I haven't thought of a simple way to route the sides clean yet, but I will!), then sand, sand, sand - I just used folded up sandpaper Lee, no special tool - the router left the surface on the inside of the hole pretty clean already, so it was quite easy to finish off
f) laser
g) finish (about 6 coats of clear gloss spray lacquer in this case)
h) add 4 stick-on rubber feet

You are welcome to copy the design/process. I'm sure someone has probably done something like this before anyway...but in case they haven't, this posting is all copyright 2006, Dave Fifield.

Cheers,
:Dave F.

[Thomas Hempleman]

Hey guys! Did I miss something here? :confused: I don't see any picture of the card holder in Dave's first post - just a blank area on the screen. Not even a place to click on to open a file.

[Frank Corker]

Dave,

Brilliant piece of work and nice engraving too!

Tom - all the pictures are there and clear

http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271041_s.jpg
http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271042_s.jpg
http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271043_s.jpg

for the VERY large pictures use these:
http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271041.jpg
http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271042.jpg
http://www.daveswoodenwonders.com/P9271043.jpg

[Dave Fifield]

I'm probably going to route the hole differently in the future. I think I'll make an acrylic jig (on my laser, of course) to hold the turned shape steady, at the required angle, and route the hole using a template. This way, there won't be any need to clean up the sides of the hole after routing.

:Dave F.

[Mike Null]

Dave:

Judging from the quality of your work you'll have a better idea than this but when I laser engrave things which have an angled surface I use a jig with hinges on it that allows me to set it at any angle I need.

[Thomas Hempleman]

Thanks, Frank. Your links worked fine.
Dave: That wood is beautiful! Fantastic grain and finish!

[Rob Bosworth]

WOW, what aa nice looking piece. Too bad the color filling didn't work out. What about laser engraving a little deeper on the walnut, then doing a reverse engraving in a thin, lighter wood like butternut. Then inserting the the butternut into the engraved walnut and gluing. Then hit the area with a sander, removing the back of the butternut. Then instead of color filling, you are actually doing marquetry.

I have all knids of goofy ways to do things. Of course, I've got absolutely no skill with woods. I must not have the patience. Now, bring me some stainless, and I can work magic into that. Go figure.