My latest project - a rock name plate for my desk
Aug 19, 2017 20:06:11 GMT -5
MrP, captbob, and 9 more like this
Post by Jugglerguy on Aug 19, 2017 20:06:11 GMT -5
The school year is starting soon so I decided to do something to cheer myself up. I made a rock nameplate for my desk. Now I just have to make one for each of my students so I can learn their names. I wonder how long 150 of these would take.
I've been meaning to do this for a while. I cut other shapes out of rocks: Michigan cut out of Petoskey (our state stone), shamrocks from green epidote, crosses, etc. One day, I thought, "Hey, I could make letters!" Two years later, I finally made some. The hardest part of making letters was finding a font with round holes in the letters. I don't know how to make a capital A with a triangular hole, but I do know how to use a drill. After a couple hours of searching I found a font that I really like. From there, making the letters was easy. I cut them out on my trim saw and drilled the holes. I've made Pandora type beads in the past and I've had trouble with ceramic media getting stuck in the holes in the Lot-O, so this time I filled the holes with wax from a tea candle. That worked great. Then the rocks spent a week in the Lot-O and were ready to go.
The rock base was much more work. First, I had to find the right rock. I looked in the lake when I was out picking Petoskeys, but I had no luck there. Then I went to a place that makes concrete blocks. They have a big pond where they've been digging out sand for years. There are rocks in the sand that are separated into a big pile. I went searching there, but most of the rocks were too small. I ended up finding what I thought was the perfect rock though. I was looking for something that would contrast with the green rock I used for my name. Our school colors are green and white (that hurts for a Michigan grad), so white would be perfect. Unfortunately, the rock I found was white on the outside and dark gray on the inside. I liked the rock well enough to use it anyway.
I cut about a third of the rock off for my base, and smoothed out the bottom with my wet grinder. Then I did the same for a flat spot to glue my name to. The problem I had, as discussed in this thread, was that the sharpie I used to mark the line wouldn't wash off the rock, so I spent at least a couple extra hours grinding just to remove the line. Very frustrating.
Then I used E6000 to glue the letters on. If that doesn't hold up, I'll use epoxy.
Here are some pictures.
For scale:
By the way, my last name is Abram if you haven't figured that out. As much as I'm happy with the way this turned out, I'm not looking forward to hearing "Mr. Abram..." two hundred times a day.
I've been meaning to do this for a while. I cut other shapes out of rocks: Michigan cut out of Petoskey (our state stone), shamrocks from green epidote, crosses, etc. One day, I thought, "Hey, I could make letters!" Two years later, I finally made some. The hardest part of making letters was finding a font with round holes in the letters. I don't know how to make a capital A with a triangular hole, but I do know how to use a drill. After a couple hours of searching I found a font that I really like. From there, making the letters was easy. I cut them out on my trim saw and drilled the holes. I've made Pandora type beads in the past and I've had trouble with ceramic media getting stuck in the holes in the Lot-O, so this time I filled the holes with wax from a tea candle. That worked great. Then the rocks spent a week in the Lot-O and were ready to go.
The rock base was much more work. First, I had to find the right rock. I looked in the lake when I was out picking Petoskeys, but I had no luck there. Then I went to a place that makes concrete blocks. They have a big pond where they've been digging out sand for years. There are rocks in the sand that are separated into a big pile. I went searching there, but most of the rocks were too small. I ended up finding what I thought was the perfect rock though. I was looking for something that would contrast with the green rock I used for my name. Our school colors are green and white (that hurts for a Michigan grad), so white would be perfect. Unfortunately, the rock I found was white on the outside and dark gray on the inside. I liked the rock well enough to use it anyway.
I cut about a third of the rock off for my base, and smoothed out the bottom with my wet grinder. Then I did the same for a flat spot to glue my name to. The problem I had, as discussed in this thread, was that the sharpie I used to mark the line wouldn't wash off the rock, so I spent at least a couple extra hours grinding just to remove the line. Very frustrating.
Then I used E6000 to glue the letters on. If that doesn't hold up, I'll use epoxy.
Here are some pictures.
For scale:
By the way, my last name is Abram if you haven't figured that out. As much as I'm happy with the way this turned out, I'm not looking forward to hearing "Mr. Abram..." two hundred times a day.
