Custom Metal Prop: Waterjet + Laser
Making a custom metal prop, this time of my Drais BMT which I invented and sell at MetalBounty.com, was a necessity as the real tool is just too small to film properly with the lighting we have at the CNCROi.com shop.
If you want to make a quick comparison of this scaled-up Drais BMT and how we actually make the little ones (spoiler alert, it’s the same way), check out the video below.
Running a custom fabrication shop and being thrown ideas across a huge swath of industries and customer specs is the part I find the most fun about running CNCROi.com so I can’t help to sometimes come-up with my own ideas that I want to test the market with.
I did the same thing over Christmas with the introduction of TeaLightBox.com where, like MetalBounty.com, I wanted to come-out with a line of affordable yet totally custom products to sell to customers who don’t need the full-on custom we do here at CNCROi.com.
I love the whole concept behind TeaLightBox.com, it’s not only a useful product but incredibly cost effective just like the Drais BMT.
For the Drais BMT, which is named in the honor of the inventor of the pre-cursor of the modern bike then Bike Multi Tool, it was obvious that the little REAL version was going to be trouble.
The reflectivity of the 304 stainless steel, the thin 14 ga (2 mm or 1/16″) along with fiber etching that does help but is too small for the camera to pick-up properly meant that I absolutely had to make a custom metal prop.
Metal is a wonderful material, so is wood, and being able to mix and match different processes as we do here at CNCROi.com on a regular basis makes for some pretty interesting stuff!
The only question I had when developing MetalBounty.com was what the prop would be made out of and the size, well, I decided to make it out of the same 304 stainless steel and fiber etch it as well BUT using 7 ga (3/16″ or 4 mm) stock instead.
CNCROi.com also has the capability to etch into glass, plastic, wood, lamacoids and just about anything else, including round wine bottles!
Regardless of the thickness, the waterjet did an amazing job cutting through this solid stainless steel to make a great custom metal prop blank of the Drais BMT.
The next step was to fiber etch it, I wanted the etching to be as permanent on the HUGE version of the Drais BMT as it was for the real production model, so using the same process start to finish made total sense to me.
If you are wondering what the difference is between fiber etching and annealing, the video below will explain it to you.
Fiber etching is a time intensive process, it’s slow but the results are second to none when it comes to permanent branding by CNCROi.com.
The 304 stainless steel gets super hot during this process as well, far hotter than putting a torch to it but it doesn’t glow red because I have lots of air swirling around the Drais BMT to keep it cool and less prone to warping from the tempering process.
How durable are the processes we employ here at CNCROi.com? The video below shows you an extreme example of just hos strong the stuff we make is!
After fiber etching one side with my name (as we do with all orders at MetalBounty.com), the custom metal prop was ready to be fiber etched on the other side!
So it’s a pretty straight forward process at CNCROi.com, flip it around and get our Austrian CNC laser for etching on the other side like it did the first!
The custom metal prop of the Drais BMT has a number of features optimized for bikes, from the standard international hex’s of 4, 5, 6, 10 and 15 mm to the special hex that doubles as a key chain and drill bit holder for maximum leverage.
CNCROi.com does a lot of annealing and etching of metal, sometimes it’s anodized aluminium, other times solid metal plate and other times stainless.
Not only that, but the saw tooth part is perfect for scratching the rubber should you get a puncture and need to patch-up the tube so you can quickly get on your way.
The Drais BMT, unlike the far bigger custom metal prop, weighs practically nothing and its small size means you can have it in your wallet or on your key chain at all times so it will be there when you need it!
What I really love about working at CNCROi.com is the huge diversity of ideas that get thrown to me, and the Drais BMT is one such project that emerged from customer discussions to solve the problems I always have using my bike.
There are a ton of applications where CNCROi.com can be employed to product custom whatever on your behalf, from custom metal signage to memorial plaques and literally anything and everything in-between.
Once the fiber etching of the custom metal prop is finished, it’s time to clean it up and get it ready for the demonstration of the Drais BMT!
Here are the results, what’s really cool about stainless steel and fiber etching is that it looks different depending on the angle the light hits it, sometimes it’s a pitch black, other times, it’s a dark brown.
Here’s a picture comparing the Drais BMT prop with the real thing, both are easy to read and use but the bigger one isn’t something that fits on your key chain or in your wallet, though it would make for a wonderful self-defense too at that scale.
Need a custom metal prop? Contact CNCROi.com!
Need a Drais BMT ultimate bike multi-tool? Head over to MetalBounty.com!