9 Useful Tools Under $20 For Engravers

Hi, if you notice that a lot of the engraving tools are really expensive. It took me months to save up before I can click the buy button. However, over the years I found that there are a few tools that they didn't break my bank but also help my engraving job much easier, quicker, and even fun. In this video, I'm going to show you 9 of these amazing tools. Some of them are even free. I will not just show you what they are, how to use them, but I have also listed them in the description below and share with you how to get them absolutely free. Let's get started. You see that I have a lot of gravers here mixed together. Some of them are flat, some of them are onglet, some of them are round. I found that without magnification, there's no way that I can tell which one is which in a short time. These are fuse beads. They are originally kids' toys. The one I got is less than $7 for more than 7,000 of them. Here you can find that in the links in the description below. They come in all kinds of colors like this. So with this fuse bead What I do is I color group my gravers. So for example, I use red for HSS ornate gravers. I will use blue for number 4 ornate carbide gravers. So all these blue ones, they are number 4 carbide ornate gravers. And then I use pink for number 2 ornate carbide gravers, and I use apple green for all my round gravers. So in this way, I am able to tell which one is which without looking at every single one under the microscope. Being able to pick the exact graver I want enables me to significantly beat up my work. I found this really useful. You see that they're very colorful. Looking at them always gives me a good mood because of the colors. They look a bit more like toys rather than tools. This makes me feel I'm playing rather than working when I engrave. That's another benefit of color grouping them. If you like this video so far, do you mind clicking the like button? Thank you. The next one is gravers made from broken or used ball burrs, or any kind of burrs will do. In my channel, you can find videos that I show you how to make flat, round, ornate, and even cobra gravers from broken ball burrs. At the moment, I only show how I did it in those videos. Do you think it will be helpful or useful for you if I make them with myself explaining it in the background? Let me know in the comment if you think that's what I should do. The next one is the dental orthodontic ligature ties. Originally, when the orthodontist put the wires around our teeth to correct the position, they will put these ties around to hold the wires in position. And here you can see that the graver I just make from a bauble is too small for the fuse beads, so it just keep coming out. What I do is I put one of these ties on top of the fuse bead to hold it in place. It's elastic. They come in all colors, so the reason I choose silver is that it's the same color as my tool. So when I put it next to the fused beads, I find it less confusing. So when I'm looking at the graver, all my attention will be just on the color of the fused bead instead of the color of the ties. That's why I choose silver. The next one is permanent markers. They are about $2 to $3 each. Sometimes you want to use a scriber to draw lines on the surface of your work. The line is so thin and fine that you may not be able to see the line very clearly on the surface. So what you can do is to color the surface with the permanent marker, and then you draw lines on it. This will create a contrast between the line and the background. This will enable you to see it clearer. Also, when you are choosing permanent markers, make sure to have one that comes with twin tips because the thicker side of the permanent marker enables you to color the area much quicker. Sometimes you want to use the narrower side to draw some precise lines, so I always choose the one that comes with twin tips. The next one is nail polish remover. It is really handy for removing any marks that make by our permanent markers. It makes the permanent markers not permanent anymore on metal. The next one is offcut leather sheets. They are about $14. For 4 to 5 pieces of them. Originally they are offcut pieces from different kind of leather works. They're very durable. The one I have here, I have used it for about 5 to 6 years now. Without the leather sheet, I found that the ball vise is really easy to put marks on my metal. So what I do is to put the leather sheet in in between the gap of the ball vise. In that way, when I close the ball vise, the leather sheet will be between the ball vise and my work. I found that it gives really good protection for it. The next one is a shaving brush. The handle is designed for us to hold it like this, so we don't need to modify it. It's ready. Some people prefer to cut the hair half. Personally, I have no problem with the length like this. That's the original length. And what I do is, after I finish the engraving process, I use this to clean any metal bits on my surface away. It's only about $5-ish. The link is in the description below. The next one is a baking tray. What we do normally is to put some meat inside and then put it inside the oven. During the hand engraving process, I find a baking tray really handy because the metal bits just fly around, um, at all directions. Or sometimes I use a brush to clean the engraving surface. A baking tray can collect all these metal bits, especially if it is a precious metal. And if you are like me, you would like to collect every single bit to to recycle them. When I come to choose the baking tray for hand engraving, I want to make sure the bottom is flat because this will enable the ball vise to slide freely during the engraving process. Also, I want to make sure, um, the wall around the baking tray is as high as possible because when I brush the metal bits off my engraving surface, I want the wall around the baking tray to bounce back. Any of these metal bits I brush out, so that's quite important. It's about $40 for 3 baking trays, so it will be about $15 each. It's really handy. If you think I should make more videos like this, please subscribe. The final item is free. It's dental drill bits. You just need to ask because they are for the dentist to use on our teeth. Generally speaking, they are really good quality. Most of them are made of carbide and with some diamond powders coating on the surface as well. However, for sanitized reasons, they are single-use only. So after the dentist used it on on the patients once, they would just throw it away. That explains why our dental bills are so expensive. So what I do is every time I go to visit my dentist, which is normally once a year, I ask her nicely if she has any drill bits that she's going to throw away, or the one that she just used on me, is she going to throw it away? So far, every single time I managed to get about 10. I merged them into very strong alcohol, about 98% alcohol, because I want to make sure it is sanitized before I do anything on it. And then what I normally do is make them into special gravers for different kind of jobs. Hopefully this video helps you to save some money when collecting hand engraving tools. If you like this video, you might want to check out the one here. It's about all the tools you will need to start learning the art of hand engraving. I will see you in the next video. Bye!