Sculpting tools

[Chrome]

"If people want to make it heavier, let them do it themselves, the tube is hollow, so the option is there. Personally the lighter something is the less tiring it is to use

You don't want to start getting bogged down with this 'weight problem' and end up with added costs and production delays

that's my 2 cents "

Do the world a favour and listen to this advice!

This is something well worth to consider not to, But I think I should at least research the possibility. If, stressing if, it doesn't raise the production costs significantly I still believe having the option might be appreciated and just one more thing making these tools stand out from the rest.

Ok, so aside from that, I think the $5-$15 US per tool is a reasonable range. Although, my preference would be to have only one head per. With shapers they only have one, because, I assume, the end is not steel. So, with teflon I'd be worried about damaging the head. Even with a stainless steel head it gets nicked and scratched and the tips that are pointy get bent and deformed when I store them upright in a can/paintbrush holder/coffee cup etc.

One head per tool is an intriguing idea, wonder why I haven't thought of that myself before, that way people have the option to store the tool however they want instead of almost being forced to store them horizontally.
And with there being only one head the possibility to weight the tools, either with weights provided by me should it come to that or with whatever and however the customer wants it him/herself, would be much easier since there would be one end that could be opened without removing a tool.
This would also reduce production costs, giving me the option to use lower prices. I could still have the 'two-head-tool' as an option for those who would want it that way.

And about the friction fit, make sure to test it after a great deal of use...real use, over real time. Because once some pressure is applied, once some temperature fluctuations occur, I'd worry the previously thick and frictiony (it's a word!) head would be worn down and start falling out. Tap and die sets are not horribly expensive and would thread aluminum and teflon fairly easy, I'd think (check into that though, before you buy). Not sure how well a teflon screw would hold though? Hrm...how to stick to the unstickable? Need to find out how they get it on those frying pans.

How they get it onto the frying pans? The simplest answer there is, You glue it there. There's the complete science behind it. As long as you can get two surfaces as close to each other as below 2-3 Å (1 Å is 1 × 10^−10 metres) they automatically 'weld' together. Since achieving this with two hard materials is virtually impossible you need a liquid material that works as an accommodation between the two surfaces and that later hardens without shrinking. This is why you get stronger bonds between two smooth surfaces using a tiny amount of glue than with two rough surfaces and loads of glue.
As soon as you get above 5 Å between the surfaces it is nigh impossible to actually glue them together.
So to glue Teflon you need two extremely smooth and clean surfaces (the Teflon one and the pan one) and a glue with as little surface tension as possible.

after that bit of basic science, I do not intend to keep it a friction fit, it will either be a screw fit or a glue fit. I am leaning towards the glue fit if I am to use just one head per tool. The handles are so cheap to produce anyway so there's actually no real need to make single heads for 'maintenance' work, the added cost for the handles is close to none.

*gasps for air* phew, /post.

 

[Einion]

@Einion: Ooh, I've been searching for a provider like that(First link)! ... Pure gold! ^^

:good:

this might give and idea of where to be with your prices

Artifolk

I'm not sure if mass-produced tools, of a dissimilar type, are a useful guide to where the price point for these should be. Handmade tools are nearly inevitably going to cost more than something produced in large numbers in a factory.

Suffice it to say, weighted mice and weighted sculpting tools are NOT a good thing. Never ever. Period. It's not like a mallet or a turning chisel where the extra weight serves a purpose, all it would do is force people to fatigue sooner.

I think within certain limits weight differences don't matter in terms of fatigue - is 10g really going to tire a hand faster than 4g, given how low the weights we're talking about are?

Separate to this, when it comes to sculpting tools I think some heft is good (as already mentioned above by others); now the aluminium shaft might already provide enough, but too light is definitely something I wouldn't want.

(On the mouse thing, lots of gaming mice available here still, nearly all of them corded, and I don't exactly live in a large city.)

Even with a stainless steel head it gets nicked and scratched and the tips that are pointy get bent and deformed when I store them upright in a can/paintbrush holder/coffee cup etc.

Then don't do that

Seriously though, you only have to pad the bottom of the container to help prevent this. I put a piece of foam in the jar I stored my cocktail sticks in years ago to stop the sharp ends being banged flat when put away.

A folded piece of demin, a scrap of leather, or vinyl or linoleum would all probably work for steel tools.

And about the friction fit, make sure to test it after a great deal of use...real use, over real time. Because once some pressure is applied, once some temperature fluctuations occur, I'd worry the previously thick and frictiony (it's a word!) head would be worn down and start falling out.

Good point. One of the first things I thought of too; hard to guess how it might go with the Teflon, at least there's no worry about the aluminium spreading at the ends (as there might be with a carbon-fibre shaft) but it's likely that the tips would never get taken off and replaced in normal use so it might not be an issue.

Einion

 

[Mourner]

you say that the heads are the most expensive parts to produce, why not focus on those then?
with a threaded shaft, you can not only swap a head for a new one, but also for a different one.....
why not sell heads primarily for $5 each, with an option to buy a shaft separately for $1 or so....

also, i'd make both ends of the shaft treaded, this way people can choose wether to use one or two heads....

this would bring the price of a one-headed tool to around $6, and a two-headed tool to $11... and it would give you more options with regards to shipping and packaging....

what i'm thinking is that i have 5 different tools lying around, each with 2 heads. that gives me 10 heads..... at any given time, i use 3 or 4 heads....
so, 4 heads with 2 shafts would give me pretty much all the flexibility i need....
also, i can plan which heads i'm going to use for a sculpt, so 20 heads, with just 2 or 3 shafts would give me all the flexibility i could ever want.....

that said, are you planning on giving the shafts some texture?
maybe even a rubberised grip for optimum comfort....

about weighting the shaft.... is there any way you can give people the option of doing that themselves by providing people with weights, and a way to insert these into the shaft.... maybe even different weights.... for optimum flexibility....

lastly, you mentioned custom heads, this community has a lot of "role models", people who know their stuff. why not provide the rest of us with the head-designs these role models came up with.....
you could even have some of them design and try a sample head for free, on the condision that you can market the design.... maybe even with their name on it.....

hmm.... this post seems to have gotten a bit longer than i planned, hope you find something usefull in it....

 

[Wren]

The shafts measure roughly 4.3"(110mm) with the heads adding up to an inch each depending on the tool. So somewhere around 6" total length for the complete tool.

Oops, I wasn't very clear, sorry. I was speaking purely about the size of the actual tool part. Unlike many in this thread I have no strong opinions about the weight or size of the handle. (Or rather since others do have those opinions and they sound like they know what they're talking about, I'm leaving it to them. :->)

The tools I've seen the pros use that they've made (or swapped amongst themselves) are one-half to one-third the size of tools I've seen for sale. I haven't taken a close look at the GF9 tools, but I'm guessing they're similar to what I've seen previously. The home-made tools I'm talking about might be 5-10mm long and a few mm wide compared to a GW/Squadron tool that's 2 - 2.5mm long and 5mm wide for a knife/leaf type tool.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, and the one site where I've seen anything similar doesn't seem to be operational at the moment. (www.perfect-touch.com). I did find a review with pictures of some of the Perfect Touch tools, though - http://www.animateclay.com/index.php?module=Pages&func=display&pageid=83

 

[freakinacage]

one of my fav tools i made for myself was made from an old blunt sewing needle. not a really small one but not one of the massive ones either. that was small and had no heft.

dont forget you can always do a cap for the end if someone only wants a single headed one

 

[cybersquig]

Another thing to throw into the melting pot re. the shaft - I would always look for a smooth shaft, as I do a lot of rolling out of putty with the shafts of my tools. Preferably part of the shaft would also be non-stick...