DIY: make a keychain/necklace as a gift!
 

well, i did this back in may but decided to share this idea with you guys for those who wanna make a small gift for your girlfriends, boyfriends, family members, friends, etc:). so back in may, my girlfriend's birthday was coming up so i decided to make a gift for her:) that is a keychain! not saying i'm cheap, but homemade stuff have a lot more meaning to it(those with big hearts will know what i'm talkin about!;)). anyone can go out and spend money. but not a lot of people pour effort into making something for their loved ones.xD i asked my automotive teacher at school if i could come into the shop at lunch times to spend some time working on it. it was perfect for a surprise since my girlfriend had work experience at the time so she had no clue!:D but anyways, here's my DIY tutorial for those who are interested :P

for this project, i used:

- SAFETY FIRST! goggles & gloves! (i used welding gloves:lol)
- piece of paper & pencil to plan your stuff out
- flat piece of alluminum
- sandblast resist tape
- Exacto knife & scissors
- file & jeweller's file prefered for small corners
- sand blaster & buffing wheel from school
- that's all i can remember?

sorry if somethings i did improperly or whatever, it was my first time doing this LOL.
alright, so here's the whole process of it:

first, i planned out all the measurements and of course drew the design.. HELLO KITTY(girlfriend's got mad love for hello kitty, like all asian girls LOOL:lol) haha, notice the "DC" in the bow tie?:)
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0005.jpg

then i cut a piece of sandblast resist tape and copied my design onto it
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0006.jpg

then i hacked off a piece of aluminum a bit bigger than my design
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0007.jpg

traced the outline of my design onto the alluminum. don't mind the clear cover that's on my piece. it was brand new xD
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0009.jpg

hacked off excess alluminum and filed down to the line! i used jeweller's files to get the small corners
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0011.jpg

rounded the edges and buffed it up! nice and shiny!
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0015.jpg

next step is the sand blasting! i used an exacto knife to cut out the design on the sandblast resist tape
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0018.jpg

the back, i just put a heart xD (don't worry about the spaces untaped, i taped them up before sandblasting):P
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0019.jpg

after sandblasting and final buffing, here's the finished product! enjoy:)
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0020.jpg
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/IMAG0021.jpg

thanks for looking (: aside from homemade keychain, the gift was followed by a 10k white gold necklace of a heart with 5 diamonds in it:drool:thumbsup:

nice DIY dude !

hahah thanks!:) PM me if you're interested, i could walk you through whenever:P

Can I borrow your sandblaster? lol. I'd love to own one but have never had the space for it.

oh yeah, i forgot to mention this was done in the autoshop at my school! i should edit that:lol

you made that for your gf?? your so sweet dee

^ lol yeah xD

For a second there I thought "What kind of girl accept homemade gifts these days, unless she was 10 or something." All jokes aside that's a pretty sweet key chain you made there. :)

hahah she actually loved it! and thought i bought it. she wouldn't believe me when i said i made it LOOL:lol well, not a lot of girls accept homemade gifts cause not a lot of guys make em LOL xD but i guess it's good to pour your heart and effort into making something once in a while:thumbsup: thanks for feedback haha :P

nice gift dude

how long it take you?

thanks! and it took me 3 lunch hours, so 1h35m:p
basically
1st day = cutting/filing
2nd day = filing continued & buffing
3rd day = sand blasting & more buffing

wow...nice gift!

^ thank you:)

shoulda put your name in the heart

yeah i was thinking of that, but it's hard lol. so i just put initials in the bow =P

Cheap aluminum is crap when the keys are stronger than it, it will scratch up. Shoulda done stainless.

lol, it was my first time

maybe next time i'll use steel? and i actually have it here right now, looks nice still! she doesn't carry keys in her pocket, always in her purse:P it's still in good condition only a little bit of scratches, thanks for feedback:)

Nice work! This makes me miss the 3 years I took metalwork in highschool.

this isn't really a DIY given you used a sandblaster, which is not a typical home made device unless you're a hobby machinist.

but if this counts as a DIY then I have one too.

DIY Automobile manufacturer

requirements:
- couple billion worth of financial, building, and equipment capital
- few dozen employees
- R&D department
- ...

Give the kid a break.

Im just jealous he has access to a sand blaster

nicely done

yeah i wanted to take metal work too but didn't have enough people sign up for that class so it couldn't be done:(

lol i had access to a sandblaster because i used my school's shop in my spare time:lol i just wanted to share my idea. maybe if someone doesn't have access to what i had access to, they can do something slightly different. they can expand on the idea and think of other cool things :P and yes, it is a DIY:lol i made it from scratch, by myself:)

here's what i've made from a few years ago. this was actually an assignment when i had power mechanics class haha.

for those who are interested: you'll need to carve out a design into a piece of cuttlefish bone as a mold. then get a spoon with a chunk of alluminum in it and melt it with a small propane torch or whatever you got that's hot enough. then simply pour th liquid into the mold, and wait for it to cool down. then file down the imperfections and make it all smooth:)
i just made a simple logo, so here's a mitsubishi keychain!
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...64_600x450.jpg
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...66_600x450.jpg

and here's the hello kitty one too, only a bit of scratches but looks good still:thumbsup:
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/p...63_450x600.jpg