Pics of how I make lanyard beads from bits of scrap

[Haze]

I thought you guys would probably be interested in this.

This is how I make lanyard beads from off cut metal, titanium in this case.

I literally just use a drill press and bench grinder so its easy, easy for any one to do :thumbup:

Start by drilling a hole in your bit of scrap.

Cut the hole off so you have a bit like this.

Go to the grinder and start taking the corners off.
I just hold it with pliers for this but watch out because it can fire out if your not carefull.

keep going untill it looks like this or close enough to round.

Using an old drill bit the same size as the hole go back to the grinder and gently let the bead spin on the drill bit just touching the "high spots" with the ginder wheel.

 

[Haze]

It dosnt take long at all for it to get to pretty much perfectly round.
Just go slow and make sure the bead spins freely on the drill bit and its all good.

Take the edges off by holding the bead at and angle and letting it just spin again.

From the grinder I go right to a polishing wheel just using green ruge (obviously ) you could do a satin finish or bead blast from here if you want.

This is the bead polished up, its not perfect but it dosnt really matter, a bit of extra texture can look pretty good any way.

Thats the bead pretty much done, you can just sand the flats to whatever you want them at to clean it up.

 

[Haze]

Because I was using Ti this time i can heat colour the bead just with a flame.

Here is a few finished beads with different finishes and different sizes.

They do put a nice touch on a lanyard IMO and are super easy to do.

This whole process only took about 15-20 mins from start to finish.

:thumbup:

 

[Seals]

That is pretty cool.I have done ivory and stag something like that,but the titanium looks really good.Thanks for the tutorial.

 

[fishmagician]

They add a nice touch, thanks for sharing that. Mike

 

[MT Borg]

How do you get the bottom ring from slipping off... just some super glue?

 

[Haze]

How do you get the bottom ring from slipping off... just some super glue?

I make the hole small enough so its tight on the lanyard and the inside lip of the bead still has a "sharp" edge so it grips the material.

I dont like gluing stuff if I can help it, they are on pretty tight though. Trying to get them on is more of a problem than them coming off