The Crafty Belt Buckle - by Quinty and the X1 Project
Welcome to the tale of The Crafty Belt buckle, we're very glad you could join us and hope that from this tale you can take with you all the knowledge you will need to create your own crafty belt buckle or, dare we say it, create something bigger and better.
We're sure that if you put in the thought, time and determination you will succeed. Follow the chapters as Quinty shows you how he made his very own belt buckle.
Chapter 1: Quinty finds a Logo.
Meet Quinty: Top-hole sailor and CompUCut partner. Fearless in the face of waves, wind and swarf.
Once the idea that the X1 project could be put to use in the manufacture of a belt buckle to impress his friends and intimidate his enemies Quinty started his quest to find the image to emblazon on his buckle.
He could of course follow a well established route and replace his long lost Norton belt buckle but that just didn't seem right. He needed something bold and individual to keep his trousers from the gutter.
Then as he was idly flicking through that months issue of Yachts and Yachting there it was, the perfect symbol of freedom and speed - The Flying H. Jubilate!
Chapter 2: Quinty converts the image
Where we are introducted to:
- The Scanner: With ability to scan images as monochrome bit-maps (line art)
- Scan2CAD: A cunning package that converts files into vector format and lets them be saved as DXF files.
- DesignTools by Techsoft: A CAD program brave enough to solve all sizing colundrums (other CAD packages are available).
- Engraver: Program written for CompUCut to allow CompUCutters to engrave characters.
With the advertisement in hand Quinty hooked the scanner up to his PC and scanned in the image. He was glad the Scanner allowed him to scan the image as a monochrome image otherwise he would have to have scan it in and then turn it into a monochrome image using Paint, which is luckily available on most PCs as standard.
Now he had to convert the image from its current bitmap format into DXF format.
How spiffing that Quinty had access to Scan2CAD and so imported his scanned image with ease. With the scanned image inside Scan2CAD Quinty noticed that the image wasn't as clear as it could be. Not wanting an imperfect image around his waist he set to cleaning up the image so it had a sharp outline and fully filled interior, he did this by making 2 vectors, one which was the outline of the complete image, the other for the fill. He then saved it as DXF file.
Having got this far Quinty was pretty buoyed up. Until, just as he was thinking of a celebratory cuppa, it struck him... what was the scale he'd used... he thought hard but couldn't think when he'd entered this vital piece of information. Taking a second look he realised with a thump that the image would reach half way to the moon and neither his waist or trousers were quite that big!
Quinty used DesignTools to scale down the image and export it as a plot.
After a cup of tea and a sticky bun Quinty sat down and thought about what to do next. He had the main image for the buckle but that on its own would not be enough to keep his trousers up. He needed to be able to attach the buckle to a belt and have it stay around his waist.
Back to the plot, Quinty added a vertical narrow hole to attach the belt and a hole for the stud which he would attach later. The stud would go through a belt hole and keep the belt at the correct size.
Gosh Quinty thought, wouldn't it be great if I made one of these for all my chums. But then we might fight over whose is whose. Jemima! I'll add our names too.
Using Engraver Quinty added his name to the image using the Old English style font; the plot thickened.
The whole belt buckle design was now stored as an image in the computer so Quinty exported the image as a CompUCut control file so that CompUCut could bring his buckle to life.
Chapter 3: Quinty tests the plot
In a shrewd move Quinty decided to test his design using a piece of chipboard before risking wasting an expensive piece of of brass which would most surely have to come out of his pocket money.
Having tested the plot Quinty saw that it was good. He sped off to the brass shop with his hard earnt pocket money and flung himself into production which took longer than he thought! Engraving takes yonks!
Chapter 4: Quinty gets stud on
Quinty knew that he was nearly there with the engineering side of the project. The last step was going to be tricky though. The stud, key to keeping his trousers up, had to be put onto the buckle. The hole was already in place on the buckle but so far there was no stud. Quinty racked his brains to figure out how the stud was to be made and then how to attach it to the buckle.
The Lathe caught Quinty's eye and a plan began to take form. He could take a piece of brass, turn and file it on the lathe and then solder it to the buckle. This seemed like a great idea so he went to it. Hurrah! It worked, a stud was made. Quinty then used silver solder to permanently attach the stud to the buckle.
Chapter 5: Quinty gets the bends
After walking around with his new belt buckle for a week or so Quinty could no longer hide the truth from himself. Although the buckle looked great and it did a marvelous job of keeping his trousers from the gutter he couldn't escape the fact it wasn't very comfortable to wear; indeed he felt cut in two and that he finally conceded wasn't good.
Quinty knew that the answer was for the buckle not to be flat but shaped like his waist - it needed bending. Quinty knew that he could use the vice to provide enough pressure to bend his buckle but how would he make sure it was bent by the right amount.
Feeling rather clever Quinty made a jig that would ensure the buckle wasn't over bent when it was in the vice. Quinty held his breath as he did the vice up, had he made the jig strong enough or with the right amount of bend? All was soon to be revealed. The jaws of the vice closed. Quinty took the buckle out of the vice and tried it on his waist.
The buckle fitted around his waist as if it was born to it! Jubilate!
Chapter 6: Quinty turns artist
Having completed his buckle Quinty was very happy and showed it off to all his friends. However all was not as perfect as he first thought and Quinty wanted his belt buckle to be the best belt buckle it could be.
The image was great and so was the fact it had his name on it too but from a distance his friends weren't impressed nor his enemies intimidated only when they got close up did the power of the buckle become unleashed.
Quinty wondered to himself why this could be. After numerous cups of tea and finally a choccy biccy he had a solution. He need to make the image stand out and to do that it needed to be a different colour from the buckle itself. Quinty grabbed a pot of black paint, that was fortunately in his workshop, and painted the engravings.
Jubilate! Quinty had pulled it off: The belt buckle was complete.
