Question: Advice wanted - publish a new gadget here or try to market it?

[rweigel]

Hello,

as I promised in a post in January ‘25, I designed and build two gadgets to shape and heel rounded gravers.

The first gadgets allows to grind gravers with rounded shapes (round bottom, onglette, lozenge…) from round blanks, start and stop angles of the radii can be well defined.

The second gadget puts geometrically correct heels on every graver with rounded shapes. This is something that one could not achieve be rotating the graver in a dual angle fixtures around it‘s axis on the hone. Template-based sharpening systems could do it for the predefined graver shape and heel angle. My gadget does not care about the shape, and the heel angle is adjustable from 0 to 30 degrees.

My first impulse was to make some photos and videos an post them here. At a second thought I‘m a bit more reluctant. Perhaps I should try to get the interest of a manufacturer of engraving equipment. They are well suited to advertise and market such devices.

My guess is, neither GRS nor Lindsay will be interested in the shaping tool. GRS sells their preshaped gravers, Lindsay sells the templates. Templates work great, I made myself some when I started engraving. So, the „shaper“ is probably only for people like me, who balk at the cost of preshaped gravers.

But how about the tool for the heels? GRS might be interested, the dual angle fixture could not do this. Hence my questions:
-Did somebody here ever sucessfully contact GRS to propose them a novel gadget? Would they even cough up a (small four-figure) sum for the rights to the design?
-Would you buy such a gadget, or do you find it useless? The real pros heel their round and onglette gravers by hand with the flexible shaft, I saw in GRS and Alexandre vids. How about the average engraver?

Thanks in advance for your advice. You could also contact me by PM.

Best regards,

Ralf

 

[Mike576]

Is there any chance this gadget could be made on your own? 3d printing or small scale cnc machining? Or reaching out to resources who have those tools? Depending on the cost it may be worth it to do it on your own. Even if the initial cost is higher, once the ball gets rolling cost could come down with volume. or at least you would have data to show a big engraving company on how well the item sells. Nowadays it’s a lot easier to get your product out there. Take this forum for example. I would bet at least 50% of all the worlds engravers are on this forum.

Just a thought! Best of luck

 

[rweigel]

Hello Mike,

3D Printing is a good idea. Thanks for suggesting it.
The prototype of the “heeler“ is machined out of brass plate and rectangular profile and requires only a jigsaw, a drill press and some filing/sanding. I designed it that way to avoid any need for precision milling&turning. With 3D printing as manufacturing methode, I need to redesign the gadget, but could make it more sophisticated and user-friendly at the same time.

Cheers

Ralf

 

[Mike576]

Hello Mike,

3D Printing is a good idea. Thanks for suggesting it.
The prototype of the “heeler“ is machined out of brass plate and rectangular profile and requires only a jigsaw, a drill press and some filing/sanding. I designed it that way to avoid any need for precision milling&turning. With 3D printing as manufacturing methode, I need to redesign the gadget, but could make it more sophisticated and user-friendly at the same time.

Cheers

Ralf

Best of luck!

 

[AllenClapp]

Trying to manufacture and sell something on your own can be fulfilling, but it also can take up so much of your time as to diminish the real return from the design. It is often more rewarding in both psychic and monetary value to receive royalties on your designs from a manufacturer. You may want to see if GRS or Pepe Tools is interested. Both have shown willingness in the past to manufacture and sell tools/equipment that are a good match for what they do.

 

[rweigel]

Thanks a lot, Allen! The amount of time it would take to turn the prototype into a product, build and market it is exactly what frightens me.

Cheers

Ralf

 

[DKanger]

What about patent rights? You could send plans or a prototype to a company and they could re-engineer it as their own design. You lose!!

 

[rweigel]

Getting a patent in Europe is a time consuming, expensive task. Already for a german patent that would cost me several thousand Euros. More a again for a european patent, and again for a world wide one. I don’t believe I could earn that much back. Hence the idea to market it through an established engraving tools company.

Also, a patent would not prevent knock-offs from asia.

Is it easier and cheaper to get a patent in the US?

About how many gagdets in total would we talk? 100 - 200? Only engravers or stonesetters who use onglette, round or otherwise curved profile gravers would need it, IF they are not putting the heels on their gravers with the flex shaft and a rubber diamond disc. I could not do this reliably, hence designed my gadget. Once bought, it will work for a very long time, it is not subject to wear.


Cheers

Ralf