thermoloc question

[nicglass1]

i don't know a thing about thermoloc except that it is used by alot of people to hold alot of things. as i read the threads mentioning it one thing always comes up, and that's to leave a place to pop the piece out of to avoid having to re-heat the the thermoloc. but here is my question.... once you've made a fixture for say a nickel, how do you get the piece in there without having to reheat it again??? do you have to heat it enough to slip your new nickel in or what?

yeah i know i start some strange threads but they are relative to myself and i'm a loner out here in the middle of nowhere and don't have anyone else to ask.

 

[KCSteve]

If you look at this one that I made you can see the dent I made to be able to get under it to pop it out.
To put another nickel in you 'just' pop it into place. I say 'just' because actually I have to line up the back of the nickel with the impression in the ThermoLoc, set one edge into place and then press the other edge in - ThermoLoc holds by pure mechanical force so it fits tight! It has a little 'give' to it but very little.

Now on the other fixture, the one I use for Zippo lighters, it's a 'split' fixture so it's not as hard to get the lighter in. Still have to push, but not as hard. This one's snug enough I have to use a wooden paint stirrer on edge to pop the lighter back out.

Now to make sure I can actually find the pictures to attach so what I said maks sense!

 

[monk]

thermoloc was surely made by the gods. don't be fearful of this stuff. just start fooling around with it. you'll soon find your own unique ways of using this amazing material. initially i was using way too much like for anchoring folding knives. i now just put a little at either end. it has great holding power. the little sticks it comes in are sometimes a bit fat; i cut a piece, heat it a bit and then with a piece of board, quickly roll it back and forth till i got a little sausage just the right size. it's reuseable till the cows come home.

 

[CJ Allan]

Well, I just dug out about a dozen sticks of this stuff that I've had in a drawer for a long time, that someone gave me.....
You guyds talked me into playing around with it.........Thanks........

If I hadn't come to this place, it would probably stay in the drawer forever.......

It seems like just the ticket for holding some of the jobs that have been a hassle .......

Thanks.......... cj

 

[Martin Strolz]

Download-Info from the supplier can be found here:
http://www.grstools.com/PDFs/ThermoLoc.pdf

Martin

 

[monk]

all you need is a blo dryer or in my case a heat gun. the stuff is magic. i let a bag of is sit for a long time like a dummy, and finally tried it . solves many clamping problems, sorry i didn't try it much sooner. it's way better than the jett set stuff imho .

 

[DaveH]

I just finished a GRS class last week, and for the demonstration on Tuesday night, DJ showed us all a new Thermo Loc forming device he was finishing up. It looks to be the simplest and best way to make a Thermo Loc clamp. It's not available yet, and when asked about availability, he kind of sidestepped the question, but my sales rep said "soon". Keep a look out for it.

 

[KCSteve]

Sounds good - even if it's not available yet I'll at least get a good look at it the first week of June when I'm there for my class (Lee's Intermediate Engraving one).

 

[FANCYGUN]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Dave
And here I thought you slept through the demo after eating all that chicken fried steak
You get all your new toys set up yet????
Marty

 

[DaveH]

Sleep ?! I don't think I slept more than about six hours that entire week ! Yes, all the new toys were set up about three hours after I got home friday night, and I immediately commenced (bleep)ing up my class project. The stone setting went just fine (tons of experience), the inlay on the other hand (tons of inexperience) didn't go so well ! Live and learn. I've already figured out what my problem was (maybe), and will be experimenting this weekend on the stack of practice plates I just got in today. Another one of the side benefits of living so close to Emporia is that all my orders arrive overnight without paying extra.

Good to hear from you Marty. I look forward to seeing you in Reno next year, if I can organize a legion of babysitters to watch all the kids that is !

 

[Sam]

I just finished a GRS class last week, and for the demonstration on Tuesday night, DJ showed us all a new Thermo Loc forming device he was finishing up. It looks to be the simplest and best way to make a Thermo Loc clamp. It's not available yet, and when asked about availability, he kind of sidestepped the question, but my sales rep said "soon". Keep a look out for it.

Dave: I think this might be the same Thermo-Loc forming fixture that I saw. If so, it makes making resuable fixtures fast and EASY.

If you're doing a lot of work with Thermo-Loc, a hot air soldering system is a godsend. You can spot-heat a section of a fixture to move the Thermo-Loc around without having to heat the entire thing.

 

[KCSteve]

Sam,

Even cheaper - hit the local crafts store and go to the Scrapbooking section. They sell nifty little heat pens that are used for varioius scrapbook techniques. I stole the one from the supplies the ever-indulgent wife got when she tried it out a while back. I can't recall what it cost but I think it was $20 or less. Might have been as high as $30 though.

One place it's really helpful is when you're doing the final tweaking of the ThermoLoc around the edges of your object - that's usually when it's cooling off enough to stop moving (on the surface) and you don't want to reheat the whole thing.

 

[FANCYGUN]

DANGIT STEVE........after all the postings you have come up with just so I know you are still lurking out there with the ever indugent wife...........you have finally come up with a great idea.

 

[Sam]

Heat pens? I need to check this out. Sounds great. Thanks, Steve.

 

[KCSteve]

Hey, part of being able to work within your limitations is finding things you can use.
Just because the manufacturer didn't think it could be used for what you're doing doesn't mean they were right.

People get too fixated on what things are 'supposed' to be used for to see how usefull they can be.