A friend from work gave me a beautiful piece of walnut he had laying around his shop, and soon afterward, I made this wooden business card holder. I’m calling it my Smith and Wesson Business Card Holder because I used 40 caliber Smith and Wesson shells.
This was so easy to make. I used a bandsaw to cut out the pieces and gave the top a curved shape. Then I glued/screwed the two pieces together (used Titebond wood glue). The hole for the clock was drilled, using a Forstner bit, and I used my Craftsman drill press. When you purchase the clock, the instructions tell you what size bit to use. I also drilled the holes for the empty (used) 40 caliber shells. I eyeballed the shell casings with my drill bits to start with, and then drilled some test holes in a scrap block of wood to make sure the bullet shells fit perfectly. Just need to make sure the holes are drilled to the same depth. That’s easy to do with a drill press because you can set the drilling depth.
Next step after I joined the wood together and drilled all my holes was to sand. My wood was already planed so I started with a 220 grit sandpaper and worked up to about 400 grit. Took my air compressor and blew away the dust and wiped it down with denatured alcohol.
Next step was to glue the two 40 caliber shells into place and allow that to dry.
I then finished the wood with Danish oil. The Danish Oil really made the grain colors come alive in the walnut.
Final step was to pop the clock in place. I purchased the clock from Woodcraft and they go into place really easy. You don’t want to glue the clock insert into the recessed hole. There are spring loaded tabs on the side of these clock inserts that hold them in place. Once the clock’s battery runs down you can easily pop the clock insert out, replace the battery and keep trucking. (Or ticking)
The inspiration for this business card holder actually came from a book I purchased a while back called Miniature Wooden Clocks for the Scroll Saw
It’s amazing how with a little creativity, you can take some scrap wood laying around the shop or house and repurpose it. Just think of the potential for this business card idea. If you love golf, you could use golf tees instead of the bullet shells. Say you are a mechanical person or work on cars, then you could use bolts or components from tools. A fisherman could use part of a fishing lure or rod tips. The possibilities are endless.
Check out more pictures below, because I made other variations of the wooden business card holder using spend bullet casings. (BTW – I used Vistaprint to create and order my business cards. It’s so easy to create your own business cards and it’s cheap.)
How about you? How are you using recycled materials for your crafts? Please share your ideas in the comments field.
