# Styluses & Stoppers



## Sprung (Jun 19, 2015)

My wife and I each wanted/needed a stylus to use with our phones, so I came up with these. Kit is from CSUSA and has the fiber mesh tip. Very happy with this kit.

Cherry Burl (Wife's)
Spalted Maple Burl (Mine)



 

Then, we're going to be seeing some family soon and wanted to have some gifts to bring along to give to various people along the way, so I was tasked with making some wine bottle stoppers. These are the first stoppers I've made in two years. Hope to get a few more made between now and whenever we leave.

With the exception of the one silicone stopper, these are Stainless Steel stoppers from Ruth Niles - very impressed with the quality on the stoppers and on the mandrel she sells and her prices are good too.

From left to right:
Spalted Unknown
Walnut
Spalted Maple Burl (this one's staying here)
Zebrawood
Indian Rosewood

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 1


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## Tony (Jun 19, 2015)

Great work Matt! I'm sure they will be huge hits wherever they end up! Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## manbuckwal (Jun 19, 2015)

I like those one piece stylus kits, the single piece of wood dresses em up nicely . Good looking stoppers too, especially like the lil hat shaped one

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## Sprung (Jun 20, 2015)

manbuckwal said:


> I like those one piece stylus kits, the single piece of wood dresses em up nicely .



I'm real surprised that more places don't have a stylus kit like this - when I was looking at various sellers, all I was finding was the mini ones or the two piece ones, like a slimline pen look. I don't order from CSUSA but pretty rarely, but I'm glad I thought to check them out. I also like the single piece of wood on them - shows it off real nice.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## ripjack13 (Jun 20, 2015)

How much better is the mesh than the rubber? Does scratch the screen at all? That's all I'm worried about with the mesh....

Very nice looking syluses and stoppers. How do you like the silicone kits? I like em much better than the cork kits...

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Sprung (Jun 20, 2015)

ripjack13 said:


> How much better is the mesh than the rubber? Does scratch the screen at all? That's all I'm worried about with the mesh....
> 
> Very nice looking syluses and stoppers. How do you like the silicone kits? I like em much better than the cork kits...



The mesh isn't a metal - from what I've read, it's a nylon (or something like that) material. Haven't had any scratches in the 4 days I've been using it so far. What drew me to the mesh over the rubber was that it is supposed to have a much longer wear life before the tip would need to be replaced.

I've used the silicone ones before - used them the last time I made stoppers about 2 years ago. The silicone ones are ok - we've sometimes had the silicone part slip off the dowel and get stuck in the wine bottle and had to pull it out with something. Haven't used the cork ones, but I can't say that I'm looking to try them either.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Informative 1 | Useful 1


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## ripjack13 (Jun 20, 2015)

Hmm...I've wondered about them slipping off. Good to know.
The cork kit I got were from woodcraft and had chrome kits attached to em. They broke after a few uses. Maybe they are just bottom rung kits but I'm not getting those anymore. I'm going to stick with the stainless ones. Much better quality.


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## manbuckwal (Jun 20, 2015)

ripjack13 said:


> How much better is the mesh than the rubber? Does scratch the screen at all? That's all I'm worried about with the mesh....
> 
> Very nice looking syluses and stoppers. How do you like the silicone kits? I like em much better than the cork kits...



The mesh will not scratch your screen and merchants like them better for signatures when using a tablet as a purchasing mechanism . One of my sisters asked me to make a stylus as gift for the doctor she works for, and I did using the rubber tip, it only lasted two months before the rubber piece broke. My sis brought it to me and I replaced it with the mesh, still going strong after six months and the Doc says says it works better than the rubber one .

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## Jerry B (Jun 20, 2015)

All are excellent pieces 
I've been making a ton of 7mm pens, and converting the top to a stylus, this way customers have both a pen to write with, and a stylus for touch devices
any that I put in the stores, usually sell out within a week, the stylus , today, is an excellent advantage to customers, with everyone going to mobile devices.
And I agree with Tom, the mesh is much better, and have no complaints at all about it scratching the screens, plus it doesn't wear as fast as the rubber ones 

Re: the bottle stoppers .......
I've strictly used the SS Niles in the past (as the stainless won't pit like the chrome or gold)
Curious about the silicon one, as I've been looking at it for last month ........
can you tell me how wide it is, looks like it'll fit wider type bottles, which is what I'm hoping for, and the reason why I'd buy the kit ........
as for silicon coming off, I had already planned for adding a dab of clear silicon when assembling, so customers wouldn't have that problem
(just enough to hold it on, but not too much where bottom can't be replaced)

*** edit*** does the top of the silicon plug seem wider that the top o-ring of the metal stoppers ??? ***

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rdabpenman (Jun 20, 2015)

Lots of character in those well turned and finished timbers.
Nicely done.

Les

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Sprung (Jun 20, 2015)

@Jerry B 

I just held a ruler up to two of the stoppers - a SS and a silicone one. The silicone one might be all of 1mm, 2mm at the most, wider at the top than the top ring on the SS ones. So, no real size different.

I've done a couple stylus pens recently - both for my father-in-law - but have requests for a couple more to make next month. They're something I'm probably going to eventually make a few more of and see if they sell. Right now I'm in a position where I'm out of most of the kits I like to use and need to sell a few pens before I can buy some more kits - but when I can, I'll be ordering a few stylus kits.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Nature Man (Jun 20, 2015)

Great idea on the stylus pens. And what a terrific collection of stoppers. This is a very helpful posting. Chuck

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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