Creating a dogtag

My dog always wears a collar, with a dogtag containing my contact details and adress. If the case that he ever gets lost, people that he will undoubtedly approach can contact me.

Creating small, flat metal objects is suprisingly easy using only a marker, something to hold the workpiece and a few files. Simply draw the shape, and start filing it out.

Then add a small hole, so it can be attached to the collar with a small ring.

There are several ways to get the text onto it

• I could use a small rotary tool to engrave the text, but that would require some artistic skill which I do not have.
• I could use a CNC macine to engrave the text, but I doubt that the small CNC machine that I have will survive working with metal.
• I could etch the text into it, using the same setup that I use for circuit boards.

So I opted for the latter option and setup some experiments with a piece of scrap metal.

That I a very nice and readable result. A successful test! Now for the real deal.

Then after etching, all that is left is attaching the cute dogtag to my dog’s collar:

Lets hope that its never needed.