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Thread: More homemade metal labels
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9th Sep 2010, 12:22 PM #1Golden Member
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More homemade metal labels
I'm really getting the knack of making metal data plates and wanted to share some images of the latest efforts:
The first project is a replica brass plate for an International Harvester hopper cooled engine for a Sth. Aust. machine restorer who has a project missing one of these. The original is shown first, which I have only seen in photographs:
The second plates are for an antique Parks planer machine in the USA:
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9th Sep 2010, 01:00 PM #2Dave J Guest
Very impressive and beautifully done
Could I ask how they are done? Also do you do plates for anyone and what sort of price are they?
Keep up the great work Graziano
Dave
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9th Sep 2010, 01:02 PM #3
Absolutely great work!!!!!!!!!!
Your results are really good and is making my grey matter working on a plate for an old lathe that I haveJust do it!
Kind regards Rod
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9th Sep 2010, 02:35 PM #4
Nice work Graziano, I'd be interested in hearing about the processes you use.
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9th Sep 2010, 05:07 PM #5Golden Member
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Hi Dave, Chambezio and Burraboy, I started off by using this guys website: Adam's PCB home page to make acid copper chloride, but you can use a number of acids to etch metals with. I use a pressure adhesive photosensitive film which is also mentioned at the link above. This film is stuck to a smooth metal surface, say 800 grit wet sanded minimum finish. At that point the film can be masked off with a transparency printed on the old inkjet printer and exposed to light for a few seconds.
The film gets polymerised and goes hard wherever light hits it and stays soft where masked. At that point you can peel off the front protective film and wash unexposed film completely off the metal with weak caustic soda. This gives you film masking off the metal like in the pic below:
At this point you mask off the back of the plate with duct tape and round the edges with either wax or silicone and then etch in the acid copper chloride solution. Once etched you strip the wax and tape and soak in metho for ten minutes and the film is stripped. Paint the whole plate with the auto acrylic of your choice and when dry give it a light sand with wet and dry on a glass plate until the letters are exposed through the paint. Finally clear coat it with acrylic to protect the bare metal from tarnishing.
Edit: I do make plates, the details are over in the "Announcements" part of the Forum: http://www.woodworkforums.com/f12/en...plates-121349/ so far WA Pete and Groggy have taken me up on the offer and can comment on the results.
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9th Sep 2010, 05:36 PM #6Most Valued Member
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So its dead easy then
Very nice work Graziano
Was tempted to ask "Why did you spell harvester incorrectly?" But I thought my typing might let me down.
Stuart
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9th Sep 2010, 05:58 PM #7Senior Member
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A very neat example of lateral thinking. Was it your idea to use PCB etching?
Excellent work.
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9th Sep 2010, 06:10 PM #8Golden Member
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Stu......don't scare me like that!!!. It's easy if you keep control of ALL variables and stay consistent. I kept notes to iron out all the details involved.
Gerbilsquasher, yes it was my idea, I already had most of the set up for making boards and just cut the process across once I had the right film.
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9th Sep 2010, 06:22 PM #9Pink 10EE owner
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You got the font wrong
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9th Sep 2010, 06:26 PM #10Most Valued Member
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Did you check?
Yes it "sounds" easy once someone else has done all the work and written it down for you.
A great idea very well executed.
Stuart
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9th Sep 2010, 06:31 PM #11Golden Member
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I work with a photo of the original scaled to size and perspective corrected, then draw the text on top to match the hand lettered spacing of the original which varies from word to word, also I have to spend time finding the correct font to match the original. If there's a mistake I guess I'd copy it to keep it original . Machinery makers used a very similar etching process to make their plates, apparently they would print the artwork on a brass plate with beeswax or pitch then etch in aqua regia or other acid cocktails.
When I was working on etching my very first samples were made with beeswax and then written on with a ballpoint pen as a stylus. To give you some idea of the time frame I first started my etching notes in 2007. Also a note to the experimenter....any etching recipes you might find in metallugical textbooks which have nitric acid in them and have the vague instruction to not store the solution.....that's because it reacts to forms nitro based explosives less stable than nitroglycerin......you have been warned!.
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9th Sep 2010, 07:34 PM #12nine digits
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Exxxxxxxxxxxxxxxcellent in my very best Monty Burns voice
really nice work mate
undies
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9th Sep 2010, 08:13 PM #13
Those are really nice pieces, especially for people trying to hunt up non-existent spares for old machinery.
If you are trying to get clean images to work with, I've found Vector Magic very handy. (assuming you work in vector art, that is)
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9th Sep 2010, 09:25 PM #14Golden Member
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Often the first thing pinched off old machinery would be the shiny brass badge or the nameplate so having a custom replacement is a plus. I'm using Corel Draw! which is vector based software so that vector magic would be very handy to have, I may have to wait until after that big engraving job though.
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9th Sep 2010, 09:32 PM #15
You get three free vectorisations per email address. Only takes a minute to create a single use Yahoo or Hotmail address...!