Name plates

Here's one:

http://www.gasenginemagazine.com/gas-engines/diy-brass-nameplates

Pete

Richard S2 described how he made some lower down this thread;

**LINK**

Hi John,

You ought to be able to make your own for less than £20. There was a time when you could pop into the local pharmascist and buy ferric chloride solution. Now you can buy it on ebay very cheaply.

John Baguley (Baggo) has one of the best modern descriptions of how to make them on his excellent website.

Cheers,

Julian

My only experience with chemical etching is making pcbs for electronics (I've made hundreds over the years), so it's all shallow etching. To obtain 1/16" deep etching of acceptable quality (clean steep edges on your lettering, lack of undercut, etc) might not exactly be a doddle in a 'kitchen-table' type of setup.

I'd suggest a reasonable bit of googling first, and enough material for lots of testing. I'll be happy to be proved wrong.

Just my two cents...

Roger

Sounds like you need someone with a 3D printer to make a pattern followed by a decent foundry.

I once had some similar sized nameplates made using a perspex pattern from Eyre & Baxter in Sheffield and the services of a brass founders in Nottinghamshire.

I supplied Eyre & Baxter with a transparency with a black image showing the raised portions and I think an article was published in ME many years ago.

Piercing saw and some solder is another option. Print out your wording, stick it to a bit of 16swg brass and cut out the letters then solder to some 3/16" brass that hass been milled out to 1/8" leaving a border around the outside.

Ought to be possible to reverse engrave from say 1/8" brass plate by CNC. Do you have a drawing?

..

Thoughts:

The 'National Living Wage' is currently set at £7.20 per hour, and a 'Craftsman' might earn [say] five times that.

A company will have significant overheads on top of that; and should also expect to make some profit.

So ... How long would it take you to make them ?

£220 sounds uncomfortably high when you're buying, but may be more reasonable than you think.

MichaelG.

John, I've sent you a PM.

Cold cast bronze might be another way to go about it... either chasing out a mould or the extra step of carving a wax positive to make a mould from?

I have sold my Taylor Hobson pantograph but someone on here may have one. Old hat now with so much CNC capacity around. This is an ideal hobby CNC mill job, you may get an offer of help from someone close.

Pantograph engraver, set up time about 30 minutes, engraving and cut out time at least 2.5 hours. £30 an hour so cost about £90 plus metal.

Obviously CNC has overtaken the Pantograph set up and I think that it would cost just about the same. You set it up and walk away till it's done.

£220 sounds as if they do not want to do it, I was offered a job with masses of small type to do but declined by doubling the hourly rate. It was a brass plate with his life history on it. I asked an Alarm Company to replace two batteries on a wall mounted alarm, cost £147, no thank you, did it myself at about £10 including battery.

Clive

Just a thought John, I notice that Reeves sell brass stamped numbers and letters at between 30p and £3 each. These could easily be soldered to a home made nameplate.

Mick

Hi John;

I CNC cut some plates for a friends' locomotive. I did this by feeding in a jpg file into LinuxCNC, which can read jpg files. I used engraving cutters, and took it slowly. It worked very well. In the photo attached, the plates required the name/surround on "flat brass" for fitting on the end of bogie bolsters.

JohnS.

No one has mentioned finishing.

The enamel used on professional plates is very expensive but works and lasts far better than paint which is what most home brewed plates use.

The plates that John Alexander has done above are very nice but hours away from being finished.

Possibly as much time again ?

Hi Mark, that plate looks really good . As you say, getting any real depth of etching consistently is very difficult, but if a shallow etch is acceptable, then getting sharp, high-resolution linework is quite straightforward.

I am particularly interested in the red and black infill that you have achieved - could you please give us some details on your method and materials for achieving that, and also some close-ups of the finished plate.

My 13 x 40 has no plate for the threading dial, only a table (in a poorly photo-copied manual) that looks like it was scratched out by a one-legged chicken clutching a blunt pencil! That page in the manual is now deteriorating through constant reference, so I've been 'thinking about doing something' (i.e. procrastinating) for a while.

Roger

As they are to represent cast letters on the end of a cast steel truck (bogie) bolster, you are absolutely right - there is a lot of work left for the recipient. Mind you, he's got it finished, tender is wheeled, just needs leaf springs and a few more bits and pieces (backup headlight, etc) and this "Canadian" tender is complete.

I have seen a few CNC nameplates done by others "over here" that are very good.

If you just want name plates, and you realize life is short, and you are not interested in the process by itself maybe as has been mentioned - just purchase the things!

JohnS.