Embossing Plate for three initials

[esantoro]

Hi Ed,

I reposted the images from the other thread. I didn't make the holders. They came with the foil stamping machine we purchased. We don't do initials so we only use mounted copper dies in that machine. Those two letters in the holder also came with the machine. The holder in the image are part of a mechanical foil stamping machine that is held by cap screws, but for our pneumatic foil press, we hold the dies in place with thermal tape so in both cases, the dies travels with the moving press head.

John

A set up of the sort John has posted is available and will cost around $500 and up. To be used with an arbor press, some type of attachment will be necessary to secure the plate to the square face of the arbor press so that the raised initials will be flush with the leather on initial contact. A square recess to fit the dimensions of the ram face with an allen-head bolt to hold everything in place should be enough.

I've found that nothing smaller than a 2-ton arbor press should be used for this, as well as for an oval logo approx. 2" x 1.25".

Ed

[Kustom]

I was thinking about buying some old letterpress metal type, making a jig to hold it then pressing it with a 12 ton hydraulic shop press, but nothing every goes as smoothly as you think it will.

[esantoro]

I did some checking and calling around about the Kingsley and Kwikprint presses. The type for these are made out of zinc alloy and will not hold up well to embossing that requires some pressure.

Take a good look at John's picture. The same can be made out of steel or brass. Imagine that you lay that holder with the type in place onto leather. Without being attached to something, it will topple to the right or left. Trying to hold the holder in place with fingers prior to applying pressure will likely result in the embossing being off center.

Check out the branding iron section of Infinity Stamps.

Ed

[Kustom]

Ed,

Did you see the services section of the Louie Vuitton Site? It shows a little about hot stamping.

Steve

[JohnBarton]

We use the laser cutter to make jigs for holding dies in place. What you want to do is think in terms of slicing your jig into thin sheets and laminating those sheets together to get the placement you need.

With imagination you can make some incredibly useful and accurate jigs using a laser cutter.

For example I can see in my mind how to make a die press jig that would work with the common alphabet sets which are readily available. Certainly this concept could work for a drill press, vice, or clamping method of applying pressure.

As for hot stamping/embossing/branding - no clue on that yet. But if you have a friend with a laser cutter you can make some great tools.

We also make our own stamps using the laser for the cases which have serial numbers. We use small blocks of wood and relief engrave the numbers. These blocks wouldn't hold up to hundreds of uses but they work great for the single use and we can sand off the previous number and engrave another one until the blocks are too short. So that's also an idea if you have access to a laser engraver and would also open up the font range for you to offer.

Actually you probably don't need a laser cutter to make a jig to hold alphabet letters. If you have the ability to cut straight lines and drill straight holes you can probably do a great jig that way.

Note to self: read all the replies before answering. Something like the jig posted is what I had in mind.

Edited April 19, 2009 by JohnBarton

[JohnBarton]

Ed,

Did you end up figuring this out? I need to put some type (poem) on a wedding album and need to figure out what to do.

Make yourself a jig with slats spaced for the lines. Write the poem on the slats so you know where each letter goes.

That's probably how I would do it if wanted to stamp the letters using the crafttool type stamps and didn't want to scribe guidelines.