Metal stamping for labeling faceplates?

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arcOne

Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Messages
5
I was wondering if anyone had experience using the metal stamping sets for labeling faceplates?
http://www.infinitystamps.com/alphabet_stamps.html
I know these are normally used for crafts and whatnot but I was wondering if anyone has used them on a faceplate? I guess my concern is damage, bending, or warping from using something like this. Is there a minimum recommended faceplate thickness?
 
It should work okay on 1/8 inch aluminum with minimal warping, but to be safe, try on some scrap first. Note that the area immediately around the stamp will bulge up a bit due to the displaced metal. You could probably sand it all smooth again after stamping. (also be careful not to overstamp, which will leave other marks around the letter, which may not sand out)
 
I have used these to "bash" id numbers on industrial steel things (and with steel you do need to bash)

But good idea.... In Ali it might be nice if you practice the "gentle whack", and do it on a very flat and hard surface (like the flat part on an anvil) - and could be good to try with paint fill before you sand to get some color.

However they are not cheap....

 
I've done this quite often, on 1/8" aluminium.  It does take a bit of practice to get the weight of the whack right, but it's easy enough to line up with the indent and add a bit of extra depth.  I didn't sand.  On a black anodised panel I just filled by spraying with white aerosol paint, and wiping off the excess with thinners.

It's not as neat as engraving, and the letter alignment will have some variation, but I like the look.  I will take a few photos, if you're interested.

Steve.
 
I have been playing around with hand stamps for a little while now. They work pretty well on 1/8" aluminum. I've been using these. http://www.columbiamt.com/store/Easy_Clip_Holders.html
If you want more than a single character and want multiple characters come out neatly you will need something like that. Believe me I know. Want a set of singles? I got 'em.

Two other things will make them come out well. Clamp the workpiece tightly on a very sturdy table and use a dead blow mallet to hit them with. The less anything moves around the better it looks.
 
i ve been hand stamping for years. some people say i should engrave. and you know that would be ok. the handmade thing is pretty cool tho. the slight errors of line and sometimes yes even spelling. very characterful. easy to do. no other 'industry involved. easy on the pocket.

and the end result. very satisfying i think.
SOM10.jpg
 
This is a close-up of one of my preamps with punched lettering.

Steve.
 

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wow. that actually even looks engraved. what did you blacken the panel with . or is the punch that is filled with paint?  looks really good man. heres a closeup of another thing. the stamped- onto -aluminium does tend to disappear in certain lights .  i tried injecting nail varnish once. ha ha . that sounds  painful.
fenkner7002.jpg
 
EKADEK said:
wow. that actually even looks engraved. what did you blacken the panel with . or is the punch that is filled with paint?  looks really good man.

Thank you.  The panels were supplied with black anodising, so it's just the letters that are filled.  Spray on white aerosol car paint, count to ten, and wipe off the excess.  I've seen things called paint sticks, like big crayons, that look like they're designed for this sort of job, but which I haven't tried yet.

The punches I use have quite a large a square shaft, so I wonder whether holders like the ones Gold suggests might put too much space between the letters.  I clamp a wooden batten to the panel to give a horizontal line, and then do the letter spacing by eye.

Steve.
 
smorphet said:
The punches I use have quite a large a square shaft, so I wonder whether holders like the ones Gold suggests might put too much space between the letters.

No, just the opposite. You can get 1/16" characters spaced tightly. Getting the letters spaced close together was why I got it. For instance you can easily legend a 12 position switch. A 24 position switch isn't as easy but you can do it pretty neatly. The ultimate would be to get a holder for an arbor press. Then you could line everything up before whacking it. The other nice thing about the holder is that you can use different text size with the same holder.
 
I think this is an inspiring thread. I have been looking for ages for a simple, cheap and attractive method of labelling prototypes and I reckon this is it. Just ordered two sets of punches.

Thanks guys.

Cheers

Ian
 
Back in the day I used to have some SN labels that were very thin aluminum, that you could literally print on with a dot matrix printer (anyone remember them?) and make a permanent impression on (in) the thin metal label. it had an adhesive back to stick to rear of product.

JR

 
Yeah, this is awesome guys. Thanks for all the feedback on this. Very impressive work in some of the pics as well. I may be ordering a good set in the not so distant future.
 
Here are some pictures of some stuff I've been doing. The first two pictures are an Elliptical Equalizer I made. You can see that the piece wasn't clamped down well when I did the left side. When I did the right side I clamped it down better and the numbers are more crisp.
EE1.jpg

EE5.jpg


Here is a shot of the hand stamp kit. These are 1/16" characters. I have 1/8" too.
tst5.jpg

Here is a shot of my setup. The Foredom rotary tool is one of the best things I've bought. Very useful for all sorts of things. You can also see the templates I had made to make doing the dots easy.
tst3.jpg

Here is EQ gain in 0.7dB steps. For the EE I used a standard drill to make the dots. Here I used a centering/countersink bit. They look much nicer to my eye. I started at the bottom and worked my way around. By the time I got to the top I got the hang of it better. The numbers are more crisp and you don't see the tool marks. I'm still figuring it out.
tst4.jpg


 
EKADEK said:

I like this : - ) 
I have a question though:  On the "SELECT - LISTEN" knob, what happens when you select  "PUTE" ?  :)

Slightly related:
Years ago we made prototypes or one-offs with Dymo labels and I actually have an eccentric nostalgia for the funkiness of that look.
Reminds me of being at the BBC, Decca or Abbey Road circa 1968 maybe?
I once made a very small production run of a studio device where I insisted that Dyno labels were used rather than screening or engraving but it was a royal pain finding good N.O.S. rolls that still had enough adhesion in the colours (red, green, brownish-gold) that were typically used back in the day.  We clear coated the facia afterwards so the labels wouldn't peel.

Anyway, I think I'm game for trying this punching stuff on some prototypicals,

Cheers.

 
JohnRoberts said:
Back in the day I used to have some SN labels that were very thin aluminum, that you could literally print on with a dot matrix printer (anyone remember them?) and make a permanent impression on (in) the thin metal label. it had an adhesive back to stick to rear of product.

JR

I've also used some thin aluminium labels with adhesive on the back that came on a roll - we ordered them with the company info/department name etc. and with a section marked off for the serial/batch number.  We would then just feed the roll into a typewriter and type the serial number etc. in the right spot.  They were quite expensive though and you always wasted the first 5 or 6 (well, I did anyway) as you got the alignment of the numbers/letters right with the typewriter...
I think the job eventually got fobbed off onto a secretary in the end when a project manager found a bunch of scrumpled up false-start practice runs hidden in the rubbish bin.


Happy days!  :eek:
 
Here are a few shots of another elliptical equalizer I finished building today (except for a couple minor things like heat sinks on the other regulators). The hand stamps came out much nicer this time.
EEclint3.jpg

EEclint5.jpg
 
EKADEK said:
wow. that actually even looks engraved. what did you blacken the panel with . or is the punch that is filled with paint?  looks really good man. heres a closeup of another thing. the stamped- onto -aluminium does tend to disappear in certain lights .  i tried injecting nail varnish once. ha ha . that sounds  painful.
fenkner7002.jpg

Where'd you get that awesome skirted knob? BTW, the punch work looks fantastic and I'd recommend using infill crayons.
http://www.micro-tools.com/store/SearchByKeyword.aspx?word=lacquer-stik
 
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