mitch
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,648
I was tasked with engraving over the bad pantograph lettering* on the base of a golf tournament trophy (oh, the glamorous life of a world-class artist!) and it was fairly large, hollow, and not particularly sturdy. While it was pretty heavy gauge copper, thickly nickel plated, its overall size made it likely to vibrate. The job wasn't big enough in scope or $$$ to justify turning a big filler block or pouring it full of some substance (like 20lbs of cerrometal, which nobody has).
My solution was to put it in a deep saucepan full of sand, with duct tape everywhere but the engraving area to prevent scratching. I also firmly stuck a wad of poster putty behind the engraving to further dampen vibration. It worked acceptably well and if it needed to be any firmer I could have added water, which would have made the sand more solid (but less amenable to turning the object to keep the segment being engraved at the top, and messier, too).
Here's the "slick" part: The white square you can see under the pot isn't paper or cardboard, it's the Teflon sheet that comes with a kit of Thermo-loc from GRS. With a little concentration on keeping it centered, it was much like turning my usual vise.
* There were two lines of type for successive years' winners. The second line was very lightly traced with a diamond drag point, but the first line was extremely heavily scratched? impressed? gouged? It displaced quite a bit of metal, but never broke thru the plating like a sharper tool would with that much force. I can't tell if the point was dull or broken, was spinning/rotating, possibly impacting, or how the heck this was done! It even looked like the point had a hollow tip, which left a tiny raised pip in the center sometimes where it was lifted off the surface. Nobody in the jewelry shop had a clue, either. Any guesses how that "E" was done???
My solution was to put it in a deep saucepan full of sand, with duct tape everywhere but the engraving area to prevent scratching. I also firmly stuck a wad of poster putty behind the engraving to further dampen vibration. It worked acceptably well and if it needed to be any firmer I could have added water, which would have made the sand more solid (but less amenable to turning the object to keep the segment being engraved at the top, and messier, too).
Here's the "slick" part: The white square you can see under the pot isn't paper or cardboard, it's the Teflon sheet that comes with a kit of Thermo-loc from GRS. With a little concentration on keeping it centered, it was much like turning my usual vise.
* There were two lines of type for successive years' winners. The second line was very lightly traced with a diamond drag point, but the first line was extremely heavily scratched? impressed? gouged? It displaced quite a bit of metal, but never broke thru the plating like a sharper tool would with that much force. I can't tell if the point was dull or broken, was spinning/rotating, possibly impacting, or how the heck this was done! It even looked like the point had a hollow tip, which left a tiny raised pip in the center sometimes where it was lifted off the surface. Nobody in the jewelry shop had a clue, either. Any guesses how that "E" was done???
