Show me your name plates you've made (letters & names)

admin

I want to create something out of steel, that says "Harleigh"  Or "Harleigh's Room" that can be hung up above a doorway or on a door itself.  I would like to incorporate a horse or wolf in there somewhere too.  Has anyone done something similar?  Pics?  All I have to use are the items in my signature.  I don't have a plasma yet.  A friend of mine works at a laser cutting place...I might, *might* be able to have him do something for me...I have a couple of ideas to start:1) Make the letters out of weld beads...then braze over them to make the letters/name stand out.  I think it would come out kinda plain looking though.2) Make the letters out of small solid stock bent into letters.  I would raise the letters off the surface and maybe work out a way to backlight them with LED's3) Cut the letters out of the face of a rectangle square tube.  Put LED's inside the tube to make the name stand out.  Maybe add some colored plexiglass to make it whatever color I wanted...?Miller Syncrowave 200MillerMatic 180 AutoSetHobart Airforce 500iVictor O/A (80cf)
Reply:There is not a reason in the world why you can't cut out a beautiful sign with your O/A rig. You don't need a plasma.
Reply:700R,Here is a house number sign I cut out of 16 gauge steel with an oxy acetylene torch, size 000 tip.-Dan Attached Images
Reply:Beautiful work Dan! When I sign my sculptures, I tig the letters. They stand out quite well.http://www.facebook.com/LockhartMetalArthttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Grumpy...44306259043484
Reply:Here's one on my shop door, I let my boy practice his lettering, lol
Reply:Sweet skull!!
Reply:Recent sign I made for a friends farm. The horses and rider are from pics of the owner on her horse. The opprunities for metal signs are endless. Many cnc plasma programs can do almost any font for lettering.......a pictur of your favorite horse, a general layout for the way you want your sign....and often it can be done easily and reasonably priced. The sign below is 29" high x 47 inches wide.Jim Colt Attached ImagesLast edited by jimcolt; 03-28-2013 at 12:49 PM.
Reply:Beautiful work guys!  I guess I could use my O/A...I just need to get a smaller tip for it.  Smallest I have is a 0 (I think).  My biggest problem is that I am not creative when it comes to the artsy stuff.  I've always been that way since I was a child.  Stick figures were, and still are my specialty!  Hahaha....Thanks for the pictures!  I'd love to see moreMiller Syncrowave 200MillerMatic 180 AutoSetHobart Airforce 500iVictor O/A (80cf)
Reply:Art work, Google Images is your friend. You can probably locate any silhouette images you need/ want and either scale in the computer or like Steve said go old school and change the size with a copier. Most copy places have large format copiers that can scale, either using 11x17 paper or the really large format "blueprint" copiers. I did a lot of work rescaling with large format copiers when I went to college for Architecture to get site drawings to match scales for site models etc. As Jim mentioned there are also programs out on the market designed specifically to convert just about any artwork or pictures as well as text to cut drawings to be used with CNC tables. The one I looked at was quite pricy, but I'm betting there are others out on the market for doing vinyl graphics and so on that might be less expensive if not free. Simply print to paper at the local copy shop and then transfer to your metal..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Great looking signs guys.Jim, can we get a closeup of the horse? How did you do the 'etch' in the metal to make the lines without going all the way thru the metal? Attached Images
Reply:All of the lines are cuts.....they go all the way through. I don't have a close up of that one....however I am attaching another horse piece that should show it better. This one is of my wife on her horse.The trick to turning a photo into a piece of metal art....is learning where to put lines that define things in the picture. I am not good at it....so I email my photos to a guy that is.....and he returns me a .dxf almost ready to cut. He charges about $30.Jim Originally Posted by dallas_Great looking signs guys.Jim, can we get a closeup of the horse? How did you do the 'etch' in the metal to make the lines without going all the way thru the metal?
Reply:A very good place to sell metal art is the Horsey industry....the women and men that go to competitive events (both English and Western) like anything to do with horses, and rustic metal art is often used to decorate their barns and houses.....and if you have a bunch of horses, you often have some money to spend on them. My wife and daughetr spend a lot of money on their hobby....trust me. Attached Images
Reply:When my father in law passed away I was asked to make a temporary marker for his grave. This is what we ended up with. Letters were made with 1/4" round rod. and it was powder coated when finished.If you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:Now that is artistic talent that cannot be duplicated with a cnc machine! Very nice...Jim Colt Originally Posted by SWellsWhen my father in law passed away I was asked to make a temporary marker for his grave. This is what we ended up with. Letters were made with 1/4" round rod. and it was powder coated when finished.
Reply:What you can do with that little machine of yours Stan never ceases to amaze me.  You really are a true craftsman. Nice job..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by SWellsWhen my father in law passed away I was asked to make a temporary marker for his grave. This is what we ended up with. Letters were made with 1/4" round rod. and it was powder coated when finished.
Reply:Awesome SWells !  I'm sure money can't buy ANYTHING like that. Is the tube for flowers ?
Reply:Thanks guys, it stayed for about 8 years before the she replaced it and yes the sq tube is for flowers.Last edited by SWells; 03-30-2013 at 08:58 AM.If you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:Hand made is always the best, the personal style that produces the end results are always unique. One of a kind, the fabricator and the fabricated, well done.GregMagazines have issues, everything else has problems
Reply:Here's how I do it. No CNC needed.Millermatic 252XMT 304'sDynasty 280DXHypertherm PowerMax 1250Miller Trailblazer 302 EFIOptima PulserXR feeder and XR Edge gun and more athttp://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm
Reply:Steady hands there.  Nicely done.
Reply:Originally Posted by irish fixitHere's how I do it. No CNC needed.
Reply:Awesome work!  I'm gonna run to the LWS next week and see what they've got for small tips.  Are you still running the same pressures as the larger tips?  Or do you tone the O2 down some?Miller Syncrowave 200MillerMatic 180 AutoSetHobart Airforce 500iVictor O/A (80cf)
Reply:Originally Posted by dallas_Steady hands there.  Nicely done.
Reply:Originally Posted by irish fixit  Thanks. It's actually harder to cut thin metal as cleanly with the torch. The problem is the thinner the metal the faster you need to cut to keep it clean. Keeping preheat and oxygen pressure down helps but you can only go so low.   I cover much of this in my thread on using a cutting torch. http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=63275  However in this thread I was learning how to make the video's so some of the better vids are later on in the thread. I recommend starting with the two in post 29. They cover a lot of ground on the basics of getting a good clean cut.Originally Posted by 700RI will definately check them out.  Thank you.  I actually cut out a 10"x10" piece of 3/16" steel for my dad today.  I believe I was going too slow, as the cut would close back up on the back side.  The top 3/4 of the way through looked perfect...but the bottom closed up.
Reply:I watched several of your video's last night.  Very, very informative!  I'm going to try a few of your tricks (as well as cleaning my tip which I can't remember when I last did   ), and see what I can do sometime this week.  I think I'm going to cut out each individual letter, then arrange them somehow and tack them in place.  I've got an idea in my head...Miller Syncrowave 200MillerMatic 180 AutoSetHobart Airforce 500iVictor O/A (80cf)
Reply:Originally Posted by 700RI watched several of your video's last night.  Very, very informative!  I'm going to try a few of your tricks (as well as cleaning my tip which I can't remember when I last did   ), and see what I can do sometime this week.  I think I'm going to cut out each individual letter, then arrange them somehow and tack them in place.  I've got an idea in my head...
Reply:Nice signs all heres one i made from 6mm rod Creative metal Creative metal Facebook
Reply:Originally Posted by irish fixitThanks. Don't give up to easily. It does take a little practice.   Individual letters will allow you to make mistakes without ruining the whole piece.
Reply:Originally Posted by 700RThats the plan.  It's my luck, and it never fails, that I will do 90% of the work flawlessly...then screw up on the last little bit.  Then I get upset/mad and ruin any 2nd tries I do completely