lettering stamp machine

[country gent]

Im thinking thru making a drill press type fixture for stamping lettering on parts to keep square and spaced correctly every single time. One letter canted or high or low just a little bit really stands out and makes it look poor.

The machine part will be similar to a drill press with adjustable head for up and down. base 8" square the adjusting table 4" X 8" and will be driven by a 14 tpi thread giving .071 movement per revolution which should work for 1/16" 2 rotatons 1/8" ect ect. I dont do much over 3/8". Each line will be a spacer from the straight rail on the table.

The "driver" will be a scaled up version of an automatic center punch. instead of the pointed punch a nose piece ( one for each size) with a square hole will be made allowing the stamp to slide in aligned square and true. Driver will be adjustable for power to use the various sizes.

The table adjustment will be a 14 tpi lead screw table nut will be take up adjustable and lapped thread will have a 2 hole index plate with oles at 180* ( Is take less spacing than other letters).

In the thinking / planning stages right now

[bangerjim]

So what is going to give the thing the downward VERY hard BANG that indents the letters into the metal?

You have put a lot of thought about an adjustable table which you can buy pre-engineered and purchased on-line.
And the "drill-press' part sounds like a modified arbor press would do the job.

Now, how to make it hit hard enough to indent several metal stamps at the same time to give good clear even marks?

Let us know what you come up with.

I have a full scale working metal machine shop in my big shop and make all kinds of stuff, but I personally just tape 3, 4, or 5 letter stamps in a perfect line with duct tape and make my multi-letter arrays that way. Easy to set-up and easy to tear down when done. Whack the whole bundle with a 2# bench "sledge hammer".

banger

[country gent]

The driver is an up sized automatic center punch, Right now Im thinking around 1 1/8" - 1 1/4" in diameter and around 6" long. This will also allow a heavier drive spring under the cap. For more "hit" the driver could be hollowed out and filled with lead shot making it a dead blow.

I do have a set of the stamp inserts and holder out in the shop that does good. I think it has 3 of each letter number in it.

The engraving programs on the mills at work spoiled me with the consistency of spacing depth and appearance.

[akajun]

B square makes one already, use a hammer, pretty simple.
If you want to get fancy find a use new Hermès pantograph engraver and fonts.

[M-Tecs]

I rarely use metal stamps anymore. Different methods for metal stamping here.

http://metal-stamps.com/metal-stamping.html

I mostly use Electro-chemical-etching but with the low cost of laser I am contemplating purchasing one. I mostly work on match rifle barrels an I really like including the twist, bore size, manufacture and their serial # if they have one on the underside of the barrel in addition to the normal caliber markings.

[country gent]

CPA includes bore groove and twist on the underside of the barrel

I will look into the chemical etching

[Handloader109]

Did a search for laser engraving locally, and try to find someone with a fiber laser. Preferably with a FFL. I do a good bit of engraving on guns and barrels with my machines, and if you have a reoccurring need, You should be able to find someone to do it relatively inexpensively.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Bent Ramrod]

CG, I was underwhelmed with my hand-stamping lettering skills and made a fixture out of a piece of aluminum angle. It clamps around the barrel with straps, bolts and wing nuts and has a milled slot atop the angle. Two heavier bolts on each end position the individual letter or number along the slot by turning them a partial turn according to the numbers I put on the apexes of the hex bolts. Tightening the bolts keeps the body of the stamp perpendicular to the barrel.

I have notes on trial stampings I made that say things like 4 numbers for a “G” or an “8”, 3 for a “1” or an “I” and so forth.

I will watch your striker design with interest. Another problem I have is the spacing. The requisite number of turns don’t always work evenly, depending on the last letter or number that was stamped. My 1/16” letter and number sets are El Cheapo imports; visually, all the bodies seem to have the same widths and the characters seem to be in the middle of the bodies, but tiny differences in the spacing still seem to show up.

As you say, the eye picks up these differences from four or five feet distance. Not as bad as the drunken wandering of hand stamping, but not very professional looking regardless.

[country gent]

Bent Ramrod,
My stamps are all youngsbros other than the set of 1/8" with the holder that you can set a full line in and lock in place with a rod. I have tried clamping a rail to the part also ( use a 3/4 wide 6" scale but it was hard on the scale).

The old timers would mill a small pocket .002 less than the grind left on then use the edge for guide. when ground the pocket disappeared and the bottom was cleaned up. This worked good for 1 or 2 lines of characters. I had a driver made that mounted in a R8 spindle and worked nice but gave it away. The plans came from a home machinist magazine dont remember what issue.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I stamp the Serial Numbers on every one of my Hand Press Bases. I have quality number/letter stamps that are US made.

I have a jig I made the aligns the stamps and it has three positions. You can't get one that tries to stamp all the numbers at once because each one of the stamps requires a different amount of force to penetrate the surface. A "1" requires less force than a "7". A 0 takes less force than 2,3,4,5,6/9 and the 8 takes the most force. Letters are more of the same except worse.

My jig uses two spacers that are 3/16 key stock and each number gets stamped individually. IE: the first number, currently a "3" goes on the left with the two spacers on the right. then the center number goes in between the spacers, and then the last number goes to the right with both spacers on the left.

Never do they come out "Exactly in Line !!!" There is always some small variation. Mind you for my purposes it works out OK, but it is NOT Perfect by any means! It would really show up if there were 10 characters in line !

This has nothing to do with the jig. It is all about the stamps themselves, and how the actual number is engraved into the front of the Square Stock and where it sits in relation to the perfect X&Y center of that stock. They are all different, and some more than others. The 6/9 is a problem because it is not centered perfectly, so the 6 is low and the 9 is high. Also the stamps have to be held vertical.IE: X/Y so you get a complete character when you strike it. Hence the jig.

As far as I'm concerned having messed with Pantographs and building a variety of engraving machines the only way to approach perfection in this task is by CNC machining the characters using rotary engraving tooling. Even then anything beyond a perfectly flat surface is going to be a challenge. However there are machines that do it every day. I just don't own them.

You can see that the #282 looks pretty good. #297 is all over the place and the 7 is deeper than the 2 or 9. I used a 4 oz Ball Peen Hammer to strike these characters. Some of these look better than others but after they are anodized black it is hard to tell unless you look real close. IE: for my product,,, they are fine.

I have chased this problem for 40 years and have tried 15 different solutions. I even had a Drop Hammer designed in my head to strike the characters with the same force every time. except they all need different amounts of force due to the surface area of each character. Hence the 4 oz Ball Peen Hammer and some skill.

What I've got going on here works the best of anything I've done and it is repeatable.

Good luck with your machines, I'd like to see them when done. Maybe get Morris involved? He's really good with automated stuff.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

As far as Laser Engraving it is the hot tip and all of my tools are Laser Engraved with my Logo and "Made in the USA." in letters that are .030 in height and perfect.

the company I use is in Oxnard CA and is called "Jimani Inc" https://jimani-inc.com/ They not only do contract work, they also make their own machines and have sold many of them to several Gun Makers including S&W. This outfit does great work and I have been using them for 20+ years.

Randy

[Jeff Michel]

If your wanting to build a stamping guide, might I suggest the George Thomas design, called the Universal Pillar Tool. The casting are available from Martin Models https://www.martinmodel.com/collecti...l-pillar-tools. Fun project and does a multitude of tasks other than stamping. FWIW, I don't think I've ever seen a truly straight number/letter stamp so constructing a stamping guide can be a bit frustrating, was for me at any rate. Ended up surface grinding the lot of them, much nicer to use and very repeatable if you have to re strike a light hit. Good luck on your project and keep us posted.

[kootne]

Here is what I use, has a learning curve to avoid double strikes and get good alignment but will make the best appearing stamp impressions for uniformity of anything other than roll stamps.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pryor-Inter...kAAOSwV8BgV2Wj

Here is a sample;

[jmorris]

You can get impact stamp holders, to line them all up perfectly.



If you use those cheap Chinese stamps they will still look goofy though. Most of the ones I have are not all height and/or clocked correctly with the square body. They will stamp the same every time, just doesn’t look right with a “k” higher than all other letters, a J pointing to 1:00, etc.

[country gent]

J. Morris
I have a set similar to that. Mine I got in some tools I bought from an older machinist. It has 1/8" letters and each "stamp" os about 3/8 tall and widein the body thickness is to match the letters spacing. This set has 3 of each letter number and symbol. Also a bunch of blanks. My older will do about 3 ".With a guide fence set up This unit looks like you rolled the part in a typewriter and did it. It does a very nice job.

The draw back is its over $1500.00 for a new set in different size. A good set of youngsbrothers hand stamps with letters and numbers is about $150.00 ( average of different sizes) Some of the off brand are around $40.

With what I have in mind You screw in the correct nose piece and add the correct spacing disc for the stamps. then stamp each letter number. Slide stamp in, Lower head till punch trips ( this will be like a drill press or arbor press spindle), Raise, remove old punch, insert next advance table, repeat till done. With the table and 1/4 20 holes in it a rail can be set and th part blocked to location then clamped with straps or toe clamps