Technical ** Tech Week** Casting a metal nameplate for your car

[Smokey]

cactus1- I haven’t really noticed a shrinkage issue with the pewter I have used.

Alchemy – Good question, and yes, you have to buy it at a good price to weight ratio. For example that pitcher in my very first photo weighed 2 ½ lbs and I paid 20 bucks from an antique store in Mo on the way down to the Hamb drags. So in that case with pewter at $16 a lb. it worked out well. Also, if you are buying it online you will have the extra cost of shipping on top of the per lb price. Then there is always the factor that you find a pewter piece really cheap but it has a greater value as that object, I can’t justify melting it down so I just resell it and use that money towards more (less valuable) pewter. One last thing on that, if you have an antique dealer/flea market person you know, tell them to keep an eye out for bent up worthless pewter pieces and offer them a like $5 a lb or less for the stuff, works well. That is usually the stuff pewter collectors don't want anyway.

Many places online to buy pewter ingots. One place that we use at work for other metals like pewter is http://www.rotometals.com/Pewter-Alloys-s/23.htm and they are fine to work with.

As far as the weight of the nameplate, probably a 1/3 of a lb. Just a guess without taking it back off the car and weighing it. Pewter is heavier than you might think. Not as much as lead but not far off.

Hope this is helpful.

Smokey

[Dan]

I used to buy pewter from a place called Iasco...
might try a search and see if they are still around??

[Marty McFly]

A perfect solution for a couple ideas I have had. Awesome tech, thank you!

[Spitbucket]

Great tech. Considering the low melting point ,how would pewter work using the lost wax process or a sacrificial styrofoam core?

[Richard D]

Originally Posted by cactus1

Very cool Smokey. Forgive me if I missed it but is there any shrinkage to account for with the pewter for something like the gauge surround?

Good question, aluminum does shrink when casting.

[Smokey]

Glad that this has people thinking about how they could put this to use.

Will work good with the lost wax process but I wonder if you would have enough temp to do a good burnout with the Styrofoam method. I haven’t tried so I can’t say for sure.

I did a quick search that said the shrink rate for pewter is 1/32” per foot. Very insignificant for most things you cast, I would think.

Was out in Des Moines Saturday afternoon and stopped at the Brass Armadillo and I took this photo. It shows a shelf of so called pewter. Only the four darker pieces in the middle left are actually pewter. The rest are an aluminum alloy and worthless for what we want.
They incorrectly label them as pewter but it isn’t hard to tell the difference.



Smokey

[D-Russ]

This is awesome! I'm gonna give it a try.

[k1w1rodder]

haha now you can all have "streetrod" name plates on your cars

[oldpl8s]

I made a car emblem in high school using aluminum and it came out great. I'll have to start looking for pweter now, thanks

[jaxx]

super kool - great tech - jaxx

[NextLevel]

This is great!!

[5-4Belair]

That is so cool! I want to melt something!

[wolfhound423]

Dang...this is the kind of tech I could pull off. Thanks, Smokey! (and none of grandma's priceless Jefferson cups will be sacrificed...promise)

[griffincat]

Great info. I started looking at the local thrift stores and already found 7 pcs priced from 50 cents to $1.50, so I can already see that this will work great!! In my learning curve I also bought some of the aluminum allow pcs, but the price of the education was cheap enough.

[thechopperguy]

Cool idea!

[paperdog]

wow some on with access to a water jet can do some tricky stuff

also the high temp RTV sounds like a way to make 3D items..item put at the bottom of a shallow box with short sides then squeegee in silicone out of a caulking gun any air bubbles will be ez to removed

my parents were antique dealers who tossed plenty of smashed pewter pieces
dang it

okay. plate,anodize, powder coat the final piece?

[TrannyMan]

can you use a coffee can to melt it in?

I was lazy and bought some off the internet....

[iammarvin]

Anyone try this with hi temp silicon yet?

[Unkl Ian]

Aluminum is too hot for Silicone, Pewter is OK.

I use Silicone from Smooth-On.

[cw]

Thanks for sharing. Speaking of Smokey, any worried a out gases released during melting?