Art & Inspiration Tech Week Emboss your valve cover

Great thread. I've done a lot of embossing in sheet metal over the years but have always made steel male and female dies. The urethane sure would make it easier, wish I knew about it years ago.
I have a project right now where I want to emboss some letters in a thin piece of stainless (20/22 gauge). Anyone know if this method will work on stainless?

 

There's a good chance it will work on the
Lighter gauge. Try a small test piece first.
Please post the results!
Rich

 

Nice Job!

 

I

I tried this once and I did it about the same way. My dies were .090 mild steel and I punched 20ga. The hard work was making the dies by hand, with a Dremel and needle files. I had to make loose pieces for the 2 As and the O. I ruined a couple of pieces when they got out of position during pressing.

I pinned the male letters to a 1" plate

I wanted this in a large panel, so I made it as an insert, so it would fit in my press.

 

Steve: Are you saying the female pattern did not work, and you ended up
using the male letters with urathane? Great definition on the end result!
Rich

 

Been awhile but I finally tried some stainless. Didn't take the time to make a die, just pressed it over a Ford emblem I had lying around. Came out better then I thought it would, lost a little definition in the tight areas (emblem is pretty small) but I could tighten it up by hand with punch and hammer if I wanted. Time to make some real dies!