I bought a couple of stamps, one to do impressed stamps with and one to use as a brand. It was a group buy organized by a woodworking friend. We designed our brands and sent them off to a 3D printing service and had them done in steel.
This:
became this:
I got two of them for $18, including delivery.
The lettering is a good size for woodwinds; short but quite readable.
One of them I attached to a rod and handle and use as a brand. That works pretty well, though it takes some practice to rock it on tubes to get consistently good results.
The other one I hardened and tempered (heated to red and quenched a couple of times and then just heated the letters and let them cool slower). I fashioned this press:
It works, but the quality isnât quite what I would like as the letters are not impressed as much at the top and bottom. I found that if I use it like an ink stamp with this stuff:
I get decent gold lettering. The only shots I have of the results are washed out; I will have to set up a better way to take close ups after I make some adjustments.
But I really need to either rock the stamp or roll the tube to get the best results. Any bright ideas for a good jig to do this? Keep in mind that I am operating on a tight budgetâŚ
If you have enough material, file down the middle to match the curve of your whistles better.
Or, mount the stamp on an extension that pivots like a hinge. The length should match the diameter of your whistle. Set the space to give a tight fit, and roll your tube past the stamp. If you want to get fancy, you could put a handle on the hinge assembly and roll from that.
I thought about the idea of a form fitting stamp, but I will make some various instruments of differing diameters. At the price I paid, I probably cold get a few made at different radii, but I wonât get that price again. The guy who did the CAD and got everything in the proper formats for ordering is going to make a little side business out of it. I was fortunate to get in on a trial run.
However, having said that, I did get 2 of these and the one I am using as a brand is very general purpose. I could probably sand a slight depression in the stamp and have it cover a range of sizes. Being slightly deeper than necessary at the top and bottom would be far less noticable than not being deep enough. HmmmâŚ
Maybe all you have to do is mount the stamp in the bottom of a jig and roll the work piece across it while pressing down, or tapping the work piece several times as it rolls over the stamp. Yeah, thatâs probably the easiest thing to do. Just be sure to keep things square as you do it.
The problem with that is that it requires a lot of even pressure on the stamp. I had one of those âOK, now I get itâ moments the first time I tried it. I am referring to the reason that most stamps are rolling stamps. I think the reason is that the pressure applied only has to be enough to imprint one character at a time. The crazy thing is that it would have cost me only a little more to get a round one. But I was concerned about making a good jig for that that would keep it straight. It is easy to do is you go around the tube as you can make something for the lathe. But I want my mark on the bottom, only visible when you look for it, because I am doing medieval style whistles and flutes suitable for use by ren faire performers and the like. But I want it readable enough so that people who want one can find me to order a dozen or so (and then I wake up )âŚ
)âŚ