Stamping letters on bare aluminion. Advices

[nonost]

Hola gente. I'm starting using stamp letters for labeling pots and such. It's not as easy as I thought. Any suggestions?

I tried with a piece of wood right under the stamping surface but didn't help. So far the best results are with a solid piece of steel. It's a small one,  like  4cm or so. With 2mm - 4mm letters works ok but with 6mm-8mm I only get a pretty shallow mark and not deep enough. What should I try: A bigger piece of steel or a bigger hammer? My hammer is 500g.

Thanks!

[Ripthorn]

For good making you need lots of strong mass underneath. Steel is a great choice. You also need to keep the aluminum from bouncing on top of the steel and you need a lot of force. A 500g hammer will require a significant strike to get a nice, deep punch. 1 kg would be better. Also, the punches should be firmly held to the surface before striking to maximize energy transfer. I also recommend practicing on scrap.

[nonost]

Ey Brian! Thanks.

Ok. I'm getting a 1kg hammer and a bigger steel plate. I've found a 63mm x 63mm x 30mm. Do you think it might work? My slim 50mm x 50mm x 10mm works with the smaller stamps (although I have to be very fine and hit quite hard).

Yeah, it's not easy to keep everything steady. My steel plate is not big enough... Underneath it I'm putting a enclosure-size block of wood, but since the steel plate is so small, it tends to dance a little. I'm practicing on a couple destroyed enclosures, so no problem.

Congrats for your website, plenty of work there! I'll take a look at it with more time.

[Ripthorn]

The larger steel should work much better. That's about 4 times the mass of your previous one, which should help quite a lot, along with the bigger hammer. Thanks!

[PRR]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8Y9WAxghk

I would not think that toy hammer would set a stamp, and her triple-whack technique can bounce and double-strike. Maybe it's all in the color of the nail-varnish.

Yeah, I'd favor the 2lb/1kg short-hammer and one good whack. Don't be timid.

[nonost]

It looks like the mass of the base is crucial. With my mini-base I have to hit the enclosure really, really hard. Nothing compared to the video linked. And I'm talking about the small stamps... With bigger ones there's no way.

In that video, the mass of the object to be stamped is way lower than the base. And the piece gets stamped without effort. So yeah, biiiig steel base is coming.

[Mark Hammer]

What the OP asks about is essentially what Fairfield uses on their pedals.  Guillaume Fairfield introduced me to a buddy of his who does the legending on Fairfield pedals a couple of years ago at the Festival Sonore.  If they hold it again this fall (cancelled, three times in spite of planning, during the pandemic), perhaps the fellow will be there, and I can ask him for advice.

[imJonWain]

I've tried it.  You definitely need to get it done in a single wack if using a hammer.  using a vice to hold the enclosure in place and down onto whatever support you have so it won't bounce.

My best results came from using an arbor press with a steel block under the enclosure and not a hammer.

[temol]

How about using a faceplate and stamping letters on much softer sheet aluminium instead of the enclosure?

[imJonWain]

^ That's a cool idea, you could rivet or bolt it to the enclosure. 

[temol]

In many cases it is not necessary to bolt/rivet the faceplate. Potentiometer nuts are sufficient.

[Fancy Lime]

I bought some sheet copper for that purpose a while ago. Have yet to use it, though. Plan is to patina the stamped copper to a nice malachite green.

[Electron Tornado]

How the vikings did it:

How Mark VII Limited did it:

[Puguglybonehead]

I would suggest trying a metal tipped dead-blow hammer like a dead-blow ball peen hammer.  It would eliminate any tendency for bounce and would get the job done with one strike per character.

[nonost]

Thanks for your help guys.

The larger the letters are, the harder it gets to stamped them. The letters used by Fairfield are not that big. But any advices from experienced people is always wanted. It would be great Mark.

The dead-blow hammer looks like nice idea to try. I think it would make a difference.

Cheers!

[amptramp]

If I were to use a metal stamp, I would clamp a straight bar under where the stamp would go to align it so the stamp doesn't tilt.  I have seen a number of stamping jobs that had letters rotated off centre and it looks amateurish.