Design your own metal stamping die?

Anyone know of a good quality manufacturer who can make me my own custom design metal stamp for some home poured silver bars. Been looking all over the web, not having much luck

 

There are some people on flea-bay that do it, but it is going to cost an arm and a leg . . and maybe an ear.

 

Geez, I'd pay an ear, but not the arms or legs, they just come in to damn handy.

 

I'm not sure but the only site I came across was this
http://www.osbornecoin.com/customdies.htm

I wouldn't mind knowing either

 

You can buy the individual letter stamps at some hardware stores, it is a bit labour intensive but you aren't going to be doing hundreds of them.

I have looked into doing this myself, I figure the easiest and cheapest way is to buy or build a cheap(ish) CNC Milling machine and just engrave it on each bar, you can get way more intricate designs, it would be different from having hand stamped one as well. Plus you aren't tied to one design, you could do a series of different designs without needing to pay extra die costs. http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-to-Build-Desk-Top-3-Axis-CNC-Milling-Machine/

As much as I am not a fan of hand pours (not recognisable brands, no guarantees of purity etc.) Having seen some highly polished pours with a nice engraved finish I have to say I wouldn't mind having some myself.

 

Thanks Sa_bogan & Jislizard.
I was looking into the CNC option a while back, pegged it as to expensive. I'll have to revisit this idea me thinks.

 

I think it can still be very expensive but I have started to see CNC routers, milling, 3D printers and even laser cutting kits as well as a lots of DIY instructions appearing all over the place.

Quite a few kickstarter projects are about making these items smaller and cheaper. I just don't have the space, or any real need for one but I reckon if you did get one there would be a few people wanting to use it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-source-plans-for-a-low-cost-cnc?ref=category

You could even use the machine to make a die if you wanted to go back to hammering the metal.


I keep thinking of making some custom bars and trying to sell them and that will pay for all the equipment but I just know I will never get around to it.

 

Why not just pour the bar and get the engraving done here in Brisbane?

You've got arguably the best engraver in Australia - Hammonds. I've used them for several pieces of my own... honest, reliable and reasonably priced

Otherwise, mold and cast your own die - shouldn't be too difficult using individual letters.

 

These guys could probably help http://www.jaabbott.com.au/

 

Thanks for everybody's suggestions, I'll be following a few up throughout the week.

Kind regards,

Emanance.

 

How did you get the silver for the bars?

 

Plan to melt down some big 100oz ones.

 

I'd reckon these would suit the job.

http://www.jaabbott.com.au/cgi-bin/frontcart/frontcart.pl?command=details&itemid=76 few other types in the catalogue under hand stamps.