I have always wanted to try embossing so thought this was the perfect project for it. I played around with the art dies following either inside or outside lines to see what worked best. Also top side or from underneath to see what would give the best results. Was having trouble around tight corners and intersections so switched the top die to the tipping one as shown. This did improve it and found doing it from the underside and following the inside line helped as well. This piece is what I practised the step and quilting on as well and is the side of a computer case.
What I did also find is not starting right at the corner as the indent from the die will spread further. So started this far from the corner worked best for me.
Trying different dies to see the effect.
Steel lower for the 9 gave more height and definition.
What is even easier is just a single pass from a bead die set. Went up through all my sizes to see the outcome.
In the end I really wanted to do the harder full outline as could use different fonts that way.
In CorelDraw I chose a font I liked and then altered the size and proportions to get the same spacing to the outside beading on all sides. Printed it out and cut the number out with a utility knife.
Traced the cutout with a sharpie. I'm doing it from the backside so the numbers have to be mirrored.
The new lighting present from my in-laws works a treat.
I just had to remember that what was going to be raised always had to be towards the throat with the way I set it up.
Came out every bit as good as I hoped! This is straight off the bead roller with nothing touched. Only a slight over run on the inside corner on the 5 to be fixed. Have to remember that inside corners have to start and stop earlier than outside corners.
Folded up three of the sides as the hinge will attached to the fourth. Have quite a buckle there.
I ran the hinge edge through the shrinker to get rid of the excess material.
Do still have too much material around the embossing though.
Can see it better with a longer ruler.
I used the 5" shrinking disc on the inside around the numbers. Didn't want to mark up the outside so always made sure to 'pop' the material to the inside while heating it up with the disc. Even placing a block underneath when needed and holding pressure down around it. No cooling with compressed air or water was done at any time to stop surface hardening.
Ended up going right around the numbers and also manipulated the steel with the palm of my hand and using a very soft faced hammer over a sand bag to move the highs and lows around.
I didn't want to put a handle on the front so thought folding out the flange a bit would be better. The vice and the wide vice grips hold the rest of the flange still while the black flanging pliers are pulled. Left 1/2" each side to give the flange room to bend. Best also to stretch that area beforehand by hammering over a stake dolly or bench.
That will do the job I think and look neater.
When removing marks from the shrinker/stretcher etc, I use a 80 grit flap disc, coarse paint stripping disc and then a 7" finer one. Then finish off with a kitchen scotchbrite pad and paste used for scrubbing pots.
Had my wife use the spot welder while I held the door in position on the full length stainless steel piano hinge. The slot is big enough for our largest magazines and the hinged flap behind it is to stop birds nesting inside which happened to the current one!
The box is large as well as we get parcels from our online buying. The delivery guys are too scared to come to the door due to Kuma having the run of the whole block. Next will be a spot for the papers.