Big Metal Signs

[Steve Clarkson]

I have someone that needs 17" diameter 3/8" thick stainless steel circles engraved with photos, graphics and text. I could probably use cermark, but they prefer engraved. My local supplier of stainless steel can only cut up to 1/4 thick.

Does anyone have any suggestions for where I might be able to get this done? They need 20.

Thanks

[Margaret Turco]

Have you tried a water jet shop?

[Dave Gates]

Gemini Sign Letters should be able to provide that.

[Martin Boekers]

These guys did some water jet cutting a while back. .5" Stainless.

www.budnick.com/ (http://www.budnick.com/)

You may want to search under materials converting. If you do get involved in this
make sure you get the right Stainless as there is many grades of it, also don't
assume you will get polished finished pieces, make sure you spec what you want.
Don't forget to ask if and how they plan to hang these things, welding stainless
is a tricky proposition from what I have been told.

Sounds like an interesting job, there should be some good money in it!

One more thing, make sure they have an idea of how heavy these are and that they may
cost $1000ea. I have learned in the past not to spend too much time on these jobs unless
I am sure they understand costs involved.


Marty

[Steve Clarkson]

Thanks for the advice. Yea, I was concerned with the weight too......I'm pretty sure they will be too heavy for my table.

They won't be hanging them......they're going to be decorative man hole covers for a mall.

[ray hampton]

before I do this job , I would call all of the scrap metal dealers within a thousand miles circle and warn not to buy the covers if someone just happen to steel them

[Ross Moshinsky]

Gemini Sign Letters should be able to provide that.

This is definitely something for someone like Gemini. The "proper" procedure will be to water jet the circles and then chemically etch the engraving. Afterwards you obviously color fill. Aluminum will be significantly cheaper so I'd get quotes for both. This won't be an inexpensive project though. Probably a $10-20,000 order if they stick with stainless steel.

[Rodne Gold]

It would most likely be a lot cheaper to actually make a wooden "master" for these and have em foundry cast in iron and then to plate em with chrome if they want a shiny silver look or cast in aluminium/zinc/whatever if they want a solid silver finish - assuming they all have the same "engraving" on em.

[Michael Hunter]

before I do this job , I would call all of the scrap metal dealers within a thousand miles circle and warn not to buy the covers if someone just happen to steel them

I'd do the opposite - tip off the stealers that the circles are going in, so I get paid again for re-doing the job when they "disappear"!


I wonder if Cermark would stand up to this sort of use/wear. Has anyone tried this sort of thing?

[Conrad Fiore]

Steve,
Those plates will be about 24 pounds each. We have all our cutting, laser or water jet, from these folks http://www.servicemetal.com/, in Rockaway NJ. They do a real nice job and are the fabricators that cut all the bronze panels for 911 Memorial.

[Bill Cunningham]

If they don't balk at the cost, I would make sure you get a cost covering up front deposit, unless you can afford to front the several thousand dollars, and wait 30-90 days to get paid.. If not, they will be basically asking you to grant them thousands of dollars in credit.. I don't know about you, but for me that would be a gamble..

[Dan Hintz]

Steve,

Is the detail low enough that you can get away with a chemical etch? You could certainly do that "at home", and the laser could cut the mask.

[Steve Clarkson]

Probably not Dan.....but thanks for the idea.

BTW, I sent an e-mail to Gemini asking if they could do it and I got an e-mail reply that said "Thank you for contacting us. Your e-mail will be answered in the order it was received"..........I seriously felt like I was in a queue on the phone.......I could even hear the lady saying "Your call will be answered in the order it was received".........lol.

[Bruce Boone]

The problem that I keep running into in trying to fing a powerful laser that can both cut and engrave is that engraving lasers are generally not that powerful. My YAG with 80 watts could do it, but could only do a tiny 2" section at a time. Something powerful enough to actually ablate the material away yet do an area like 17" will be next to impossible to find. The physics of a galvo head lens will make it tough if not impossible to pack that much punch over that kind of area. Engravers strong enough to ablate metal rarely use an XY type gantry, yet that's exactly what I'm looking to do. Believe me, that type of laser is very hard to find. I still haven't found one and will have to build a system myself from the source parts. I'll be making a plane trip here soon to do trials at a research and testing facility. I would agree with Dan that your best bet will be to have them chemically etched. They can do crazy detail, (that's how newspaper plates are made) but it's not something you really want to mess with yourself.