Putting a badge on a plaque

[Tim Baude]

Hi all,
I have a customer who needs a fire badge attached to a plaque. I recieved the order on Thursday and the badge today....and has to be done by this Thursday. The plaque and plate were not a big deal, figured that all out, then I got the badge and has the pin on the back and doesn't look like it can be removed. I have suggested a presentation box on the side or attached to it..... I also thought of a deep enough groove that the back would slide into. Anybody have any thoughts? I told them if I had a few weeks I could have easily figured something out. I took the job, because it is for a retiring fireman from the town for who I work for also. Any suggestions will be welcome.
Thanks

[Stephen Beckham]

Tim,

1) Permanent Mount or something they can remove?

2) Better description or photo of the pin?


Please...?

[John Frazee]

I have done plenty of these. Most of them I have just used a pair of pliers and carefully broke off the two small brace peices for the pinback and pin receiver. Then I double up the foam sticky adheisive pads and attach the badge. I have had some that I've had to gouge out an area in the plaque for the pinback. I have used just a simple drill in doing this. If you break off the pinback be careful and make sure the badge is thick enough and work slow to prevent tearing a hole in it. I have used a grinding wheel to remove pinbacks as well but do a little at a time. If you remove too much at a time and heat up the metal, you will get a black burn spot on the front. I know that from experience!

[Deane Shepard]

I've made a number of plaques with round "circle star" type badges. I use a 3" Forstner bit to drill a flat bottomed hole part way through the plaque. Then I cut a round piece of foam, slightly smaller than the hole and cover it with velvet. Hot glue the little velvet covered foam pillow into the hole and then pin the badge to it. If they want to take the badge off at some point, it can be unpinned and is ready to go.

Deane

[AL Ursich]

Now that's a good idea... I have taken to making my own plaque clocks and the plan is to have a place to add a Sublimated plate or Badge and the velvet idea is GREAT !!!

Thanks,

AL

I am making the clocks for a local shop that is at a Fire Expo this weekend, hope they get some orders.

Been doing Doming too.... that is very nice stuff....

Tim,

Ask them what they use for Fire Accountability Tags? Could be a market for you?

Didn't mean to hijack this but Fire Stuff is a money maker....

[David Fairfield]

Dean, I like this idea. Polished metal looks classy on black velvet, and no damage was done to the badge. lf there is enough clearance in the recessed area, a piece of plexiglass could go over the front face of the plaque to shield from dust and give a more finished look to the piece.
Heck, if you really want to go to town, you could reverse engrave the plexi with a design or text.

One thing I dislike is the "cheese" factor of using hot glue or tape to fix a 3 dimensional object to a plaque. It just looks cheap and rushed, and you know the tape will eventually fail. Some thought should go into the mounting.

Dave



I've made a number of plaques with round "circle star" type badges. I use a 3" Forstner bit to drill a flat bottomed hole part way through the plaque. Then I cut a round piece of foam, slightly smaller than the hole and cover it with velvet. Hot glue the little velvet covered foam pillow into the hole and then pin the badge to it. If they want to take the badge off at some point, it can be unpinned and is ready to go.

Deane

[Deane Shepard]

Dave - You can't see the hot glue as it is underneath the foam pillow and inside the recess in the wood. The pillow comes right to the edges of the hole. I wanted them to be solid and there is a copious amount of glue under there. I started making these about ten years ago as retirement gifts from the department I was in. We had a special badge made for the individual and "retired" it by mounting it on the plaque. Since the early ones went to people I know, even the oldest is still holding just fine.

If you wanted it to be really stout, you could cut a circle of very thin wood, glue the foam to that, then when you cover the foam with velvet, warp the velvet around behind the wood and can use short staples into the wood to hold the velvet. In addition to the glue underneath you could put one or two short countersunk screws into the wood through the back of the plaque. I believe in "railroad engineering" things as much or more than the next guy (making them far stronger than necessary) but the glue has really held up just fine (so far) :)

Deane

[Gregg Vaughn]

Tim,

I too have done several of these plaques. If the customer supplies a hat badge it is easiest, these have a threaded post on them. For shirt badges I have used two 1/4" brass posts (brass rod) that I dril a 1/8" hole through each. I drill 2 holes in the plaque/plate and set the posts in the holes with the 1/8" holes positioned so the badge pin sets through them. The length of the posts varies a little depending on the size of the badge, bur 1" with 1/2" set into the plaque and 1/2" sticking out works well most of the time and keeps the badge set out from the face of the plaque/plate. Watch when you set the posts, shirt badges normally have a in that runs at an ahgle on the back of the badge.

[AL Ursich]

If you wanted to mount it flush to the plaque using the push pins or threaded shaft what about drilling a hole in the back of the plaque leaving the front of the plaque 1/8 inch thick or so?....

Like I did for the clock insert. A 3 inch bit.

AL

[Keith Pitman]

I've mounted several belt buckles on plaques. For some I was able to buy a springy clip along with the belt buckles. the clip goes under the metal 'loop' on the back of the buckle and holds it on the plaque. For others, I made my own clips in the same pattern.

The first picture shows the clip on the plaque. The second shows the buckle in place, but lifted up to show how the clip attaches.