New Plaque Match Plate

Discussion in 'Pattern making' started by FishbonzWV, Jul 27, 2020.

  1. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    I needed a 6" x 12.5" plaque pattern for the cemetery I'm rehabbing.
    I have a piece of slant face limestone and thought it would make a nice mount for a name plate.

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    I did my usual plexiglass build and since they are a p-i-a to pull from the sand, I made it match plate.
    It would barely fit in one of my flasks.

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    I had enough wood left to mount my large pattern so it's now a match plate.

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    This morning I got to try it out.
    There's a serious rat tail in it but I figure the powder coat will hide it. I do have some Lab Metal I could throw on it if it eats at me enough before the coating gets applied. Mandatory two week aging before powder.

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    I also made a lost foam spacer for the brush blade on my weed eater. Vines were constantly binding up on the exposed spindle.

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    A little drill press work and it's installed.

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  2. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    Nice work!

    Do you think casting this plaque on a slight incline could have promoted a more orderly filling and made the rat tail less I have no bronze experience Nice letters—source?

    Denis
     
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  3. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    Yes, normally I do have the far end higher than the sprue...I forgot to do it.
    I'm out of practice, was trying to film the pour, had the lost foam bucket beside it, just plain ol' thinking about everything else.
    And it didn't dawn on me until the next day and that made it a Homer Simpson moment, head slap... Doh!
    Those are 3/4" sign board letters. I cut the little mounting tabs off the back.
    I ordered a set of 1/2" yesterday, Amazon.

    I had ordered sets of Freeman's letters but those were pure crap. I think they didn't let the plastic harden enough before ejecting from the die because there were three pin depressions on every letter. The 1/2" set looked like the pins were retracted too deep in the die, they had three nubs on each letter. I talked to Freeman's, told them I thought they had a bad batch, and they shrugged it off and said all their sets look like that. Outsourced.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2020
  4. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    Hopefully, this will fix the problem. :)
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  5. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    My 1/2" letters came today and since it was raining, I hit the shop and trimmed them up.
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    I looked them over and thought, those will never pull cleanly, especially the A, W, M, G, and 5.
    I did a test mould and was really surprised that every one pulled perfectly in the petrobond.
    Even the little inside tit on the Q was perfect.
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    They were sold by Felt Like Sharing on Amazon if anyone is interested.
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2020
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  6. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

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    Idea snagged.

    Thanks, these are much nicer and cheaper than the little ones from my dollar store toy letterboard that always break off a triangle of sand in the A's. A little bigger too. Haven't had time to test them yet, but they look right. Different seller but same idea.

    Jeff
     
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  7. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Bonz, could you touch on your plexiglass build that you referred to above? Maybe the details are contained in a thread here at THF somewhere but I'm thinking your original matchplate thread might be lost at AA.

    Pete
     
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  8. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    It's a basic build using Plexi instead of wood.
    I use 1/4" as the base pattern cut at 10 degrees on the table saw.
    The outline is 1/8" cut at the same taper.
    After fitment, Weld-on 3 acrylic cement is applied using a syringe to inject the watery glue between the two layers of plexi. Don't clamp the pieces together, it needs capillary action to pull the cement in. A piece of tape will do. This is permanent, there is no separating them.
    To glue the letters on I use contact cement. Put a dollop of it on a piece of paper and dab the letter in it. Usually two small points of contact is all it takes to hold them in place. Removal of the letters is by a long thin blade exacto knive. Then change to a flat blade to scrape the residue off the pattern.
    Make it a match plate for ease of moulding.
    Does this cover it?

    Edit, all my plaques have full length knife gates with the runner under the gate.. I can run them across the table saw to fettle.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2020
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  9. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Sure does! Thank you.
     
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