Thanks to all who replied to my request for help with letter cutting and
engraving the hour lines and hour numbers onto stone and brass sundials.
As follows:
Subject: Help with: Stone masonry and Engraving required.
Hi all
I was wondering if someone would be able to help me. I would
like to be able to make a stone sundial. I have purchased a lettering
chisel (REXID 6mm cutting width) and a carving point chisel to put the
hour lines and numbers onto soft stone tiles that I have. My problem is
I do not know how to do this? Is there a book that I can purchase that
will show me how to put lettering and lines into stone.
Also I have purchased a DREMEL engraving power tool with a flexible
drive shaft to engrave the hour lines and numbers onto brass sundials.
Is there also a book on using powered engravers for engraving.
Any information or comments with regard to the above would be
appreciated.
Thanks in advance: Roderick Wall.
For those of you who are interested the following is a summary of the
replies that I have received:
(1) SANDBLASTING (letter cutting)
(reply from Robert Terwilliger)
One easy way to put lettering etc. into stone is sandblasting. This is
the method used by many monument and tombstone makers, and it works on
hard stones such as granite. The design is cut into a rubber template
which is affixed to the stone. The sand blast goes through the holes
and cuts away the stone in the exposed areas. I would suggest a visit
to a local monument maker.
In softer stone such as slate, you can carve or scratch designs right
into the stone with anything hard and sharp. An old file ground to
shape will do nicely.
(If you are going to use tiles, in some areas they can be purchased
fired but unglazed. You can paint (with glazes) your own design on them
and have them re-fired to set the glaze. I can't think of anything much
more weatherproof than a glazed ceramic tile.)
(Reply from Ed Engelman)
Most stone lettering that I have seen done locally was done with a
sandblaster. A mask is made with a thin sheet of rubber. Any stone
that is exposed to the blast of sand is eroded by the stream. There are
special rubber mats that are made for this. The special mats have a
sticky side that is attached to the stone and the sand bounces off of
the side without adhesive. However for the sandblasting that I have
done (in wood such as cedar or redwood) I did it with either truck tire
inner tube material or gasket material.
(Reply from Mac Oglesby)
NASS Vice President George McDowell has been through that process
(sandblasting). His dial is pictured on p.28 of the September, 1996
COMPENDIUM.
(2) LETTER CUTTING by chisel
(Reply from Harold Brandmaier)
Although I've never done any stone carving, if I did I would refer to:
"Letter cutting in Stone" by Richard Grasby, Anthony Nelson
Publisher: Anthony Nelson Ltd. PO Box 9, Shropshire SY11 1BY, Great
Britain ISBN 0-8122-8243-4
(3) Etching hour lines and hour numbers
(Reply from Mike Koblic)
My current method is etching: I design the dial face on a computer using
the Corel Draw 3.0. Then I print it on an acetate film using a laser
printer. I use a photographic method of transfer commonly used for
printing circuit boards (sound simple but actually the trickiest part of
the whole operation) onto brass plate. The I etch with ferric chloride
and apply patina as desired.
(Reply from John Edelmann)
I have finished a horizontal dialface, using the ZONWPLT procedure
available via NASS. The computer printout was then taken to an
engraving shop, where a brass plate was photoengraved. The result of
this effort was quite adequate, in my estimation. This is one facet of
the sundial building process that I do not possess the time, money, or
skills to pursue. The photoengraving process successfully etched very
fine dashed lines (for 10 minute interval lines) nicely. I will be
posting an article with images to the NASS compendium shortly regarding
this effort.
(Reply from Steve Harrington)
Have also used ferric chloride to etch a dial in brass, and while it
does work, it takes a great deal of patience and/or skill to produce a
satisfactory result. A clean mask is critical to success. In addition, I
did not etch the design deep enough, and now that the brass is
weathering, the dial is barely readable. I still believe it is possible
to produce results this way without spending much money, but a great
deal of time, care and patience is required.
Steve what type of mask did you use? (comment by Roderick Wall).
(4) Engraving (with DREMEL engraving power tool)
(Reply from Steve Harrington)
I have tried to use a Dremel tool to engrave sundials in brass, but even
after placing the tool into the router base, it was not possible to
achieve any degree of control manually. The results were not at all
satisfactory, downright embarrassing actually.
(Reply from Mike Koblic)
Good luck with the Dremel tool! I have tried but failed miserably. I
have only become interested in engraving recently. I have no practical
experience, and, like yourself am collecting information. Such
information is hard to find in Canada and some of the most unrelated
sources are helpful, e.g. knife and art magazines. Through such search I
found a catalogue of RIO GRANDE TOOLS & EQUIPMENT, jewellery supplies
from:
Albuquerque, New Mexico which has many tools including power engravers,
books and videos about them. To contact them:
a) call 505-821-2080
b) fax 505-821-5529
c) write to Rio Grande, 7500 Bluewater Road, NW, Albuquerque
New Mexico 87121, USA
(Reply from Charles Gann)
I searched for a long time for information on engraving before
discovering the following company:
The NgraveR Company
67 Wawecus Hill Rd.
Bozrah, CT 06334
USA
Phone 860-823-1533
Hours 9-5, Mon-Fri.
They sent me a catalog which has many engraving tools, both hand and
power. They also supply books and videos on engraving.
(Reply from Steve Harrington)
About five years ago, Roland Digital Group introduced a computer
controlled engraver that interfaces to the PC (serial or parallel port),
and shares the instruction set of an HP plotter. This machine will
engrave a variety of material, including brass, and has a table accuracy
of .0004 inches. The straightforward interface has made it very simple
to utilize CAD software on a PC, and directly "plot" the output into
brass, or engraving plastic as my needs require.
Although the price of the machine was an obstacle (it took me quite a
while to convince my wife I should get it) the results have been very
satisfying. The table size is 5.5" by 8", so I limit my dials to this
range.
This is not a problem because the design I developed incorporates a wire
gnomon going from the dial face to a post "north" of the scales, and
even on fairly small dials the readings are very accurate.
All this started for me by plotting paper dials that the sun would
destroy in a matter of weeks - even with UV resistant polyurethane. The
only material I didn't try was stone, and as Bob Terwillager mentioned
in another e-mail, sandblasting would probably be best. I did consider
making a wooden mold for concrete, but have been side-tracked by the
engraving. I hope this will save you some time in your pursuit of an
accurate dial.
(Reply from Robert Terwilliger)
There are power engraving tools, but the ones I know about have been
made by the engravers themselves. An adapter is built that converts the
rotary motion of a tool such as a dremel tool into a reciprocating
motion. A graver is held in a chuck, and the tool is essentially a
miniature jackhammer. A rotary tool will grind - not engrave, and is
going to be difficult to control.
(end of replies)
After cutting and pasting this e-mail together I thought that Robert
Terwilliger may like to use the above as an article in the Design and
construction Forum section of NASS's COMPENDIUM magazine. Robert it is
ok with me if you do. Is there Anyone who would not like Robert to
publish this e-mail in COMPENDIUM? Please e-mail me at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and or Robert Terwilliger at:
http://www.shadow.net/~bobt or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Note: I have left out everyone's e-mail address because I did not want
to upset anyone who may not like me giving out their e-mail address on
the INTERNET.
Thanks again I did not think that I would get such a range of replies
from everyone.
Roderick Wall
--
_______________________________
Roderick Wall
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Melbourne Australia.
________________________________
