stamping letters straight.....

1

1911

Guest
I've tried hand stamping, and any excellent results I've had were few * far between and probably luck...Is there an inexpensive jig, or holder that holds hand stamps straight so they look decent when remarking barrels?....or a technique i haven't heard of? I have all the stamps, (and don't hardly use them often), but when I do, i'd like to not worry about a crooked strike...I really don't need a pantograph or anything like that, as you can count on one hand the amount of times I stamp barrel per year...

Thanks for any input here...

1911
 
Brownell's...

has a device for holding the punches together for just this purpose.
mhb - Mike
 
I use a piece of steel measuring tape (from a broken tape measure) as a bottom guide for the punches...

I take about a 2 inch piece and tape it to the barrel at each end on the top edge of it... then I stamp the last letter first and work backwards sighting down the right edge of the stamp for the spacing and "squareness" using the top edge of the steel tape to align the punches one at a time.

It does not take long to become fairly good at it. You can practice on any old barrel... it is important to hold the barrel in a vise securely and to hold down on the punch firmly and a good whack with a large brass or bronze hammer works best.
 
letters

i press stamp into masking tape first where i can see a mistake-----than place tape on piece aline and stamp------indent in tape makes it easy. regards,ben
 
I do what Dennis does only I use a piece of brass shim stock. Sounds like the tape rule stuff would work better.
 
hand stamping numbers on barrel

Most of us had the same difficulty starting out. I discovered the technique of taping a thin strip of shim stock to the barrel helped a lot. If you have a scrap barrel or a section of round bar to practice on, you can work it out. Try to hold your barrel in a vise at a comfortable working height and put plenty of light on the subject. Go slowly, work backward from the last letter, especially if the space is limited, double check to make sure the stamp faces the correct way. Place the stamp on the barrel and carefully slide it so that the lower edge of the letter touches the shim stock. Many smiths use a technique of striking the stamp several times while moving the angle of the stamp each time to help form the impression following the contour of the barrel.

Trust us on this, you will be very satisfied when you are able to stamp straight, clean numbers.

One more thing, the stamping jigs sold by Brownells and others almost always end up in a drawer unused. More trouble than they are worth.

Scott Roeder
 
Neat Punching.

1911, I have a letter & number punch set which has 1/8" size characters and a punch that holds up to 10 characters clamped into its head, all perfectly straight. The set has punctuation, decimal points,dashes,slashes and blank spacers + & . There are 3 A , 2 B, 2 C, 2 D, 4 E, and so on, so that words can be put together. There are 4 of each number. 10 1/8" high characters stamp out at 1 1/4" long. Lined up on the job , one hit and hey presto, better than beautiful. The one hit impreses all letters to the same depth, something difficult to do with single's one at a time.

Made in England by Edward Pryor & son limited. Sheffield.
Google them.
This tool does the neatest work, more factory look than back yard.
 
I made a stamping guide out of aluminum 1/2"x1" aluminum bar, 4 inches long.

I milled a slot in it, the same width as my stamps. I tape it to the barrel with electrical tape.

I made some shims with a slitting saw from the same stock.

With practice it works fine, and was an easy shop project.

Ben
 
One of the difficulties is in the stamps themselves. Young Bros. makes two series of stamps -- one "Machine Made" and one "Hand Cut." The Machine Made stamps are the ones that are discounted and sold by MSC, Enco, etc. for $30-40. The alignment on the letters and numbers is just not as good as the "Hand Cut" stamps, and putting them in a jig simply gives you misaligned letters and numbers with excellent repeatability.

Pay the extra with hand stamps, and buy the Hand Cut variety if you want them to line up well. I use the B-Square alignment jig, by the way, and it works OK for holding good stamps in a presentable line.

I would love to have a set of Pryor stamps and a holder, but the cost has thus far kept me away. They have been quoted to me for around $400.

Clemson
 
stamping

As others have said is to use a shim or tape to get the bottom line straight.
But the big secret is ;



PRACTICE

CHRIS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top