Can anyone point me in the right direction for restoring raised letters on a casting? I am restoring a sludge pump (Chalmers Edinas) and on the pump body it has the name cast onto it but over its working life the middle of the name has flattened. I can still read it and make out the letters but wish to raise them to pick out the detail. Is there an easy way to do this? Has it been covered in S.E. ?
Thanks
Phil C.
Use electrolytic de-rusting (Google knows) It's the best and least damaging process without further rounding of the edges.
If it's stamped serial numbers in steel, then there are acid etch process that can recover them from beneath enormous damage (like re-cutting files). If it's raised cast iron though, once they've gone, they've gone.
I have a 1903 Gardner Type 0 where some kind soul has chopped off the upcast Gardner name & surround from the cast base. Can't imagine why .... but it's a bore.
Approx 1/4 inch high & some six inches long. I assumed I would rebuild slowly with JB or similar, using some sharp X-Acto tools (plus some of those splendid stainless ex-dentistry moulding tools that are around) ......... Will waste a week of winter evenings. Better suggestions welcome ....
Colin
Find another one in good nick, then make a mould from it. You can cast polyester resin filled with steel or bronze powder in a silicone mould.
Andy -- you are right. Much easier.
Next question -- has anyone on the NG got a Gardner Type 0 cast iron base with "Gardner" cast inside a raised surround on the flank of the base. Approx 6 inches x 2 inches from memory.
Colin,
I have a friend who has one. I'll be seeing him at the weekend, I'll find out if it has the necessary.
Mark
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Talk to a picture frame restorer, they do a similar thing all the time (making moulds of intricate shapes)
Cheers Tim
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
I _am_ a picture frame restorer! I'd still use silicones and metal-filled GRP resin for this, rather than compo mixes.
Bentley chemicals and their Smooth-On products offer a big range of moulding silicones and they're remarkably helpful to small-scale crafts users.
Ah! I was just trying to help the questioner find some more detailed guidance than the rather vague suggestion you made.
And where does one find them?
Cheers Tim (whose wife used to restore picture frames)
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
How should I know ? I have to use Google to find my own phone number, let alone anyone else's. They're visible and they're helpful - just phone them up and they send you their colour newspaper, full of weird film prop making people and pictures of masks. If you're nice they even send you a keyring full of hockey pucks: different silicones, all with different Shore hardnesses.
If you Google for Andy Dingley you find my alter ego, who is a film prop maker. Quite odd to find that you have a doppelganger, and that he's done many of the things you wish you'd done yourself.
Philip,
I have a friend with a very nicely restored vertical Blackstone who had to make a rocker arm for it, it had a part number moulded into the original arm and he made numbers for it from resin using the mold from the other arm and stuck them on. After painting you cant tell.
Mart> Can anyone point me in the right direction for restoring raised
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