I was restoring a vehicle that needed a body ID tag. i started looking into how to make one. After searching for stamps I finally found 1/2" reversible stamps with 3/4" shanks. Next I had to find an appropriate material for the tag. I found material that worked quite well using a single stamp. At the time I had access to a Blanchard Grinder. I roughed the stamps but each one had to be individually sized. After spending literally hours on a hand surface grinder I got the first group of stamps sized. My next step was to build a holding fixture, as shown in the second photo. The original material that I used no longer worked with the group of stamps. I needed to find a new material for the tags. After many trials I finally found a usable material at Tractor Supply. After dozens of trials and errors I came up with acceptable samples. Keep in mind since I only have one stamp of each character when I need to use, for example, two (1's) I have to leave a space blank for the initial pressing and then go back and restamp the character into the blank space. The top stamp on each photo is the original while the lower three are the ones I made.
Yes, I know not all the letters are exactly the same (i.e. the w). It would take a very close look to pick that out once applied to a vehicle.
Who can identify the vehicle that these belong to? The bottom tag is my first customer's tag. He has been after me for a year to make one for him.
I only needed DW to post one pic of the stamps but I guess where one is good, three are better!!!
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