Thread: making dog tags
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Gary Coffman
 
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On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 03:41:26 +0100, Tim Auton tim.auton@uton.[groupSexWithoutTheY] wrote:
Steve Knight wrote:

You make a handle to hold the lettering. you can only do one line at a time
though. Just mill a slot in some steel stock so the numbers/letters fit in
sideways. then cut it to width put a couple of pieces on the sides and a
setscrew in one side to hold the letters/numbers tight.


Why only one line? Well, other than the cost of the letters ($12.99
per set - I hope the text is light on "e"s!). Surely one could make a
holder for a few lines.


The more letters, the more force required for the tool to make an impression
of a given depth. Multiple lines make distributing the force equally more critical.
If a single line tool is cocked slightly when struck, the impression will be slightly
deeper at the top or bottom of each letter, but since the distance isn't great,
the error isn't large. But with multiple lines, the distance from top to bottom
is much greater, and any errors in distributing the force evenly will be much
more obvious.

Gary