Today is the last day of making our ID Tag. I've rubbed mine with sandpaper to make the surface and edges smoother. In our lesson for today, I have to polish my aluminum and stamp my initials to it.
I have a lot of scratches on my aluminum so I really had to polish it really thoroughly.
Here is a photo of how we polished our ID Tag and the finishing product:
Before shot:
After shot:
The first thing we needed to do was to get aluminum, we had a long strip so we needed to measure it to make sure the width and length were right. The width needed to be 20 cm and the length needed to be 45 cm. We measured this using a metal ruler. Since we needed to cut it we needed to make it one or two cm bigger than 45. Because when you cut the metal it is not going to be perfect unless you are a professional. So using a scriber I engraved a small line on the sides. Then using a engineers square I lined it up to the lines and engraved a line. The engineers square is there to make the line straight. After that, we needed to cut the metal, then we need to file it down to the 45 cm line.
We then used spring dividers to make the curves on the ends, the way we did this was by measuring where the center of the I.D tag was. Then put one of the legs of the spring divider on the center point. After that lengthen the space between the legs to your choice. Then kind of scrape it to make the curved lines do this on both sides. Now you need to file it down to those lines, this part is optional. But for me, I had sandpapered it and one of the mistakes I had made was the I also sandpapered the faces. Which cause scratches which didn't make it look appealing anymore.
I then needed to bluff my work, but before that, we had to drill a hole into the top of our I.D tag. Now using another type of drill we created kind of bowl shape over the hole. Which gave it some style. Now talking about the bluffing, since it would be too hot for us to hold it by hand when bluffing. We need to hold the I.D tag using pliers, even if I could withstand the heat, like by using gloves. I would still use pliers because the bluffer spins so fast and it's scary. After that, you need to stamp maybe initials or a name. Using metal stamps and a hammer, you put the stamp over the I.D tag with the letter facing the right way. Then in one strong go, hit the stamp with your hammer if you hit the stamp more than once. It might make it look like two letters over each other. Which doesn't really look nice, another tip is to make you bluff before you stamp in my personal experience.
I enjoyed this project and thought it was really nice, plans did change throughout the working of this. Because I was going to give it to my dog but we ended up needing to sell him. So now I gave it to my mum, probably the hardest to do overall. Was get the right measurements and then needing to polish. I get that because I am not professional, but this was an interesting experience.
We then used spring dividers to make the curves on the ends, the way we did this was by measuring where the center of the I.D tag was. Then put one of the legs of the spring divider on the center point. After that lengthen the space between the legs to your choice. Then kind of scrape it to make the curved lines do this on both sides. Now you need to file it down to those lines, this part is optional. But for me, I had sandpapered it and one of the mistakes I had made was the I also sandpapered the faces. Which cause scratches which didn't make it look appealing anymore.
I then needed to bluff my work, but before that, we had to drill a hole into the top of our I.D tag. Now using another type of drill we created kind of bowl shape over the hole. Which gave it some style. Now talking about the bluffing, since it would be too hot for us to hold it by hand when bluffing. We need to hold the I.D tag using pliers, even if I could withstand the heat, like by using gloves. I would still use pliers because the bluffer spins so fast and it's scary. After that, you need to stamp maybe initials or a name. Using metal stamps and a hammer, you put the stamp over the I.D tag with the letter facing the right way. Then in one strong go, hit the stamp with your hammer if you hit the stamp more than once. It might make it look like two letters over each other. Which doesn't really look nice, another tip is to make you bluff before you stamp in my personal experience.
I enjoyed this project and thought it was really nice, plans did change throughout the working of this. Because I was going to give it to my dog but we ended up needing to sell him. So now I gave it to my mum, probably the hardest to do overall. Was get the right measurements and then needing to polish. I get that because I am not professional, but this was an interesting experience.
Equipment
Aluminium
Engineer Square
Ruler
Bench Vice
Soft Jaws (for the bench vice)
Spring Dividers
Engineers Blue
Centre Punch
Hammer
Scriber
Hawk saw
File
Sandpaper
Digital Metric Gauge
Bluffing machine
Pliers
Face shields
Hi Rieya
ReplyDeleteYou've written a good explanation of the process of creating this ID tag. Sorry to hear that you had to sell your dog. Your ID tag has come up well after you polished it.
Some feedback is that I would finish with your sentence at mum, then start the next sentence with Probably...and take away the full stop after overall, as this is all one sentence. You could also use a better adjective than nice in the last sentence of that paragraph. Was you experience challenging? Fun?
Keep up the great work.
Mrs Hastie
Thank you for the feed back Miss Hastie, I will update my blog and edit my blog.
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