Foil stamping leather on the cheap?

[juno]

Anyone have a technique for applying gold foil in a perfect (i.e. printed) pattern onto leather? I've played with embossing powders, but they don't give the exactness I'm hoping for. The gold foil I apply to my tickets wouldn't work on something as heavy as leather.

 

[replicaprops]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juno @ Dec 8 2006, 06:36 PM) [snapback]1374067[/snapback]</div>

Anyone have a technique for applying gold foil in a perfect (i.e. printed) pattern onto leather? I've played with embossing powders, but they don't give the exactness I'm hoping for. The gold foil I apply to my tickets wouldn't work on something as heavy as leather.
[/b]

Tif,
Use your mill to make a negative of the stamp in alluminum. That will be your die pattern. Buy some heat transfer foil and get the die to the required temp then put it all in a vice and crank it down. Thats the poormans way of making a heat press.

 

[juno]

Thanks Rob.

Awesome. I have some heat transfer foil just sitting here. However I don't have any aluminum (and in fact have never machined it with my baby mill). I wonder if HD sells aluminum blocks.

 

[replicaprops]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juno @ Dec 8 2006, 06:55 PM) [snapback]1374082[/snapback]</div>

Thanks Rob.

Awesome. I have some heat transfer foil just sitting here. However I don't have any aluminum (and in fact have never machined it with my baby mill). I wonder if HD sells aluminum blocks.
[/b]

How big is the die going to be

 

[juno]

Oh, no more than 4"x4"

 

[replicaprops]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juno @ Dec 8 2006, 07:10 PM) [snapback]1374096[/snapback]</div>

Oh, no more than 4"x4"
[/b]

home depot maxes out at 2"
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?p...howunits=inches

Order the foot long

I would clamp the die to one half of your vise and heat it with a torch, then slide the leather with the foil pre taped in place and quickly clamp it down. Make sure you clamp the die down tight because it will expand and contract as it heats up and cools down.

 

[juno]

I may have to revise my die size just to try it out this weekend.

Did you use wood as a backer for the leather or did you have the leather already mounted to your card for the book?

 

[replicaprops]

wood is good

 

[juno]

You're telling me

 

[Darth Brass]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(juno @ Dec 8 2006, 09:37 PM) [snapback]1374265[/snapback]</div>

You're telling me
[/b]

0______0

Er...can't wait to see what you're working on.