Custom "evil" crome????

Clockwork_Golem · Post by **Clockwork_Golem** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 5:20 pm

Does anyone know where a person can have custom crome emblems made??????

creapyrob · Post by **creapyrob** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:14 am

Please define 'made?' Like cast, polished, then chormed? Machined, Polished, then chromed?

How many do you want is another good question.

I know some guys that cast metal figs, I know a couple batch shop foundries but they need patterns made and that kind of stuff.

Clockwork_Golem · Post by **Clockwork_Golem** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:06 am

I'm looking to redue all the horse emblems off a mustang with skeleton horses and maybe do all the written stuff in old english

Post by **Bone** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 8:41 am

I know of some people doing chroming, and anodizing work and I believe some powder coating up in morristown area. However they don't make castings and such. You might try contacting our own Celticsmith about the casting end of things. He is QUITE the metal worker/ artist.
If you need just the chrome work (have the cast pieces) let me know and I will get you in touch with the chrome shop.

Clockwork_Golem · Post by **Clockwork_Golem** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 3:31 pm

As far as the cromeing goes I've got good hook ups for that it's the casting part I'm trying to find.

Mistress Eve(L) · Post by **Mistress Eve(L)** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:16 pm

I beleive a place here in town called LOKAR does that, a friend of mione works there, they custome make hot rod parts and I know they have made chrome skull shifters

Clockwork_Golem · Post by **Clockwork_Golem** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:36 pm

Kick ass I'll check them out,thanks for the assist everybody.

creapyrob · Post by **creapyrob** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 5:39 pm

Its Lokar. As in Lokar Transmissions. They are over by Th' Katch, and another nationally known place called Hypertech is over there. Hypertech does computer stuff, chips, burners, programmers, hardware to go with it that kind of stuff.

http://www.lokar.com/

I don't want to piss on your parade but Lokar is gonna be WAY expensive.

You think about looking for stuff like belt buckles or crafty items to use? Something that can be modified slightly and then chromed? I went to the Hottopic website and did a search for 'skull belt buckle' and got 3 hits. These 2 are probably what you want the third has a ring around it.
http://www.hottopic.com/store/product.a ... TEM=315942
http://www.hottopic.com/store/product.a ... TEM=315948

Clockwork_Golem · Post by **Clockwork_Golem** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:45 pm

The problem with the hot topic Idea is that I want to make skeleton horses to replace the horse logo's on a mustang.I can draw them out and probablely get them cast If I could find some one to carve pieces to use to make molds

creapyrob · Post by **creapyrob** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:07 am

What material do you want them cast in?

Anything more than potmetal, silver, gold or some other low temp metals (but not Alunimum) will require metal dies for casting. Alunimum needs a specail degassing process or it gets porosity and they usually develops in the last and first spots to cool, on a flat casting like your talking about it would be the ends and the middle/sprue.

You may want to contact a jeweler who does there own lost wax castings. They could make an origional, make a rubber mold and then turn out the wax copies for casting. If I had my shop up I could do that. I don't know what the Celticsmith has but I know hes got a shop of his own, did you contact him?

As far as carving the pieces get some jeweler's wax (carving wax) and do it yourself. Its not hard, make a few and pick the one you like best. Most jewelery shop will have it and would sell it to you or maybe give it to you. And it can be ordered from any number of supply houses, and P&S School Supply, UTK Art Supply, or Michael's may have it. Its kind of a specailty item but there are really hundreds of kinds from really hard than you file down and cut with a saw to super soft melt at body temp. I would recomend Green, its hard but can be worked easily, and its pretty cheap.

Post by **Bone** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:02 pm

CreapyRob, Thanks for that tid bit of info! Might be put to use in some opcoming projects of mine!

Seraph Antaine · Post by **Seraph Antaine** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:32 pm

Chrome auto emblems are usually made of pot metal. No need to pay for silver. As far as the sculpting of your skeletal horses, you should consider using Super Sculpee modelling clay. It is a soft plastic modelling clay that is very easy to work with. You can get it cheaply at Michael's art store. You may work with it over a period of time, as it will never harden on its own. Then when you are finished modelling, you can harden it in your oven at home. 450 degrees, I think. It bakes to a nice hardness similar to the plastic used in toy action figures. Celticsmith should be able to make a mold from your sculpture , if he has the time to oblige. BTW, what model of Mustang are you working on?

creapyrob · Post by **creapyrob** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:24 pm

Not to be contrary or anything but with wax it can be cast, Super Sculpee can't.

The wax is sprued (has runners and a pour neck put on so the metal can flow into the cavity). Wax is invested in a plaster, a hightemp stuff for casting. It is then preheated 1 - 2 hours going up to about 300 - 400 degrees. Then the temp is raised for 4 - 5 hours to a little over 1200 degrees. At about 750 or so the investments are turned over and the molten wax drains out. But some wax remains until 1200 degrees where it vaporises. Then the temp is lowered to about 900 degrees. The investments are kept warm so the molten metal will not cause them to explode. They can be slung cast or vaccum cast from there.

New autoemblems are injection molded plastic with a chrome like finish either Spatter sprayed on or pressed on during molding. The older one I've delt with were premanent mold/die mold iron or alunimum or for trim just sheet metal.

Seraph Antaine · Post by **Seraph Antaine** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 6:47 pm

Wow. You're very knowledgeable. You could of course make your own runners into the Super Sculpee model, but I don't know if the Sculpee would vaporise away like the wax. I'm curious, though, why do they heat it to 1200 degrees, other than to vaporise the wax? Does it take that much heat to harden that special plaster? I know pot metal melts at like 900 degrees, but I guess you'd have to use whatever the chroming shop can plate. If this guy's doing a classic 'Stang, though, plastic emblems would be out of the question.

Shit man, I just thought of another option. Maybe you could just take the original pony emblems and file away material to make it into a skeletal pony, then have it re-plated?

Seraph Antaine · Post by **Seraph Antaine** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:01 pm

I stumbled across another solution for you, which may be best solution available. I found a site for a company which manufactures custom auto emblems from your drawing or description. They will make a 3D model of it and let you preview that online before they go on to actually making the wax mold (as described by creapy) and then casting the emblem of yellow brass, which is then chromed. Check 'em out:http://www.motorheadjewelry.com/index.html

creapyrob · Post by **creapyrob** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:41 pm

IIRC Sculpee has a ceramic base so it will never truely melt like plastic or wax. If it melts at all it will leave a powder residue that will not allow the metal to flow properly.

Another option if you've got some extra $. Rapid Prototyping is where a 3D drawing is made into a solid model, probably like the company listed above does. There are really 100 different kinds of RPing but one of the more common is a wax printer. Its like an ink jet printer but it uses wax and the tray lowers about .002 an inch at a pop and it prints another layer. If you could do the drawing or find someone to do it for you it would lower your cost a lot. I'm not sure what a RP company charges but I know a couple and can give you their number but it will be expensive. One of them is a casting company and they use the RP to do one off castings like you want.