Repair Metal Plate Image?

Does anyone have any experience in trying to restore a piece of a lined image on an old metal plate back to type-high?

This is what’s up: I was given a few metal printing plates of long-gone hotels in my state. My mentor mounted them on wood. We discovered they print just fine. They have some smashed parts of the images due to causes unknown but nothing too bad.

One of the smashed parts of one plate is supposed to be a flag on a pole on top of a tower. On the plate, this is a long thin line of metal above the rest of the image. What appears is part of a flag rippling in the wind, not the whole flag. Someone unknown smashed off the right “half” of the unfurled flag.

If the image printed properly the flag wouldn’t have much detail. It would appear as a solid color.

It has come to mind that there might be another printer somewhere who, perhaps, has had the patience to nudge some JB Weld or an epoxy or other metal-bonding material onto a plate in the hopes of restoring a line image to an old plate. Does anyone have any experience to share, please?

(Thank you to Elizabeth and everyone else who provides this valuable Web site.)

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I use Devcon Plastic Steel Epoxy for such repairs, prefer it to JB Weld or PC-7. PSE flows though, so you may need to make a couple layers, or build a dam around the repair, then carefully scrape or file, or sometimes use an electroptyper’s finishing rubber to dress the surface.
Depending on the smash, they sometimes used to unmount the plate and use punches to drive the battered area back to printing height from behind.

I think you are screwed. Although i had a small nick on a mag die, my die maker took the die and somehow pushed up some of the mag and repaired the nick, don’t know how he did it, maybe you should ask an engraver, Owosso maybe. Good Luck Dick G.

if you can’t repair it but still like the rest of image try removing the rest of the flag and save the rest of the image

PaulM - Good idea. I like having a Plan B!

Dickg - Hello again! How’s that Ludlow? :) Owosso: thanks for the suggestion! I’m sure it can’t be the first time they’ve been asked that question?

parallel imp - From the name of the product, it sounds like something that won’t need to be repaired in the future. Thanks for the recommendation. I have a hunch at some point I may be spilling some of that epoxy on my plate. I have an advantage here - there are two other plates just like this one so I know how the image should look. The disadvantage is that the plate that is damaged is the biggest picture; the other two are smaller.

An easier solution may be to print it as is on coated stock, scan it in to the computer, clean up the image digitally and send off to Owosso for an new copper cut.

When i worked at the newspaper we would route out sections of a plate and replace it with another, like Arie says, Dick G. ( the ludlows are fine, now i remember you)