Hot foil die clamps
I recently purchased a Gold hot foil system for my Windmill. I have it all installed but I don’t have any of the clamps that are used to hold the die in place on the heater plate. The holes in the heater plate are threaded. I will be using 0.25” copper dies. Does anyone know of a source for these? I found a catalog for a company that has gone out of business that listed them as FTS die clamps. Does that sound right? I Googled it but got no usable results. Where can I buy some?
i think this is what you may need”
http://www.sterlingtoggle.com/Products/BunterPosts.aspx
there is another style that uses different sized steel discs. these are drilled off center to allow adjustments.
i like the bunter posts better. they allow for very minute adjustments up-down, left- right, and tilt.
Thanks ericm That’s just what I was looking for. Placed an order.
okay, well make sure these are considered the “low height: style. With today’s desire for “really deep impression” you will want the lowered height style. you may want to be ordering “deep etch” on your die plates, even going to a brass type that are “CNC” machined. you are looking for maximum (yet affordable) relief around the image area.
A couple of other considerations when using Bunter posts. Each style, low or high, requires a special wrench to turn the screws. That should have been part of the initial order.
Then the photoengraver needs to know what is being used so they can provide the proper bevel on the edge of the dies. Flat stamped foil is the most common, any “deep Relief” work tends to be blind embossing rather than foil stamping. Then there is the consideration of what surface to foil stamp to and it can be one of several materials including cement board and phenolic board. Hot foil work is done using fairly hard impression surfaces. If multi-level or relief dies are used, then typically the photoengraver makes a counter cast and these are furnished with the die. These counter casts or dies can also be made in house using dental casting resins or for more simple designs, engravers board.
There is a lot to learn when going into hot foil stamping. I’m not aware of any one single book or manual that fully describes the process.
hi Fritz, i order “deep relief” foil dies when i foil stamp hard bound Case covers. depending on type style involved, the die maker can do a “Deep etch” The CNC process can go very deep. this allows clearance for the extra pressure required to stamp these covers. It is near mandatory for covers that are bound with a cloth. (this is still using a 1/4” die plate)
I only mention the availability of this process because of the “Deep impression” a lot of customers want these days. I understand that over hitting foil will usually either cause a “flaky” image or cloud some foils.
the specific degree of bevel on sides of the die does not seem to matter, just so there is “some”.