Lettering

[Laurence Finston]

I cast a disk in wax for the stereotype. I think if the base of the spring form is inserted correctly, then the wax won't leak. However, it's no trouble to put it into a basin with sand to prevent leakage.

There was some water in the wax which collected at the bottom of the form and caused pitting. On the top of the form, there was some "dishing". I therefore heated the top and the bottom of the wax cast and poured some melted wax onto the surfaces to even them out.

I've got to do something else now but I hope to transfer the graphic to the wax and start carving it today.

[Laurence Finston]

Started carving the wax model. This will take awhile.

[Laurence Finston]

My first attempt didn't work, so I poured wax onto the disk to fill in the holes and even it out and made a new version of the graphic with more guidelines. I also slightly adjusted the position of the "X" so that its baseline lines up with that of the "T".

A piece broke out of the upper left serif of the "T", so I'll have to get out the hot air gun and the encaustic pen and repair it.

[Laurence Finston]

The letters turned out crooked again, despite the additional guidelines. I'm pretty sure it's because the surface wasn't level. I've put the wax disk back into the spring form, put some wax flakes on top of it and melted the top layer with the hot air gun to try to make it level again. Since only the top layer was melted, there was no need to put it into a basin with sand to prevent leaking. This should help ensure that the top and bottom surfaces are parallel, assuming my floor and table are perpendicular to the direction of gravity. What I'd really like is a work table with adjustable legs in order to be able to set this up. Well, I can dream, can't I?

I am now leaving it undisturbed to cool and harden while I do something else. This is something that doesn't come easy to me.

The wax will probably sag in the middle, so I'll have to try filling up the depression. I'm hoping I can do this just with heat. However, in case it doesn't work, I've gotten out my small block plane. However, after being packed up for so many years it needs some oiling and I'm going to have to search for the instruction booklet.

Half an hour later: This doesn't appear to be working very well. I've gone back over the surface with the hot air gun a couple of times to try to even it out, as the surface does harden unevenly. However, it occurred to me that the bottom is resting on a flat plate, so it may be better. Since that side hasn't been remelted, it may no longer be perfectly smooth, since I had the disk out and was working on it. In this case, I'll just melt the wax again, start over and use the bottom this time.

[John Wagenseil]

I have been following along and getting ideas.
Your methods can be adapted to making raised letters and manufactures medallions for paper models.
Thank you, for interesting posts, I hope there are more in the future.

[Laurence Finston]

Thank you very much for your reply and your interest. I have every intention of finishing the lead alloy stereotype, finishing the linoleum blocks, dividing them into stamps and trying to print from them. I've also got other ideas in the pipeline, so I guess I'll be posting here for awhile.

> I have been following along and getting ideas.

That's what I hoped to accomplish with these postings. If I can be of any help, please let me know.

You're right; the lead stereotype and possibly the plaster molds (once they exist) will be usable for making embossed letters, either raised or pressed in. I plan on trying this, too. I agree that these techniques would be applicable to paper models. I don't yet have an idea for exactly what, but it's in the back of my mind.

[Laurence Finston]

I had to start over with the wax disc. I tried sealing the bottom with carnauba wax, which has a higher melting point than other waxes and is also harder and more brittle. This didn't work, however, since the wax didn't stick to the form. I used clay instead. I didn't want to use sand so that the faces of the disc would be as parallel as possible. The clay worked great.

Carnauba wax doesn't melt well in the bath of boiling water: the wax at the top of the container hardens even while the wax at the bottom is liquid. As long as I had my portable electric burners out, I used them to melt some shellac wood filler to fix some errors on my linoleum blocks.

After pouring the wax, I was able to throw out some residue which had separated from the wax (paraffin) and collected at the bottom of the little saucepan: mostly bits of plaster and concentrated pigment along with some dust.

I let the disc cool completely before removing it from the form, which took a couple of hours. The bottom is nice and smooth and flat, except that it has a small hole from a piece of plaster that had gotten into the wax. I was able to work around it, though.

So, now I'm back to where I was a few days ago, but hopefully it will work this time.

[Laurence Finston]

I was wrong about the spring form not leaking if the base is inserted correctly; you can see through the gaps.

I originally made lines in the wax for the outlines of the letters with a carbide scriber. However, I need three levels: 1. the deepest for the letters themselves, 2. a little shallower for a metal base for the letters and 3. the top level for the base of the of the mold. My plan was to keep inscribing the outlines while I pared away the wax, but eventually I obliterated some lines. I therefore had to reinscribe them when I reached the deepest level.

I finally got around to making multiple stencils for individual letters. I'd noticed the problem before and thought of this solution but hadn't put it into practice yet: When parts of the paper have too little support, they don't stay in place. I've tried pinning and holding down with an appropriate tool, but this doesn't work well. Taping works alright, although not perfectly, but not on wax. In addition, when you have letters or other shapes with completely enclosed areas, like the bowls of letters like "a" or "p", cutting out the outline causes the inside part to become completely detached. With some other stencils, I've left bands of paper intact to connect the parts, but in fact, this doesn't work well.

[Laurence Finston]

I decided to go ahead and start another linoleum block with letters. This is work that doesn't require much preparation or clean-up and doesn't create a lot of dust or shavings, so it's suitable for doing while drinking coffee or whatever.

I accidentally cut out the "O" rather than the surrounding area, so I repaired it with some shellac wood filler. In the process, the outlines got blurred, so I made two stencils for reinforcing them. I decided to make cut-outs for the corners on the stencils and since I didn't want to print them out again, I got out one of my plastic templates for technical drawing. I'm always happy to have an excuse to use them and my other equipment for manual technical drawing.

I used a mechanical pencil which takes a .5mm lead and a technical pen with a .5mm nib. The templates are designed for use with drawing instruments of this size.

I'm nearly done with the wax disc for the stereotype with the TeX logo, but I have to go out, so I'll see if I can work on this later or I may do something else.

[Laurence Finston]

I finished the wax model today and made the first plaster cast. It worked out okay but not perfectly. The result will be usable. Unfortunately, however, my camera stopped working and it will be awhile until I can do anything about replacing it. Strangely, the photos I made earlier today that I transferred to my computer also can't be found. I don't understand this and I wonder if there's some connection.

So it will be awhile until I have anything to show again.