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making a signature item


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I'd like to make a personal signature item to drop in caches I've found. Thinking of either an engragved poker chip or a coin. Something I could create at home. Any ideas on processes/materials for fabrication?

With a laser engraver like an Epilog Zing (about $8000) you can make just about anything.

 

A cheaper alternative would be polymer clay. I've seen some pretty impressive things done with polymer clay, but I'm terrible with crafts, so I can't give any tips or techniques.

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A friend of mine prints out adhesive stickers that he attaches to blank wooden nickels. He then coats then with clear laquer. Works great!

Just have to have a good printer that will print on adhesives, and a few hundred blank nickle stock.

Not trackable, but he leaves them in every cache.

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Signature items are tough. They need to be nice, cheap, memorable, relatively high quality, and quick to make. That's all sorts of tough to pull off. I still haven't figured something out, and I've been thinking about it for months now :P

With your great "Occult Hand From Above" avatar I'd think you have dozens of options.

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I too am in the trying to find signature item category. I can make all kinds of things, but to pull off a nice, quick to make, low cost item is not a easy task. This come from someone who made his own kitchen appliance! (search my user name, RS67Man, on youtube, you will see what two years and a machine shop in the garage resulted in) If one wanted to put the work into it, they could make their own signature coins with 1/8" or 1/16" thick round brass blanks and a hydraulic shop press. The hard part is the engraving of the steel dies to do the pressing with. I can see myself spending many hours with a dremel tool trying to make them. Once the tooling is made, then it is a simple matter of pressing off a handful whenever you need them. (I know, people with home shops should not post grandiose ideas like this.........)

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Signature items are tough. They need to be nice, cheap, memorable, relatively high quality, and quick to make. That's all sorts of tough to pull off. I still haven't figured something out, and I've been thinking about it for months now :P

With your great "Occult Hand From Above" avatar I'd think you have dozens of options.

 

I do believe that avatar was taken from the PC game URU, ages beyond MYST. Great game, had way too much fun playing it.

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I make mine with a laserjet printer and Dura-copy paper. At least one of the posters on this thread has seen one.

Seen one? They're all over the place! :P I didn't realize you print them yourself - I thought you bought a stack of them from somewhere and use a multi-colored stamp for your avatar.

Edited by Chrysalides
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There is a thread around here somewhere that shows people's homemade sig items.....I use the bottle cap one.....I can mass produce them for a relatively low cost.

 

The shrinky dinks are good BUT you have to cut them out pretty sizeable or they're too small. You also MUST use the laser printer type (more expensive but the quality is FAR and above the ones where you use pencils). I can fit 12 of my sig items on one sheet of paper and there's only like 6 sheets of paper per packet. You also need to put a clear finish on them when you're done. Good luck!

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Just had a blinding flash of insight:

 

1. Get blank wooden nickel

2. Get small metal type stamps ( the type you strike with a hamer to ID metal items)

3. band type together into words.

4. Heat with a blowtorch and brand into wood nickel

5. dip in clear polyurethane.

 

Now I just need to find blank wooden nickels.

 

Now where is that Michaels web page...

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Seen one? They're all over the place! :P

 

You think it is bad in California, try coming to Washington. I'm starting to find them in caches I've never been to before. :P

 

I will say that folks might not recognize the name, but they sure remember the sig item.

 

Jim

Edited by jholly
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I do believe that avatar was taken from the PC game URU, ages beyond MYST.

Yes, it is. I entered a developer contest way back when the game was still being made, and won second place. I've sorta adopted it since then. I've been working to customize it, but I don't know much when it comes to photoshop. It's slow going.

Signature items are tough. They need to be nice, cheap, memorable, relatively high quality, and quick to make. That's all sorts of tough to pull off. I still haven't figured something out, and I've been thinking about it for months now :P

With your great "Occult Hand From Above" avatar I'd think you have dozens of options.

It's a great design, but you still need something to put that logo on. Glass slugs would be great, but I can't find anywhere that sells them. I've looked at getting some dice made, but I'd like to make the items myself.

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I too am in the trying to find signature item category. I can make all kinds of things, but to pull off a nice, quick to make, low cost item is not a easy task. This come from someone who made his own kitchen appliance! (search my user name, RS67Man, on youtube, you will see what two years and a machine shop in the garage resulted in) If one wanted to put the work into it, they could make their own signature coins with 1/8" or 1/16" thick round brass blanks and a hydraulic shop press. The hard part is the engraving of the steel dies to do the pressing with. I can see myself spending many hours with a dremel tool trying to make them. Once the tooling is made, then it is a simple matter of pressing off a handful whenever you need them. (I know, people with home shops should not post grandiose ideas like this.........)

 

*plots to off RS67Man and steal his house*

*then remembers life isn't a video game and things just don't work that way*

 

In the "readily available to anyone" department, polymer clay is probably one of the best options. You can make your initial version, and then get the stuff to make molds, and make a few molds of it, so that you can make multiple at a time.

 

You could also form a stamp that would allow you to make.. basically a coin out of polymer clay.

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