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Oh yeah those are looking real nice!! Would be a nice finishing touch on my brother's '72 when he completes his re-build....and shoot, would even look sweet on my old clunker!!
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These look amazing! What a great job, Mitch.
Jon Brush in frozen Boston. |
Those sure look like a winner!
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There are 2 parts to this project; the CAD design of the 'replica' emblems and the material/finish of whatever gets produced. Printing in nylon is easy but I’m all about metal.
The 60% 316L 40% Silicon Bronze matrix does pretty well in a very aggressive hot salt brine - no visible rust in a couple of hours. For reference, a piece of 440 stainless in the same brine was rusting in less than 15 minutes. I decided to passivate the emblem in a hot citric acid solution followed by oxidation in hydrogen peroxide but that darkened the finish slightly (probably the bronze in the matrix). It is good, but still not quite what I want, so I'm still working the material and finish side of the project. More to follow... I am pretty stoked that the design side is working out really well. I did come into possession of an original emblem (kinda beat from corrosion) and was able to make measurements of it to fix little inconsistencies in my earlier versions. I also got to replicate the '27' from a 1968 hull. Not exact but within a few thousandths in most places. I couldn’t find the exact font for any of the letters/numbers other than the MIAMI, FLA, so I had to do the equivalent of hand digitizing for each letter/number. The original emblems were thinner (0.140") - I made the new letters and waves 0.200" thick so they would be stronger and could still be surface polished. Here is an image of how that would have looked with the replicas for the 27. Attachment 16671 As far as I can tell, Potter only used decals while Carl used either nylon or zamak emblems. But since I have a 23 and not a 27, I decided to skip the decals and come up with an aftermarket jewelry design for mine and the plethora of other 23s out there. Attachment 16672 Right now I am thinking of setting this up as an ala carte thing – people get to order whatever part or parts they want. Like I said earlier, plastic is easy – good metal is gonna take a bit more time. I am still planning on having metal prototypes at the next gathering (Jensen Beach). Oh yeah – for the rare and coveted 21’s out there I made a design without the ‘MIAMI, FLA.’ block. You will get to drill the other 3 holes yourself on those and I haven’t gotten the numbers for the 21 yet. Attachment 16673 |
Nice work Mitch!
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Please keep me in mind are you doing them in plastic or stainless know
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Nice work!!
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Polished the surface of the pre-prototype I had made and it is really working out well even if it isn't the exact shape for production. I am almost positive it will work out since it survived over 2 hours in a 170F brine without showing surface rust - Ordered a set for my 23 to verify that the metal polishing/cleaning/passivating sequence will work right but I have to wait a couple of weeks for delivery. Got frustrated with work crap so I threw this together...
Now that I have 20, 21, 23, 27 emblem files I guess I need to think about completing the set; 18, 19, 25?. Attachment 16805 |
Beautiful! Stupid question - is there a particular place those are supposed to be mounted? I have never seen them before.
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I honestly like the raw non-polished version. Nice patina to it!
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The 'SeaCraft' emblem is a copy of the zamak one used in the 60s and early 70s. Most of those have succumbed to corrosion. On the 19 it was mounted on the sides just fwd of the transom - about where the SeaCraft decals were on the later hulls. The '27' emblem is a copy of one that came from a '68 hull and was mounted behind the 'SeaCraft' emblem like I show in the drawings/photos. I am not aware of any other models having that. As far as I know, Carl Moesly only used zamak or nylon emblems and Bill Potter only used decals. While there are only a few of the 21s left, it looks like they had nylon emblems without MIAMI, FLA and just simple numbers 21 riveted to the hull (see Gillies pics of his 21 in this thread). I have seen several old 19s that still have the zamak SeaCraft emblems with MIAMI, FLA on them but nothing with a '19'. If anyone has better info I would love to hear/see it. After making replicas of the original 'SeaCraft' and '27' emblems, I decided that some of the other hulls deserved jewelry too so I made up the 20, 21, and 23 emblems following the same general profile. That is why I am considering length emblems for the rest of the Moesly and Potter models. Essentially these are jewelry - put em on the sides, on a console, on a helm, or anyplace that makes sense. I am putting mine where the decals were on the sides. We spend a fortune rebuilding these old gals so I tried to put together proper adornments in case folks want 'em. Actually with the cost of making a few prototypes, buying more tools, and the mess of turning the kitchen into a metal testing and finishing lab, it is high risk if my wife ever figures out the details or comes home from a trip early. Quote:
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Attachment 16815 |
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The first prints of what I think is the production version were waiting for me when I got home from a trip. 316 stainless infused with bronze. Non-magnetic with a regular magnet and only slightly magnetic with a neodymium supermagnet so I don't think they will rust. They feel beefy enough to handle kissing a wood piling - concrete or rocks probably not good. With the grit blast finish after printing, they look a lot like sand castings - I think I will probably leave mine that way instead of polishing the letter/number faces. I can always polish them later if I end up wanting to.
I will have to send one emblem back since it came a bit curved with a minor defect on one edge but all the others came out fine. Attachment 17143 We are working on a way for folks to be able to just download files and have them printed - that way I am not the gatekeeper or moneychanger. More news to follow on that. I have already made 20 and 21 emblems (in addition to the 23 and 27) and will post those too. I can do other numbers if someone wants them - all it takes is about 1 nice glass of wine and a quiet house. |
Hey FLexpat, these are looking great! I own a plastics manufacturing facility. Have you looked into having these machined out of plastic? We're building a set of machines right now and are making the face plates out of 2 color HDPE. This allows for us to machine away the top layer with a CNC router to reveal a contrasting color below. I've got some extra material lying around, could give it a try to see if that's an option?
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Any updates on this? Would love to participate if they are available.
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Right now I am looking at heat treating to get the patina to the 316/Br prints instead of chemical treatment (like cold blueing for guns) that I used on the first few. I hope to have that dialed in a few weeks. After that I will come up with a way for folks to just download the files they want and have them printed by a shop (I am using ExOne) with the finish they want and shipped to their house - it keeps me out of the loop. Right now the files I have already made are: SeaCraft emblem (Miami, FLA. below) 27 emblem 23 emblem 21 emblem 20 emblem If there is interest, I can also make 18, 19, and 25 emblems. Likewise, if someone wants to replace the 'Miami, FLA.' text with something else (year?), it should be easy for me to do a few custom ones. As far as pricing goes, it has been costing me about 250 (delivered) for a set of 2 SeaCraft emblems and 2 length emblems (one set for each side) - I guess just the SeaCraft emblems would probably be about 190/pair delivered. The heat treat patina will cost a few bucks more. I am planning on polishing the letter faces myself after mine get heat treated - but it looks like ExOne could do that too for more $. |
Flexpat,
Thanks for getting back to me! Looking forward to it. |
Nice work, check out https://www.protolabs.com/ if you want a second quote. I've have used them many times for work projects.
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Are you still Making these?
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Is the file available yet?
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I have the files done but haven't gotten around to finding a place to putting them for download. Current formats are .SLDPRT and .STL so if there is a better one, let me know. Until I get hosting figured out you can PM me and I can send via email.
Madpoodle - I sent you a PM |
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Oh no a mad poodle.......protect your ankles!!
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I wanted to publicly thank Mitch Lindsay for all his help with the Seacraft emblems. Without his time, expertise and pursuit of perfection, our project would have been incomplete. Thanks, Mitch!
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