Dear friends, I’m calling upon your infinite wisdom.
I’m in need of a headbadge being made that I can Silver braze on to my bicycle. I have previously had them laser cut but after brazing the fine lines got filled with Silver and became lost. I have so far deduced I will need a headbadge that has the details engraved deep enough to hold paint but not all the way through. Ideally from 1.2mm brass so I can easily shape around the head tube of the bike.
I’ve looked into acid etching and CNC milling but with large set up costs and 50 as a minimum quantity. As I so far have only made 2 bike I was wondering if anyone knows anyone who takes on small jobs like this? I feel like CNC is the answer, I’m just not sure where.
Oh mighty and knowledgable ones, please help a sister out.
Attached photos show my laser cut head badge failure which once polished up makes a lovely key ring, and a headbadge by Demon which is the sort of thing I’m after, but not as thick/deep.
Quite a bunch of us would like to see CNC milling become a reality in the space.
I still believe it’s the most versatile and useful tool we could get, despite the learning curve!
I’ve done some experiments with etching brass. Spray paint, laser the paint away, etch in ferric chloride. It doesn’t come out as deep or clean as the Demon badge though.
Model train makers acid etch very thin brass to get detailed parts.
