Anyone In The Club Do 3-D Printing. I Have a Project

[carlhungness]

       I almost pulled the trigger on some beautiful finned valve covers for my 500" Cad engine I'm putting in my '37 LaSalle. They say 'Cadillac' on top and they'll polish and paint  beautifully.
       Since I've been using the term 'think opposite' for the past 54 years, I said the same thing to myself regarding the valve covers.
       The opposite of using custom covers is to use...stock ones. I happen to have a spare engine with stock covers on it and I note only one has an oil filler cap. The other is smooth. I like that. Each cover has a hole in the side for a PCV valve, or possibly another breather.
        So I thought I'd use them and put a Cadillac Script on each. That's the expected thing to do. Thus I want to put the man's whole name on the covers:
          Antoine de La Moth Cadillac
          The typestyle is Embassy 1081 and feel confident a 3-D print can be made of
a script that I can use on the valve covers.

[TJ Hopland]

As long as you have the stock T pedestal rockers stock covers should be fine.   If you have gone to shaft rockers then the baffles can be in the way as well as they curve in too fast at the ends and will hit the end of the shafts.

I can only print the cheap plastics and have not really got any good at designing things yet so I don't think I can help. 

[MaR]

Do you have the font file? I have Embassy BT but that's it.

[carlhungness]

Hi: I have nothing but the creativity for the idea. It may be best for you to give me a call at 812 273-2472. Thanks

[79 Eldorado]

Carl,
That's 27 characters. Have you tried to see what the size of the characters would need to be on a simple piece of paper and a normal paper printer? It seems like your characters would be pretty small. You also need to think about how you will attach the script to the covers. That first step of figuring out the size is something you can do yourself. If you like the size, and you've figured out how to attach the script, the next step is you need to CAD model the script.

Assuming you weren't thinking about recreating the entire valve cover you need to think about how to attach the script. You could consider mechanical attachment or chemical adhesive. Mechanical may be the most secure but you likely need pins on the back of the script and holes in the covers. The pins would need to have something on the pin which clears rockers inside and doesn't fall off and potentially damage the engine (holes are also a potential leak location). Adhesive is another option but you need to think about the 3D print material and the original valve cover materials plus the temperature of the application. Any adhesive will need to be high enough temp and will need to work well with both the 3D material and the valve cover. There are some pretty good specialized adhesives and I think I've seen some TV custom car shows doing something like adding a logo. Even though a script alone may look better you may need to have the script on basically a platform to give yourself a better chance of neatly and securely mounting the script. The total length will also limit the 3D printers people can use.

Thinking through what you want to do I think there are at least 2 other ways of doing it. You could design the script and have it laser cut from steel. If you wanted it to have more contour you could see if you could metal work the edge or do a smaller script attached on top of the larger script. You could also see if you could do an outline. An outline may look the nicest and be easier to cut or engrave from the center of the main script. Machining the edge might look good but I guess it would be a nightmare to program machining the entire perimeter of a script. Once you have the script you could braze metal-to-metal. Another way might be to find a cast Aluminum valve cover which is smooth and pay someone to machine the script into the top.

Anyway those are some things you can do/think about without even having a 3D printer.

Scott

[carlhungness]

I had some pieces 3-D printed for a quarter scale model I carved in clay so am pretty familiar with the material. I don't think attachment would pose a problem as I could have the script made at least 1/8"-1/4" thick and then it can be tapped to capture screws-studs from the back.
  I don't want a laser cut piece of metal, I'm trying to clone the Embassy 1081 type and there's plenty of room to insert 27 characters. I' most familiar with laser and water jet cutting and I'm not seeking type that has a flat top, I want to have the script look like script, with an upside down V shape at the top of the letters as original Cadillac script is. I know it can be done with a 3-D printer so just have to locate a shop that will do it.
   I thought I'd try Cad club members first so thus the reason for the post. Here are some of the pieces I had made for my SUMAR model, some etched, some 3-D printed..then chromed. The piece came out well, sold three at $22,500.

[79 Eldorado]

Carl,
I tried in the past to model characters in the CAD software without success... with the suggestion of a friend I tried it again. This time it worked! I think someone would need to find exactly the TTF font file you want but I found 2 which I thought looked somewhat close by memory. These are actually 2 different fonts but to me they seem to look the same. The top one is "KUNSTLER" and the lower one is "ITCEDSCR". It looks like there might be a bold of the second one.

Scott

[79 Eldorado]

Carl,
I had an issue trying to extrude everything together but I was able to extrude a single letter. I don't know how easy/difficult it would be to taper to a peak as you described. This is not the exact font but it's similar and so I would also think with it being such a fine/narrow script it would make like easier it it was on a thin platform.

Scott

[carlhungness]

Scott, it might help your visualization if you realize when I started in the journalism/publishing business we had type set on a Linotype machine, then pulled a proof, sprayed it with clear enamel and pasted it up!
   Thus your terminology is a bit foreign to me, but I have full confidence you are near the forefront of this technology and what I'm seeking is obtainable. The Cadillac font near as I know is Embassy 1081. Of course I don't know how that type style can be transferred to a 3-D print literally cloning the Cadillac script, so initially that's what I'm researching.
   As noted, I think it's entirely possible to use just the 3-D print on the valve covers if the finished piece is a bit over an eighth of an inch in thickness as I could then tap it, with say an 0.80 stud. Or, there's a chance I can have it sand cast.
   I wish I could be of some assistance here but it appears as though I'm the one posing the problem to the engineers. My last post didn't pick up my SUMAR 3-D parts so am trying again. I did a steering wheel, exhaust and gas cap. The gas cap, after trimming a small piece away actually opened, I was gob-smacked.

[79 Eldorado]

Carl,
I searched for the Embassy 1081 TTF font file and the closest I found was Embassy. I downloaded it and I took a look at it. To me it's similar to what I think it should look like but not exactly. The "C" in Cadillac is closer but the angle and character width looked different than what I was picturing. My reference could be too new though. When I saw images it made me think my 79 Eldorado used that same font for the  "Eldorado" emblems.

CAD modeling that font with the "peaked" look you want I think could even be a challenge. The font is so delicate/thin there isn't much thickness for a taper. If you can model something you like it can likely be printed.

I don't like to say anything is impossible so for all intents and purposes I would say printing directly on another part is at least impractical. If you print it you need a plan to adhere it to the valve cover (material types/ max temp/ or mechanical like you mentioned). I think there was a Dave Kindig episode where they added a 3D script to a valve cover. I only vaguely remember it though. I think they used adhesive.

When I mentioned laser cutting I was thinking about layering to get the peaked look and then using a braze material to radius between the layers. The layers would be higher hardness than the filler so it may finish pretty well to transition the layers. Even two layers may be enough to look good. The font is so thin you may simply have a rough outline for the base layer. You might be able to try something like that starting on a single letter. If you had the talent and patience to do that original clay model I'm sure you could make stacked layers look pretty impressive.

On your scale model where you able to find a place which could vacuum metallize plastic parts for you?

Edit: Added capture. The top of these 2 is Embassy but the lower case "L" is wrong I think.
Scott

[MaR]

I modeled it and it looked OK. It would need a little manipulation to get the transitions between the letters to be more smooth. What it the width that you are looking for the entire name?

[79 Eldorado]

Hi Mitchell,
Just out of curiosity how did you taper the letters and were you able to find exactly the font Carl mentioned?

The CAD tool I use has some issues with radii and fillets but my model "blew-up" every time I tried to add one of those two features regardless of size.

Scott

[MaR]

Hi Mitchell,
Just out of curiosity how did you taper the letters and were you able to find exactly the font Carl mentioned?

The CAD tool I use has some issues with radii and fillets but my model "blew-up" every time I tried to add one of those two features regardless of size.

Scott

I'm using Solidworks and I just used the "draft" option on the extrusion. I had a similar font (Embassy BT) and I found the specific font for sale for something like $18

[79 Eldorado]

Thanks, draft makes perfect sense. I'm using FreeCAD... After I read your reply I Googled mold draft FreeCAD and there is one detailed reply so I'll need to look into learning how to use it (reading quickly I gathered it wasn't specifically designed for mold draft and instead how one person is accomplishing it).

Thank you,
Scott

[spolij]

You may also check with a silk screener that MAY have something for high heat.
Hope this helps:

[carlhungness]

Your script looks pretty good, think it is Edwardian..not in  love with the C in the Cadillac but the rest looks nice. Thanks for the interest, I'm making progress and not in any hurry. I think the 3-D print will  work, the valve cover without the filler cap is a full 18" wide, so the one with the filler is about 14". It should be unique if it works. Green valve cover, while lettering. That's today's plan, subject to change if my creativity calls.

[carlhungness]

  I can't do cursive as you can see, but here's the idea. The cover with no filler cap is 2 1/2' tall x 18" wide, plenty of room.

[Abe Lugo]

Here you go Carl, it will take some design work to blend it in (like a plate that the name is on or something) Imagine a badge with the letters embossed.  I would recommend printing a clean version, having it cast in aluminum and mounted over the valve cover- with some bolts from under, you can get two of the same side without the oil fill hole, then add a side oil filler on the valve cover itself.

[carlhungness]

Looks perfect to me. The idea of casting-printing it on a plate and filling the existing oil filler is fine too. So what's my next step to proceed?

[spolij]

Carl did you mean 2 1/2 inches tall? I was also in printing when linotype was the thing with foundry type.
This is the logo from my 66 deville The C is very similar.
Abe's pic looks spot on
BTW the C in that 1081 doesn't look like a Cadillac "C"