Nickel Engraving

[Steve Lindsay]

Thanks Gail for that link to the clouddome site! Looks like good stuff. I bookmarked it and will order that cloud dome they show with the extension collar. http://www.clouddome.com/specs/angledcollar.html
Steve

[Steve Ellsworth]

Here are some very handy photo related gadgets and tricks for shooting the kind of stuff we do.

very cool toy
http://www.ezcube.com/documents/ezrigging.htm

LOTSAGOODSTUFF on how to
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/HowTo_page.htm
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/docume...hy.htm#gallery

DIY lighting rigs
http://www.dennisonbertram.com/hackm...-light-box.htm
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07...to-studio.html
http://www.paperminis.com/tutorials/..._light_box.htm
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/....php?p=2485105
http://www.diyphotography.net/homest...ounted-softbox


This is a cool little freeware program which allows you to stack images to achieve great depth of field in macro work - it works a lot like layers in photoshop but takes the confusion out. Good for those folks who have cameras which do not allow for Fstop settings and are plagued by limited range of focus. they also have some other nifty stuff.

http://www.tawbaware.com/imgstack.htm

This is about the best I have seen relative to coin photography http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgcoins.htm?

Some really slick lighting techniques - would apply to any metal work, take a good look at the axial lighting setup there are also setups for jewelry flatware artwork - this link was on the Hobonickel Society Site.

[toyhatsu]

Thanks Steve for the axial lighting link. This is perfect. I wonder if thicker glass would change anything. Also two light sources and two plates of glass and bounced light...hmmm will have to experiment. Thanks again!

[monk]

i'm startin on my first nickel- please allow a super dumb question-- of the works i see posted showing the great hoboes, what sort of time average is required to produce these beautiful pieces? just lookin for a ballpark average.

[Steve Ellsworth]

well
i can do a cut hammer punch hobo in about 10 minutes
to dress it up and make it beautiful and age it maybe a day
to do a Marriane or replicate a dimensionally complex coin couple of days

all depends on you and the tools you employ
talent speed if you make mistakes etc
if you have to stop work to swear at it that adds time
if you can work and cuss at the same time its alot faster

biggest time factor will be your tooling and confidence level