Embossed Hologram fabrication by hand

JohnFP · Post by **JohnFP** » Thu May 27, 2004 6:55 am

Hey, here is an embossing printing machine. With just a little resist, silver atomizer and a nickel plater you can make your own embossed hologram. Funny how the product ID mentions holography but the description mention nothing of a shim. But if the heat is right and with the right pressure, viola, an embossed hologram in mylar even.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 20357&rd=1

This bring up an interesting question. I have always embossed in mylar plastic and backed the plastic with foil, but I have heard, I think Dinesh, state something about stamping right in foil. So my question is, Is this "foil" coated or embedded with a plastic of some sort? If not, do you need the heat for the embossing or just pressure?

Peace to all!

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:41 am

"I have heard, I think Dinesh, state something about stamping right in foil."
Not directly into foil as such. At ABNH we stamped into plastic in method called step-and-repeat. I've also seen direct stamping but I have no idea what plastic they used. CD's and DVD's are stamped from a resist glass master but I believe they're heated. That is, the plastic substrate that actually carries the pits and lands are heated, not the glass.

JohnFP · Post by **JohnFP** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:42 am

Then the question remains, would it be possible to stamp the hologram directly in foil? I believe so but the only downfall would be latterally stretching the foil thus leveling the fringes and destoying the hologram. I have a shim. I may try it.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:52 am

I've made resist masters that were used as tests to stamp into metal coins, I believe in Canada. Embossing directly into foil is done all the time. You can do it at home with a nickel shim, some foil and a rock. No heat necessary!

JohnFP · Post by **JohnFP** » Fri May 28, 2004 8:00 am

I thought so.

"A rock"....Hahahaha!

Greg G · Post by **Greg G** » Fri May 28, 2004 10:19 am

It's not quite embossing but many years ago, I copied a DCG hologram by simply casting a silicone rubber mold of it. I peeled the silicone off of it ( carefully ) and then poured the resultant mold full of epoxy. The original was an achromatic of a monkey skull I made. The copy was a little lossy ( mostly in blue ) but I thought it actually looked a little better. Since the mold was flexible, you could also copy the image onto curved surfaces by painting them and the mold with epoxy and then clamping the two together to cure. ( duct tape worked well )

I don't remember the exact materials. It was just dull afternoon experiment with some left over resins 20 or so years ago. It was a GE silicone ( light blue, 24 hour cure ) and a Hysol epoxy( maybe 2 hour cure ) No mold release was used but I wasn't worried about the hologram. It seemed to release well from the silicone with no damage. I still have the plate here.