Another replica electrical antique

Made on a Glowforge
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Technically this isn’t exactly a replica, since it isn’t an exact copy of a real device. This is something i built as part of a demonstration apparatus for the SPARK Museum.

The brass plate was designed in Illustrator & engraved using Cermark. The whole thing was then subjected to abuse to make it look 130 years old.

image
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Looks great!

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Neat!!! Great weathering!

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That is so cool! Looks fantastic.

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Looks amazing!

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Wow, your pieces are scarily authentic looking. It’s a good thing you are one of the good guys!

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Great job! Old wood has a deep glow that new wood does not. How did you replicate that?

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Here’s the basic process:

  1. I started with a standard finger joint box, this one from 1/4” oak ply.
  2. stained with dark walnut stain
  3. added a couple of coats of clear satin lacquer. At this point it’s a new box.
  4. buff with 0000 steel wool to give an uneven finish
  5. add some dents using a ball-peen hammer, hold a screwdriver shaft on an edge or two & smack it with a hammer, lay a screw on the wood & smack it, etc. I try to do that in places where it would have likely been banged up during its life, such as corners & edges.
  6. using a black sharpie marker, i add shading into the dents & around screws & hardware. Draw the shading, then immediately smudge/rub it into the wood with my fingers.
  7. mix up a wash using a few drops of brown wood dye in water. I use a paper towel & brush to add streaks & shading in various places.again, depending on the use of the item.

That’s pretty much it for the wood. For the brass I use a liver of sulfur darkening solution to get the effect I want.

Hope that helps!

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ya know. they didn’t have plywood 130 years ago.

diving for cover… :slight_smile:

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Haha… that’s the beauty of this mdf core ply, once it’s cut with the glowforge you can’t tell it’s plywood.

Plywood goes back further than you’d think though. It was invented during the civil war, although didn’t become mass produced as a building material until the late 1920’s.

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Looks great! That plate especially. I thought cermark left black marking. How did you get the negative effect?

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The distressed finish is :kissing_heart:!

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I just used a negative image. The laser hit the background & not the text, so the when the cermark was washed off, the bare brass is exposed where the text is, and the background is black. Here is the original image:

Edison Storage Battery Label replica
Edison Storage Battery Label replica962×519 78.6 KB

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Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation!

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Very cool project!

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But you only shared the picture of the original, authentic antique… I want to see the picture of your replica :wink:

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You are too kind!

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That is just so cool you can do that!

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An awesome project! So glad you shared your photo!

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I believe it is at the top, after distressing it.

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