Metal name plates for amps and cabs

[misterstomach]

I just built myself two 4x12’s. They came out damn near perfect and I’m so happy with them. Patting myself on the back, I think they look awesome. But they’re a little naked with those big blank grills. I have some ideas for metal badges I want to put on them that I think would really tie the room together, so to speak. I’ll probably just do a spray paint stencil or something. Or maybe get someone to etch it. Or maybe I’ll screen print them. The problem I’m having is that I can’t find a place to just buy two 3x6-ish black metal plates. They’re either stupid expensive, too small, or there’s a minimum order that’s just way too much for me. I’ll buy 5 or 10 if I have too if the price is right. Might even build a couple more, so that’d be fine, but I’m already about to have to spend $800 on speakers, so I really don’t want to spend too much on these. But I really want them. Anyone know where I should go? I’d love to spend $8 or so, but I’d do up to $40. Maybe more if someone wants to etch them for me.

Thanks.

Edit: I pretty much buy construction materials for a living, so this really shouldn’t be this hard for me, but for some reason I keep running into a wall here.

[JonnyAngle]

I have some 125B bottom plates that I could etch. That work?

[Jero]

I would just by a piece of sheet metal from the hardware store, and cut it down. It's like $10 I think, for a piece big enough to do a bunch of those.

Alt idea...enclosure base plates? Might not be the right size but...

[Jero]

Oop Johnny beat me to it

[whoismarykelly]

You'd probably want to grind off the lip on the bottom edge if you use enclosure bottoms. Home Depot stocks sheet metal you could cut down easily.

[whoismarykelly]

Also... uh... pics of the cabs necessary here

[misterstomach]

Thanks for the ideas. I had thought about buying some sheet metal and cutting my own. But I would be cutting with tin snips or an angle grinder and it’ll be annoying to get clean nice edges. Plus I wanted something a little thicker than sheet metal. Pedal base plates aren’t a bad idea, really. I just thought someone might know where you can buy a nice name plate blank for $5-10. But keep the ideas coming.

I’d like to post some pics. I haven’t posted one in a long time so I’ll try and figure it out. I used to have a photobucket account that I used just for that, but that doesn’t work anymore. So I’ll have to figure it out. Haven’t posted a picture here in like two years. I don’t actually have nice totally finished pics yet. One cab is totally done and the other gets handles and corners and shit to be finally finished on Monday. They’re in the shop at my work. Gonna get some good pictures next week when they’re ready. There’s a lot of recent build pics on my Instagram, @parker_stomach. I’ll post here when they’re nice and finished and hopefully when we finally have a nice day for outside pics. Shop lighting makes them turn out weird in photos.

[crochambeau]

There's got to be a metal yard in PDX, run one down and scrounge around their remnant/scrap bins. If you find something that's too long, they usually have the tooling to make it shorter in a clean manner (though you'll pay a fixed price for each cut they make).

[misterstomach]

There’s a metal yard down the street. Hell, I might even just cut up some roof flashing or something and clean it up, but I’m actually leaning towards making something out of wood. I could stain it to match and do a cool image on it. It’s tough to make a stained wood 4x12 and not have it end up looking a lot like the other stained cabs out there you can buy. So it’ll be cool to have badges that are a little different if I can.

[morange]

Have you had a look at onlinemetals.com? I buy from there - they have no minimum and the prices are good. A lot of metals to choose from, cut to whatever size you need.

With so many options, you could really make this look like something awesome. For example, if you get copper, brass, or nickel silver, you can etch it with ferric chloride. With the copper, you can achieve bright colors with forced patina chemical treatments; possibly with the brass and nickel silver to some extent too, but probably duller.

I may be a little late here.

[Jwar]

You'd probably want to grind off the lip on the bottom edge if you use enclosure bottoms. Home Depot stocks sheet metal you could cut down easily.

Most of Home Depots metal sheets are pretty shitty. I've engraved a bunch of them.


Personally, I'd go with an acrylic name plate. Then you could have someone with a laser just cut it to size for you. lol

[misterstomach]

Have you had a look at onlinemetals.com? I buy from there - they have no minimum and the prices are good. A lot of metals to choose from, cut to whatever size you need.

With so many options, you could really make this look like something awesome. For example, if you get copper, brass, or nickel silver, you can etch it with ferric chloride. With the copper, you can achieve bright colors with forced patina chemical treatments; possibly with the brass and nickel silver to some extent too, but probably duller.

I may be a little late here.

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.