dinky letters

Bill Pontin

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Oct 14, 2001
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Was looking for a way to make scale letters to make my own billboards. (Basically like the laser cut type sold by Bar Mills.) A childs play activity called "Shrinky Dinks" was the answer. Didn't know the stuff still existed, found a refill package of 8 sheets in a craft store. The item, for those not familiar with it, is a thin plastic sheet you can trace and draw onto. It can be cut easily with a pair of scissors to make shapes. The artwork is then put into an oven at 350 degrees and "walla" right before your eyes it shrinks to about 60% of its original size. Because it gets thicker and very hard you can make neat individual letters. I also found that the sheet will go through my older HP deskjet printer, grayscale only, so I did not have to trace the letters. Here is a couple of first two tries
 

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Thanks Mike, at the rate I'm going that will be many moons down the road. (See my 1x3 foot town postin and you will understand) I made a mistake describing the shrink size, it shrinks about 60%, or a little more than half its size. Nothing on the package and I did not think to get an exact measurement before and after.
 
Vic and Catt
The product is called Shrinky Dinks and I found it at AC Moore, one of our local craft stores. They had a number of different Shrinky Dinks book like projects for ages 6 and up. I got the refill kit, this is 8 pieces of 8 x 10 inch sheets of the plastic. Believe the price was somewhere in the vicinity of eight bucks. Think it is put out by "KLUTZ" and it has an ISBN number on the back of 1-57054-585-5, UPC 7-30767-44855-4.

Hope that helps locate some for you :)

Bill Pontin
 
Hmmm,I think I just figured out how to make truck frames for MAT Trucks.:D :D
 
Hey fellows, you are aware that the thickness increases 60%. I just took a dial caliper and measured before and after. The plastic film is .010" thick and expands on shrink to .065". This works out great for the signs I am making. Havn't tried it, but someone in my club suggested I try and illuminate each letter with fiber optics, it should work since it is clear plastic.