Author: Mark Elliott

We were really excited for CAtuned to get their hands on these copper plated custom metal roundels. With a thickness of 4mm and weighing in at just under 200 grams each, these are a real quality piece. The depth of the sandblasted recessed areas give a superb contrast against the polished upper areas.

To date, these CAtuned roundels are one of our favourite items we have manufactured and look fantastic on their BMW ‘Minte30’ in particular. The car itself was found by @catuned_igor sitting under a tree after a tip off. A proper ground up restoration and build commenced for SEMA 2016. Highlights include an S54 engine conversion, custom CAtuned coilovers, full rollcage, Rotiform wheels and carbon fibre bumpers. For anyone interested, the full ‘Minte30’ build can be found on the CAtuned blog. They also have the CAtuned roundels for sale on their online shop.

Every year Dodo Juice do a limited run of Christmas gift editions and this year was no different. Using pj’s highly detailed artwork, we produced these awesome Dodo Juice Decade coins to coincide with the companies 10th anniversary.

Featuring their furry mascot ‘Mr Skittles The Third’ on one side and the company logo on the other, each side has been produced on 7 different levels to fully accentuate the detailed design without the need to use enamel colouring. The coins have also been plated antique bronze, giving them an authentic look and even feature a reeded edge around the circumference, similar to the old £1 coins. Measuring 50mm in diameter with a thickness of 5mm and weighing in at a hefty 48grams, these are a real quality item and helped us achieve the overall look and feel we wanted.

This Dodo Juice decade coin isn’t the first Christmas gift we’ve manufactured for the company either, as we’ve also made their Porsche inspired leather keyrings and the (now infamous) Mr Skittles The Third cufflinks!

Having known pj and Dom from the early days of Dodo Juice, it must be said they have helped and supported us immensely and we owe a great deal of our success in the automotive industry to them. They’re an absolute pleasure to work with and we look forward to seeing what’s next in the pipeline!

If you would like to take a look at the different styles of coins, plaques and medals we have manufactured in the past, please visit this link to find out more. Alternatively if you have an idea of your own and would like to get in touch, please fill in our contact form, send an email or give us a call.

Working closely alongside our local foundry manufacturer, we are now able to offer cast aluminium plaques. This is particularly exciting news for us, as it means we can manufacture items which are normally too large using our traditional stamping and lost wax techniques.

Sand casting is a method where compacted grains of sand are used as the mold material. It is one of the oldest and most widely used metal casting skills. Listed below are some of the key steps in the production method for the Scooby Clinic cast aluminium plaques we recently manufactured.

A pattern is made based on the desired design. A bottom mold is filled with compacted sand and the pattern is pressed into the sand. The top mold is then aligned and placed on to the bottom mold. More sand is added to the top mold and compacted until almost solid. The top mold is then carefully lifted and the pattern removed, leaving a vacuum in the the sand. The top mold is then re-aligned again to the bottom, and molten metal (in this case aluminium) is poured into the vacuum and allowed to cool. Once cooled, the top and bottom molds are separated to leave the aluminium casting.

Once the aluminium castings have been made, they are fettled to remove any blemishes/grains of sand sometimes caused by the molds and start to look more like a finished item. For these particular plaques, black enamel was then filled into the recessed areas of the castings and left to cure/dry overnight.

Leaving the castings overnight, gave the enamel enough time to dry. We then polished the surface of each casting which also removed any enamel that had accidentally spilled over onto the raised areas. This left the plaques with a smooth and shiny surface, giving them a nice contrast to the black enamelled areas. Finally we sprayed each plaque with clear lacquer to protect the plaques and give them a high gloss finish.