The DOMEINATOR..........

[Rodne Gold]

We do a huge amount of doming , a few 1000 items a day when it's busy. We use an ancient Swiss DOPAG manual machine , but it's a bit problematic. Imported machines are UBERexpensive. (even from China)

Vincent De Klerk , a member here, built his own machine and we really liked it , so we commissioned him to make us one. He has combined all his experience into this machine and built us the DOMEINATOR.... (he calls it the rodenator - in honour of my name - but we call it the domeinator)
We use a 2 part polyurethane resin which has a very short pot life (and a very short cure - 1 hour and we can pack and despatch) so cannot be hand mixed. Resins here rise dramatically in price if you buy less than a gallon or so , this machine enables such fast doming that we can compete on any level and can use and buy the big qty's of resin.
It can vary shot size and does degassing in the machine , it enables my doming ladies to almost triple their output. We could do , for eg , 10 000 1" domed inserts for trophies in a day with this machine. Vincent included all the bells and whistles and used only the best parts for this and build quality is superb!!! The best part is that its so simple to operate that my totally non techical doming ladies can use it with ease and it took a very short time to train them.
It was expensive (around $16 500), but worth it....
Here are some pics.....
1) Resin tanks and separators and motor , front view
2) back view of tanks and pistons
3) partial back side view
4) the main pic , the DOMEINATOR
5) Nozzle and static mixture cleaning station back
6) Side view
7) Cleaning station front
8) The guts of it all

[Steve Busey]

It looks awesomely impressive, Rodne!

But for us folks who aren't in "the biz", what exactly is "doming"?

[Bruce Boone]

Ha! I was about to ask the same thing. Making 10,000 of anything in a day is a pretty productive day!

[Mike Null]

Rodney

Very impressive. I read it as do-me-in-ator.

Steve

You may have seen logos on appliances or cars with a bubble like surface over the image. That is doming.

[Ernie Balch]

Beautiful machine! As a custom unit, companies in the US would have to pay about 3X more than you did.

[Martin Boekers]

You guys never cease to amaze me!

I don't have much usage for doming lots of product, but from time to time it would be nice.
Question here... I thought about getting a kit such as this;

www.signsupply.com/accessories/doming/doming.asp

My question is once you start the tubes, can you do a handful then use the same tube later or
once you start the tubes can't be used for a future project?

[Doug Griffith]

Great looking engineering. We get doming done and it is quite expensive. Almost cost prohibitive actually.

[Tucker Alford]

I've used the gun above with epoxy from "Epoxies.com" You can reuse the tubes but need to remove & discard the mixing tip then cap the tube. I felt the material didn't mix properly in the tube & it didn't set right leaving sticky spots & swirl marks in the set epoxy. For small quantities & projects I buy a gallon of the resin & a quart of the hardner & just mix the proper ratio buy weight & then spoon it over the substrate. The mixed material has a high surface tension & will run to the edge of a brass plate or sticker. I won't make name badges with the dome, but brass plates come out real sharp & I add a $10-20 charge onto each plate. Doming can be somewhat of a pain the way I'm doing it as you need to remove bubbles via flame & the pieces need to dry over night in a level protected enclosure.

[Rodne Gold]

This is truly the T-rex of doming machines...It's working flawlessly.
Doming adds huge value and perception of quality to anything. Getting it right in a production environment is not easy. The DOME_IN_ATOR , does all the stuff in one shot with ease- no bubbles , no mess.
Here's an example from my website that shows what doming is http://www.southafrica-trophyawards....-doming/doming

[Mark Winlund]

I have found that for small quantities, the UV cured epoxy works very well. Less mess, and a twenty minute cure also helps. Very few engravers do doming, so there is a pretty good competitive advantage.

mark

[Jiten Patel]

Anyone got a pic of doming?

EDIT: Don't worry, I was just being lazy, googled' it - got it!