making license plates

[Cindy Rhoades]

I have a question I am wanting to make my own license plate blanks. The part I am not real sure about is the slot for attaching them. Is there a die that you can buy to do this or do you need to punch a bunch of properly placed holes to make it the size you need?

[Bruce Volden]

If by attaching them to vehicles I believe the spacing is 7" on center. (holes 7" apart)
This is the spacing on my Ford and Chevy anyway.
??

Bruce

[Mark Sipes]

What process/Material are you going to make the blank plates out of? Plastic, Sublimation, Anodized alum, Stainless?

[Richard Rumancik]

Cindy, I am assuming that you are talking about aluminum metal blanks. So you can already shear the rectangle to size and round the corners, I assume? For the last step, you would need a punch and die set to make the slot. This would require a minimum of a manual press and a commercial die set for the slot. If you have mechanical skills or assistance something could be rigged up using a commercial dieset and a manual or hydraulic press. You are probably talking about $500 for the cheapest home-built setup to maybe $5000+ if you bought everything like a commercial shop would do.

No, you can't do it very well punching a series of holes. On a CNC punch press you might try this but it does not make the prettiest slot as it will show scalloped edges even if using closely spaced steps.

If you search on "die sets" and "Unipunch" you will see some of the hardware normally used. You still have the problem of setting up to punch each hole in an accurate position, as this setup will allow you to do only one slot at a time.

You might find it is cheaper to go to a metalwork shop with a CNC punchpress and get them cut out. Or else laser and waterjet are possibilities.

[Bruce Clumpner]

Try working with Chewbarka if it's something really custom, they're already set up to do license plate blanks

[Keith Outten]

Cindy,

If you are only making a few new plates you can buy a hand punch from Harbor Freight rather than drilling the holes in thin metal. You will still have to punch several holes for the slots and use a file to clean them up. If you need to make the plates in mass I suggest you visit a local machine shop and ask them to make you a punch and die set that you can use with an inexpensive bench style hydraulic press.
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