"Is There Such A Tool As A Foam Embossing Roller?" Topic

As an alternative to all this repetitive carving . . .

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Is there anything like a hand-held roller (not plates), that will easily press in a continuous brick or block texture on your extruded polystyrene (blue board, and the like)?

There are already roller stamps for ink and paint. And there are rollers to emboss textures on concrete, polymer clay and fondant frosting:
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You can even make your own textured clay roller:
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NOTE: This topic, however, is about something harder and sharper. Because insulation (XPS) foam has a tendency to bounce back after time, the tool would have to be specially made to leave deep marks, or shallow "cuts". And to keep the pressure even and the course straight, two adjustable roller "guides" could be attached to either side of the actual roller.

How would that sound?

Just wondering if anyone had already come up with such an idea yet. And if there isn't anything like it yet, just remember you heard it here first! :)

Thanks,

Dan

And I don't mean a monstrous (and expensive) contraption like this either:

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Dan

I was just at Hobby Lobby, and they had small rollers for embossing thin metal sheets. No stone patterns, though. (They had repeating diamonds and chevrons.) Still, maybe there's more metal rollers to be discovered.

If you heated a metal or porcelain roller, I wonder if the impression in the foam would be more permanent? Watch out for fumes, though.

As for heating it, I'd set up a hot plate, heat an iron skillet, roll the roller on the skillet until it was hot, roll it on the foam, and repeat.

Of course, it might not work at all.

I'd use thin sheets of Sculpey, emboss them, then glue them to the foam.

"I'd use thin sheets of Sculpey, emboss them, then glue them to the foam."

That was actually my original plan. But after a couple of attempts, I started wondering if there was an easier way.

Thanks.

Dan

I've been trying to get someone with a laser engraver to try and do this sort of thing on foam for a while now. Seems to me it might work, if the duration of the cut in any given spot was set correctly.

Doug

What about taking a hot wire cutter and making a grid out of the wire? You'd probably also want a hot engraving tool for adding details.

Or going the other direction, gluing down textured sheet? Sheet styrene is available in stone or cobblestone patterns. Also Christmas village sets have vinyl roads in brick or cobblestone if that fits the scale you are working in. Last, I've read about people using textured wallpaper for this.

Not sure about a roller, but could swear I've seen open grid metal plates with patterns that had sharp edges that could be pressed into foam. Of course, I could be thinking of something for cake decorating.

I think they could make continuous patterns. Press, lift, move, match edge, press…

Doug

For that matter, I suppose you could take a finer mesh (say 1/8") and snip out bits to make a running bond pattern, then use it (possibly heated with a torch) to emboss that onto foam. Seems like a big pain in the butt, though.

Doug

Doug,

Wow. Lots of work initially, to cut every other bit into staggered rectangles. But could work, if the mesh doesn't warp with all that cutting.

I might try a small piece as a test.

Now, if it could be wound up around a wheel, so as to make a continuous rolling pattern . . .

Thanks!!!

Dan

How about as an alternative 'flexible stone walls'

choochenterprises.com

You might be able to pair the walls with the tunnel portals.

I was wondering when some else would discover Chooch. Great products. Bought flex walls even without a project for them.

Yeah, I've been using Chooch, too, for years. Great stuff.

I tried pressing one of those "Made By [name]…" electric branding irons ( marketed for burning wood ) into extruded foam once. Terribly messy ( fortunately the residue burnt off ) and the effect on the foam was junk. So I'm skeptical a "hot plate" solution is ever likely to work on a hobbyist scale.

I'd be tempted to resort to a "home" CNC routing machine such as ( link or a Craftsman CompuCarve etc. ) if money is not an object or you think you can recoup the costs.

Ok guys,

Let me know what you think of these two crazy attempts:

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The two bottom strips have a very light wash with black acrylic paint, to bring out the detail of the light impressions a bit more.

For this experiment, the strips are just one inch wide and 6 inches long. However, the tool on the right can be adjusted for a wider strip.

Thanks,

Dan
PS. In case you are wondering, the 1cm extruded polystyrene is (Cell Foam 88) sold at Hobby Lobby:
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I also added a few pictures that show how I cut the one-inch extruded polystyrene strips.

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Pretty primitive-looking. But works well for my project.

Dan

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For the one on the right, I used the following:

- One 2-inch long machine screw (size 8, with 32 threads)
- Nine nuts (size 8, with 32 threads), though you only really need 7 of them. The ones in the middle need to be same outer diameter.
- Two wide-hole plastic beads with grooved edges*
- Two 1/8" by 1" washers
- Four small washers (size 6)*

Hope that helps, if anyone is trying to duplicate it.

Dan
* The two plastic beads and the four small washers were a really tight squeeze. Took a while to work them in.

Guys,

I'm going to try using these next time, to get a deeper and more defined impression:

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How does that sound?

Dan

Take care if you use link

The outer clip is loose and will wobble about (use lots in the job) – then again that may give an interesting effect or not…

E-mail sent ref the three you sent

I'd like to see how that turns out; would be nice to have buildings in the 15mm terrain collection I'm making that aren't simply smooth sided! I've never heard of Chooch – strange that years of wargaming never invoked that name.

M.

Hey guys,

I just ordered these, to see if I could find an easier way to create an embossing roller:

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The only thing is that the hole is going to be too small for using the hardware store solution.

Dan