The Stamped Cross Plant Marker: One Pressed Body and a Spring Name Plate

"The carrying body 1 is cast in one piece, or preferably stamped from sheet metal substantially in cross shape, providing a head 3 which is perforated at 4 to permit the marker to be attached by means of a wire, string, or the like, to tag nursery trees or the like if it is so desired." "The bracing rib 15 is slightly struck forwardly, as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawing, for forcing the name plate 2 firm against the guides 9, 10, 11 and 12 to prevent accidental movement of the name plate relative to the carrying body."

Mark a cross on 1 mm aluminium sheet: a stake 30 mm wide and 200 mm long tapering to a point, arms 140 × 40 mm across its top, and a 30 mm head above. Cut it with tin snips and file every edge smooth.

Centre-punch the head and drill a 6 mm hole for a tie wire.

Mark a 25 mm band across the arms. On each arm chop two pairs of parallel slits 4 mm apart and 40 mm long with the cold chisel on the vice's anvil, one pair centred on the band's top edge and one on its bottom edge. Push each strip between its slits 1 mm forward from the back: four bridges.

Open the vice jaws 8 mm and lay the body face down across them. Set a drill bit's shank on the band's centre and tap it in about 2 mm: the rib. From the back, centre-punch a dimple 52 mm each side of the centre: the bosses.

Cut a plate 25 × 100 mm from aluminium sheet, file its corners and drill a 3 mm hole 4 mm from one end. Stamp the plant's name on it. Bow it slightly and slide it under the bridges until it springs in between the bosses.

Hook the force meter through the plate's hole and pull along the arms until it slides out; note the force. Repeat three times, then tap the rib flat and repeat.

**Hans Zopff**, a citizen of Germany residing at Monroe, Michigan, filed US 1,407,507 on 30 October 1920; it was patented 21 February 1922. He preferred a name plate of resilient or spring sheet metal, with its indicia printed on or cut out, and wrote that an all-metal marker may be "Parkerized" or chemically treated to render it rust proof, so it can be used a number of seasons. It comprises two pieces: the body and the name plate. **Honest limits.** He gives no sizes; ours are examples, and slits and pliers stand in for a stamping die. Aluminium needs no rust-proofing; a steel body would. The notebook treats the plate as a simple beam, and an aluminium plate presses less than his spring metal. Your pull forces are the result.