Hot foil stamping and embossing

[StuJohnston]

I realize this isn't screen printing,  but I had no where else to put it. And it looks like some people on this board have experience in this field.

I recently became the owner of a heidelberg windmill press. This one's a little special though. It has no inker on it. According to the manual, that means that it is made specially for diecutting, embossing and foil stamping. The foil stamping part was added much later in the lfe of the machine. This machine is also supposed to be able to generate much more force than the regular presses as well.

I have a few issues, though the press runs well, I need to find a way to make or buy the plates for it. I have seen online that people use a material that is photosensitive to make the stamping plates. I figure that I can use my exposure unit for this. My problem is that I can only seem to find a couple of sources for the plates.

I have found a couple of sites that will do stamps, and as far as I can tell seem pretty reasonable

This site will make them for you
http://www.hodginsengraving.com/diemaking/pricing.php

This site has the material
http://www.rubberstampmaterials.com/metalbackedhotstampingpolymer.aspx

Has anyone made their own stamps or embossing dies?

[Frog]

When I ran a die stamping press, the engraving plates I used were mostly cut in-house, on a mirrored tracing machine. On the embossing side (where they ran two Heidelbergs and a big Kluge) the magnesium dies were outsourced, and I assume, laser cut somehow.
This was more than twenty five years ago, so I'm sure that the technology has advanced.

[ebscreen]

Laser cutting magnesium sounds like an awesome explosion. Just add water!