John DeMerritt taught me the importance of using a infrared thermometer to measure the temperature of foil stamping dies. On the Kensol I have access to, I couldn’t get a very consistent reading; different parts of the machine would read at very different temperatures. So I built a simple jig to measure the surface of the die, using a mirror that reflects infrared light. The mirror holder was laser cut from thin plywood, but I could have easily just made it from bookboard. The bottom has thin magnets to hold the jig in place so that the thermometer measures the same spot each time. It is important not to keep the thermometer on the jig, else you will get false readings as the thermometer itself heats up (the same reason why the James Webb telescope was sent to the Earth/Sun L1 point).
