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Step 3The Brass Plates
No old-time woodworking project is complete without a touch of brass. The shiny yellow metal complements stained hardwood nicely. This was one of the most complicated parts of the project, and not even strictly necessary, but it looks good.
I started with some craft store brass strip, which I cut to length. Brass is remarkably difficult to cut with a scroll saw. My first attempts caused a blade break, so I searched the internet for advise before continuing. It turns out that the trick is to use a backer board, so I picked a lump of pine from my scrap bin and put it under the brass. After that, the scrolling went smoothly, although slowly and noisily. I imagine that the correct tool for the job is an abrasive band saw, but I do not own such a tool.
After cutting, I rounded the corners on a stationary disk sander. I then tilted the sander table to a 45 degree angle and beveled the edge. The resulting edges were rather sharp, so I cleaned them up on the sander without using the table. When using a disk sander without a table, hold the piece at an angle away from the direction of rotation. Otherwise, the grit will catch the workpiece, and even assuming you can keep a grip on it, this will cause the piece to vibrate. Holding the piece at an angle causes the grit instead to push the piece away from the wheel, allowing fine control and reducing the amount of material it removes.
I then took the plates over to my drill press and drilled out the mounting holes. I have to admit that I made a mistake here. Brass is a slippery material. Make absolute sure that you have a good center punch before trying to drill it, and drill a pilot hole. My own center punches were not well enough defined, and the pilot holes drifted. Thankfully, I managed to mostly correct their locations before drilling the mounting holes. Mostly.
After that, one thing led to another, and I had managed to scratch the brass. Brass is, after all, a relatively soft metal. I sanded it down with 400 grit sandpaper. If I had any 200, I would have started with that, and it would have given me better results. After sanding with the 400 grit, I ran over it with a Dremel wire wheel, giving it a nice shiny brushed appearance.
Some time after I took this picture, I decided to refinish the brass parts, as I had picked up some 220 grit sandpaper. I did it the same way, but I decided to forgo the wire wheeling.
I started with some craft store brass strip, which I cut to length. Brass is remarkably difficult to cut with a scroll saw. My first attempts caused a blade break, so I searched the internet for advise before continuing. It turns out that the trick is to use a backer board, so I picked a lump of pine from my scrap bin and put it under the brass. After that, the scrolling went smoothly, although slowly and noisily. I imagine that the correct tool for the job is an abrasive band saw, but I do not own such a tool.
After cutting, I rounded the corners on a stationary disk sander. I then tilted the sander table to a 45 degree angle and beveled the edge. The resulting edges were rather sharp, so I cleaned them up on the sander without using the table. When using a disk sander without a table, hold the piece at an angle away from the direction of rotation. Otherwise, the grit will catch the workpiece, and even assuming you can keep a grip on it, this will cause the piece to vibrate. Holding the piece at an angle causes the grit instead to push the piece away from the wheel, allowing fine control and reducing the amount of material it removes.
I then took the plates over to my drill press and drilled out the mounting holes. I have to admit that I made a mistake here. Brass is a slippery material. Make absolute sure that you have a good center punch before trying to drill it, and drill a pilot hole. My own center punches were not well enough defined, and the pilot holes drifted. Thankfully, I managed to mostly correct their locations before drilling the mounting holes. Mostly.
After that, one thing led to another, and I had managed to scratch the brass. Brass is, after all, a relatively soft metal. I sanded it down with 400 grit sandpaper. If I had any 200, I would have started with that, and it would have given me better results. After sanding with the 400 grit, I ran over it with a Dremel wire wheel, giving it a nice shiny brushed appearance.
Some time after I took this picture, I decided to refinish the brass parts, as I had picked up some 220 grit sandpaper. I did it the same way, but I decided to forgo the wire wheeling.
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Oct 6, 2010. 9:37 AMHycro
says:
Personally, since I don't have many power tools at my disposal (aside from drills, electric impact gun, angle grinder, and soldering gun) I would have cut with a hacksaw or snips, and rounded the edges either with a file, or the snips again...(whether I use the snips or not really depends on the thickness)
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