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Thread: Cutting Brass

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    Default Cutting Brass

    Hi Guys
    After some éxpert advice'.
    I have a small job to do in Brass and was wondering if anyone has used this before (I bet Rod or Greg have).
    If yes - what sort of feeds and speeds do you generally use - and what sort of cutters?
    Do you use an ordinary two or four tooth metal millbit, or is it better to use a three-tooth aluminium cutting millbit?
    Also - is it best to lubricate the millbit when cutting Brass, or is it better left dry?

    Any ideas would be greatly appreciated - otherwise it,s back to the old experiment trick.

    Cheers
    Noel

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Hi Noel,

    I cut some a while back and I think I used an end mill (2 flute) with Kero as the lubricant.

    The feedrate was about 1500mm/min, but of course this will depend on machine and bit sharpness, so I would recommend testing this before hand.

    I also remember spinning the spindle at about 100rpm for a 10mm bit.

    Now having said all of this I have a chart which NMIT made up.
    I posted it here:

    https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/mi...9/#post1228064

  4. #3
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    Default

    Thanks for the advice guys.

    Have just finished cutting two brass nameplates for a friend who is building a 5 inch gauge locomotive. it is a replica of one of the ore-haulers at My Newman in western Australia. The model will run on electric motors and is over six feet in length.

    Had fun cutting the brass - found out that a high spindle speed (18000 rpm) coupled with a very low feed rate (about 300 mm per/min) was best. I was using a very small 2mm mill-end to cut with, and consequently, only took very small cuts of about 0.25mm at a time. Probably a bit over-cautuous, but with mill-ends that small, it was probably better to be safe than sorry.

    Also ended up not using any lubricant at all. Started using kerosine, but this onlt clogged up the cutters, and it actually cuts better dry.

    Have put a couple of piccys below.

    Good fun cutting brass - will probably do more in the future as it is a very nice material to work with.

    Cheers

    Noel

  5. #4
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    Thats very nice. Will you be backing this with acrylic paint in the recesses?
    5 1/4 gauge locos are nice. Are you into that Noel? or just helping a friend with name plates?

    /M

  6. #5
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    Willunga, Adelaide, South Australia
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    Hi Mike
    Just doing a job for a friend, but like a lot of guys, could get interested.
    some very nice engineering in them.
    The person I cut the plates for is going to back-paint the plates in black, just like the real things

    piccy below.

    Also cut six louvre doors for his train a la the piccys.

    Cheers

    Noel

  7. #6
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    Noel,

    Do you know if he is running the unit as a diesel-electric. I saw electric but i'm interested in knowing how they do the conversion (I assume it's like a gennie which is just regulated on the output to 50Hz)?

    Pick of the louvres required!!

    /M

  8. #7
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    Mike
    Not sure, but I will talk to Matt tomorrow and get the full details.
    He is the person building this loco, and uses the workshop of another person I know locally, Simon, and he is building three loco's.

    Two are 5 inch gauge, and the other one is 7 inch gauge. One of the loco's is running on an electric motor set-up (will get details), while Simon has made real boilers for the other two. Quite a neat bit of engineering.

    He left one boiler out in the sun the other day, and the heat of the sun alone raised the pressure to more than 100 psi. He says that he wants to eventually run it by firing the boiler with coke (the mineral, not the drink).

    I don't have any pictures of the louvres at this stage as I gave them to Matt as soon as they were cut, but will get some shots tomorrow. In the meantime, I have attached a couple of jpg,s from v-carve to give you and idea.

    The louvre doors were a bit of a struggle. In order to get a 'louvre' shape I had to first cut the top of each louvre with a 60 degree vee bit, then cut under the louvre with a 2mm end-mill to make it appear rounded on the top and flat on the bottom. After that - and because most of the panels have convex rather than concave louvres, I had to mill the surrounding surfaces down 2mm with a 6mm endmill, then used a 3mm endmill to profile and cut out the panels.

    Next time I might think twice before I say yes. Very time consuming - especially as I initially started making the panels out of aluminium, but because of problems getting clean cuts with such small tools, I ended up making the nameplates and all the panels from brass.

    Anyway - Matt seemed pretty happy with the results, and I am looking forward to seeing the completed train in all its livery soon.

    Cheers

    Noel

  9. #8
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    Mike
    Asked the 'train' guy about the drive, and he says they just use 450watt electric motors running off 24volts. Apparently he has eight batteries and the loco will run for about six hours.
    seems pretty good to me for just batteries. He also said that the train will pull six or seven carraiges, with a couple of people on each - quite a load it seems.

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers
    Noel

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