Thread: Challenge 20 - 21. Ironwood.

Originally Posted by Ironwood

... Starting to think about how I am going to start on that big lump of brass that will supply the lever cap. I think it might have to be cut with the hacksaw, the jigsaw had trouble with the 3mm brass, let alone 19mm thick stuff.....

Yeah man, forget the 'lectric stuff, you can do it all with cornflake power. Start with a fresh blade, worn hacksaw blades tend to skate over 'greasy' brass. The straight cuts are easy, but hacksaw blades love to wander, so watch your layout lines & stay comfortably clear. You can follow a shallow curve with a hacksaw, but standard blades are too wide for steeper curves. Cut those in steps, which may leave you with a rougher surface, but a coarse file will soon tidy that up.

Sculpting brass is fun - a coarse file tears it away quick-smart. I've got 10" round & half-round bastard cuts that I use for the coves & shoulders, and these get roughed-out surfaces looking ship-shape in no time. If you don't have files & don't want to spend up for just one job, 80 grit paper wrapped round suitably-sized dowels works well, albeit a bit more slowly. Get it all close to your lines with the coarse files then switch to smooth-cuts to tidy up. Finish by working through several grades of sandpaper. I find ordinary stearated (white) paper does a better job in the coarser grits (180/240/400) than W&D, it clogs less, but above 400, W&D is your only choice. You can use it with water, but I usually use it dry, which is slower but less messy . Working through to 1500 gives you a very nice sheen, which I think is actually more scratch-resistant than a buffed-up surface, but I buff with a felt wheel & metal polish 'cos I can't resist the bright shiny look. LC polished.jpg

Of course brass tarnishes & it won't stay like that unless you re-polish every 6 months, but aged brass has its own appeal...

Cheers,

I took the clamp off and cut the cable ties loose this morning, I am happy with how the glue-up went, everything stayed where it was supposed to.

Because of the cable ties, I couldnt wipe off all of the glue squeeze out, so there was a bit of work to do with a scraper this morning. Most of its gone, just a few bits still visible here and there. They will sand off later.

I was about to start setting up to drill the holes for the rivets, went looking for the 4mm welding rod that was going to be cut for the rivets, it has surface rust all over it after sitting in the shed for a couple of months.
I want to use stuff that will stay shiney, so I am looking at what else I can use. Looks like my only option at the moment, without going and buying something, is 1/4" stainless rod.
This means either drilling the holes out to 1/4", or turning it down to 4mm on the metal lathe .

I would like to keep the rivets the same size as the exposed ends of the lever cap crosspin, so I am off to the shed to see how easy/hard it will be to turn some 4mm rods.

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Brad, you were advocating that stainless steel nails were the go too thing to use,
Please explain.

Cheers Matt.
Ps it’s looking great [emoji6]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Brad, you were advocating that stainless steel nails were the go too thing to use,
Please explain.

Cheers Matt.
Ps it’s looking great [emoji6]

Well Pauline, if I had some 4mm stainless nails I would have used them

First up I will divulge my devious plan for drilling the holes, like I promised a coupla months ago.
As I had pre-drilled all my holes in the sides, and someone asked how I was going to drill the holes through the timber to line up with the holes on the other side.

Clamp a piece of scrap to the drill press, and drill a hole the same size as your rivet. Tap a short length of the same stock as your rivets into the hole.
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Locate the predrilled hole in one side of the plane onto the guide, line up the top hole with the drill bit, and start drilling.
Drill about 2/3rds of the way through, turn the plane over, and put the side you just drilled onto the guide and finish drilling all the way through from the other side.
Perfectly lined up holes, every time.
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I tried to machine some 1/4" rod down to 4mm on the lathe. It was a failure. Too much flexing of the rod while trying to make the cuts.
I could have used tailstock support and possibly had a bit more luck, but I spotted a 700mm length of 5mm stainless rod in the scrap bucket beside the lathe, and decided I would just use that.
The rivets are a bit bigger than the crosspin ends, but not as bad as if I had of used the 1/4" rod.
Too late now to change my mind, they are in , peened, and flushed off with the sides.

I notice I put a couple more dings in the brass sides .

Still some more shaping of the front bun to do, plenty of sanding, and drawfile a chamfer on the edges of the brass.

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Brad,
Me and Pauline are going to steel the wooden blank hole alignment Jig M1 idea.
That’s bloody brilliant.

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Brad,
Me and Pauline are going to steel the wooden blank hole alignment Jig M1 idea.
That’s bloody brilliant.

Cheers Matt.

You and Pauline are welcome to it Matt , and anybody else who would like to use it.
I think I would use this method even if I didn’t pre drill. Mark and centrepunch where you want the holes in both sides. Drill one side to locate on the guide pin, and away you go, no more surprises where the drill exits out the bottom side.

Great progress Brad, its looking really good. Very nifty alignment method. 'STOLEN'

Originally Posted by Ironwood

Still some more shaping of the front bun to do, plenty of sanding, and drawfile a chamfer on the edges of the brass.

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Wow, I feel my current hold on second place may be in jeopardy - great work!

Originally Posted by Sheets

Wow, I feel my current hold on second place may be in jeopardy - great work!

I am not over the line yet

Originally Posted by Ironwood

..... no more surprises where the drill exits out the bottom side.....

Yep, how I wish I'd thought of it myself when drilling my panel plane. Having the rivet hole exit right on the edge of the metal on the far side is much worse than a nasty surprise.

With your permission, and 'borrowing' the pics you posted, that's going in the next edition of "the manual" (with suitable acknowledgements)......

Cheers,

I finished off yesterday afternoon having flattened the blade bed/ramp.
I used a file, the biggest bastard I got, to get it close. Then used some stickyback sandpaper on the blade to get it as flat as I can.
Not sure yet how I can get it any better. The blade still wont go through the mouth, so thats good.

I also was using my cheap Dremel clone with a little drum sander attachment to clean up curve on the back of the front bun, and it died on me.
Will have to check if its just the brushes.

This morning, I dug out the 19mm thick lump of brass, and started on the lever cap.
My marking out leaves a bit to be desired, the round files will take care of it and even things up I hope.
I used a 22mm holesaw, this gave me an 18mm internal boss to define the top threaded bit, went 2.5mm deep on the top, and 1.5mm deep on the bottom.

Now, where did I put those new hacksaw blades
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Originally Posted by IanW

Yep, how I wish I'd thought of it myself when drilling my panel plane. Having the rivet hole exit right on the edge of the metal on the far side is much worse than a nasty surprise.

With your permission, and 'borrowing' the pics you posted, that's going in the next edition of "the manual" (with suitable acknowledgements)......

Cheers,

T'would be an honour Sir