Brass turning project

[tjbnwi]

Brass items turned for the 2022 Parade Home.

The pattern for the door knocker hoop was milled with the Shaper Origin, finish cut on band saw then sanded to the line.

Edited to fix pictures (I hope).
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Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

Few more.

The swarf in the box is from turning one door knob. The door knobs weigh just under 13 pounds each.

Edited to fix pictures.

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Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

Tilt your head, the pics will look better….

Tom

 

[woodbutcherbower]

That's hugely impressive, Tom. Metal turning has always fascinated me and I've always looked upon it as a bit of a black art. I know that it's probably not, but I still greatly admire stuff like this and wish that I could do it. Thanks for posting.

Kevin

 

[rvieceli]

Geez Tom. Those are very nice. Did you clear coat them with something? Or just include a complimentary case of Brasso?  [tongue]

Ron

 

[Cheese]

Nice Tom…what did you clear them with?

I see a wood lathe but I suspect these were turned on a metal lathe.

 

[luvmytoolz]

That's a brilliant job on them, they look awesome!

The swarf looks pretty damn good too, nice long uninterrupted cuts by the look.

 

[Michael Kellough]

“The door knobs weigh almost 13#”.  No wonder the doors have four hinges each  [wink]

As usual, very impressive work. (Note the deliberate understatement)

I’m too am curious what lathe you used. I sure don’t have the skill to peal those long strands of brass by hand.

 

[tjbnwi]

That's hugely impressive, Tom. Metal turning has always fascinated me and I've always looked upon it as a bit of a black art. I know that it's probably not, but I still greatly admire stuff like this and wish that I could do it. Thanks for posting.

Kevin

Turning on a metal lathe is easier most times than turning on a wood lathe (I do both) because the machine can be set to the cut depth instead of relying on hand eye cordination.

Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

Nice Tom…what did you clear them with?

I see a wood lathe but I suspect these were turned on a metal lathe.

Geez Tom. Those are very nice. Did you clear coat them with something? Or just include a complimentary case of Brasso?  [tongue]

Ron

The designer did not want a finish on them, they have a spun finish on the useing 320, 400 Emory cloth then a green Scotchbrite buff.

These were done a metal lathe, most credit goes to the DRO.

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Modeling was done in Fusion 360.

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There are no visible retainers or fasteners on any of the pieces.

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To make the concaved areas I ground HSS knives. For the bead on the door knocker strike I used the 1/4" beading tool from my wood lathe.....

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Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

That's a brilliant job on them, they look awesome!

The swarf looks pretty darn good too, nice long uninterrupted cuts by the look.

I used a CNMG 120404 insert that is designed for aluminium. I know most prefer HHS for brass, I get better results with carbide.

This pieces is right off the lathe, no post turning surface treatment has been performed on the part.

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The insert in it's holder.

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Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

I also turned the draft onto the plate that connects to the hand rail and the draft on the floor mounting plate. By having the matching draft on the top discs it allowed the fabricator to blend the welds in beautifully.

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Tom

 

[luvmytoolz]

Thanks for the extra pics, always love seeing metal lathes in action. There's something very satisfying about creating huge piles of swarf. I primarily use carbide also and find it performs just fine for everything I do. Resharpening the HSS cutters would be a PITA for me anyway.

 

[Steve1]

What knockers !

(couldn't resist)

 

[Crazyraceguy]

That's one expensive looking job  [eek]
The material cost alone has to be staggering.
That is some impressive looking work, nice job.

 

[nclemmons]

Excellent work and finishing on those pieces.  Where do you find brass stock that large?!

 

[tjbnwi]

Excellent work and finishing on those pieces.  Where do you find brass stock that large?!

That's one expensive looking job  [eek]
The material cost alone has to be staggering.
That is some impressive looking work, nice job.

I ordered the brass from Online Metals. There is a company here that I can get ferrous metal from. Non-ferrous not so much.

Thank you.

The brass was not cheap. I had considered aluminum and plating, I could not find a plater in Colorado, I would of had to ship the parts to the platter I used to use in Chicago. The cost/time benefit was not there. Legacy platting appears to be going the way of the dinosaur.

The brass for the knocker rings showed up Monday afternoon. I had to get them done for judging on Thursday. I installed the knockers at noon Thursday, judges arrived at 2:30.

How I made some of the knockers smaller parts from stock I had from the finials, while I waited for the 4-5/8 to arrive.  I didn’t want to waste much so I used hole saws. Trepanning was not really an option to get the material yield I needed. (Be cautious googling trepanning).

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Again, I don't have a mill, to make the upper ball I had to make a ball turner while I waited for the material. I used a mill boring head, turned a straight shank adapter with a 2" plate,1-1/2" 18 thread to hold the head. As the lathe spins the blank you rotate the handle forming the ball.

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Tom

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Now I'm scared  [eek]
I know exactly what trepanning is, I worked for Sandvik (Coromant division) back in the early 80s. I was a "manual machinist", though they didn't call it that yet. The company did have a couple of CNC Bridgeport vertical mills. They were used to make the insert-holders for the T-Max and Trepan drills that we made manually. We made them in sizes ranging from around 3" to well over 8" in diameter. The T-max did blind holes.
They also had an NC lathe. It actually ran off of a paper tape (read-only)
It was really cool to watch that thing spit out 4-start threads (square form) very quickly.

That plant closed, got combined with two others and moved to South Carolina. That's over 500 miles away and I didn't want to make the move.

 

[tiralie]

Modeling was done in Fusion 360.

Tom

Nice. I gotta take a look at that.

 

[Euclid]

I was only aware of the term 'trepanning' in one particular context; and that was one in which an eight-inch diameter bit might not be appropriate... (!)