Cutting brass disks from sheet

Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

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raynerd:
Interesting about the stamping. I'd not seen one of those turret punches before! as I'm sure he advertised as "not stamped" so that the edges are not rounded! Looking at the edges of some of the purchased disks I've got, there does look to be almost teeth marks, certainly isn't a smooth finish on end cut.

raynerd:
Sorry for the errors in the last post...it posted it without me finishing and now can't edit it! Bloody tapatalk app - who asked Eric to install that piece of ... ;-). ( joke - me! )

So with the methods suggested, you are basically still going to lob off a square of metal. I think I'm in tight arse mode again and was hoping to get a method to allow you to utilise the full sheet more! I.e cut a row of circles and then take the next row out with the tops of the circles in the interlaced between, if that makes sense. Think I'm in dream world there.....and besides with all the disks different sizes, probably wouldn't work out anyway!

Interesting thoughts so far.

Just curious, I've never used a bandsaw. Would that allow you to get a bit nearer a circle shape from the sheet? Having never used one, not too sure how tight you could turn through sheet metal?

awemawson:
a/ Band saw would need a VERY small blade depth to cut clock wheel sized blanks.

b/ There are things called Circle Cutters that pinch a sheet between two pads, rotate the sheet on a vertical axis and nibble the edges. Never seen them small enough for clock wheels

I would use one of two methods: either a/ super glue the sheet to a sacrificial piece of plywood and trepan the disk on a vertical mill, or b/ roughly cut a disk by whatever means and pinch the result between a faced off bar in the lathe chuck and a suitably made pad (*) on a rotating centre in the tailstock, then turn to finish.

* Pad can be a short length of bar faced both ends and one end deeply centred to sit on the rotating tailstock centre.

John Stevenson:

--- Quote from: raynerd on January 06, 2013, 09:19:19 PM ---
I.e cut a row of circles and then take the next row out with the tops of the circles in the interlaced between, if that makes sense. Think I'm in dream world there.....and besides with all the disks different sizes, probably wouldn't work out anyway!

--- End quote ---

No that will never work :coffee:

Meldonmech:
When making clock wheels, roughly mark out in pencil where the wheel crossings are, drill two diametrically opposite holes in the spaces as near to the inner rim as possible. Attache to a wooden mandrel 10mm larger than the wheel dia. using two wood screws. Grind a trepaning tool about 1.5 wide and trepan the disc using a slow in feed. The tool should not be square ended in plan view, but should be tapered like a L.H.knife tool, in orde rto produce a clean edge on the wheel blank. Using this method I start with a square blank.

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