Brass and copper pens

[thewishman]

Wanted to show off a couple more metal pens. Using 1/2" stock for a Sierra means only about .026" of material has to be removed. These metals, and the aluminum were easy to barrel trim with a HHS trimmer, and they turned fine with HHS. I use carbide and that works well, too.

I tried polishing to a bright, reflective surface, but I couldn't get a good picture, and bright and shiny was boring to me. The copper was polished through the MM grits, then I took down the shine with maroon Scotch-brite (https://mt-rsr.com/products/scotch-...Vr1dqm_send3K6cvHXJFscm0WDVa6d6RoCVr0QAvD_BwE). I moved the pad slowly from the headstock out, then back the opposite way - it made a nice crosshatch pattern, but I can get a good picture of it, either.

The brass turned really well, and I wanted to do something different. Got it down to size and then sanded lengthwise with 220 grit Norton 3X to make an even texture. Then I wanted to cut bright lines in a nice pattern, so I printed a ruler (printable-ruler.net) and taped the metric side to my tool post. Used the corner of my carbide tool to cut into the brass at 5mm intervals. Again, I used a "design opportunity" to make a couple of lines a bit different (okay, so I messed up a couple of lines) and it looks good to me.

 

[Two Hair]

Nice work

 

[mark james]

While my first love is wood, Brass and Aluminum really look cool for a clean appearance.

These are great Chris. I've only made one modified slimline with aluminum, but I appreciate your effort. Very nice.

 

[kruzzer]

really nice work

 

[magpens]

Nice going !!


My experience with trying to machine copper is that it tends to grab the tool.
Did you find this to be the case ? . And if so, how did you get around that ?

 

[dpstudios]

Very nice work,clean lines.

Dan

 

[SteveJ]

Nice work on the brass especially.

 

[Bob in SF]

Beauties!

 

[thewishman]

My experience with trying to machine copper is that it tends to grab the tool.
Did you find this to be the case ? . And if so, how did you get around that ?

Having to remove so little of the material helps, but I didn't have any grabbing. I'm using the 147 alloy because machines the best, it turned really well. Used a HSS barrel trimmer and both a skew and a roughing gouge in HSS. I prefer using carbide, so I finished with that.

Both the copper and brass cut easily with my regular paper backed sandpaper, using that alone would have worked instead of turning. PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND DON'T BREATHE IN THE METAL DUST!! Wear at least a dust mask and don't remove it until you have cleaned up and left the shop.

I've been very happy with my RZ mask. https://rzmask.com/. Don't use it as a disguise, people still recognize me when I wear it.