Anybody have experience turning down brass nuts on a wood lathe? I'm making some replacement handles for some socket chisels and am using a 3/4 nut on the impact end. I want to turn the nut down smooth and shiny. Using a spindle gouge and a skew was not very successful.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Regards, Roy
------------------------------------------------------------------- No and a wood lathe would not be my weapon of first choice.
If you are trying to turn hex nuts round, I'd thread the nut onto a bolt, chuck the bolt/nut into a drill press chuck, and go at it with a
10" flat bastard file at about 200 RPM.Final finish would be some 320 grit wet/dry.
PITA but you don't seem to have a metal lathe.
BTW, coat bolt threads with an anti-seize if you expect to break the finished nut away from the bolt.
Lew
Lay a cloth on the bed to catch the crud.
If you want to cut it, you (imho) need to mimic a metal lathe toolpost so the cutter can't move. Brass, copper etcetera is cut with no rake or negative rake (top of the cutter is flat or pointed down into the work) and your best bet in a wood-lathe kit is either an Oland tool or a parting tool held with the top bevel flat to down (not a normal wood-cutting position) If you can't do that...
With the lathe stopped, file each point to make 12 roughly equal sides. If you have a fancy curved-tooth soft-metal file, it will help, otherwise the largest, coarsest file you own, chalked (file a piece of chalk, literally, to help keep the filings from sticking) and cleaned regularly. At 12-sides, try tuning the lathe on (slow) and taking slow file strokes as it turns - if too horrible, file those points off to make 24 and try it again. Once it's round, sand it through a progression of grits.
I've done this with both brass and aluminum - just shape it with a bowl gouge with a decent steel, run your lathe at a low speed. the tool should be pretty sharp, and you want the tool rest very close to the metal. after you are done, use a finish file to get any ripples out, then sand up to 600, and then if you want gloss, polish them.
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