Update 2 - brass spinning

Matty F · 2011-04-24T11:28:25+00:00

By request, detailed pictures of spinning a brass lid on a lathe.Here's the finished lid on the left, with the sheet brass it was cutfrom. The 100 year old original lid is at bottom right, and the otherlid I previously made is at the back. It's already become tarnished bysitting on a hot steam engine for a few weeks:'s the circle of brass clamped against the wooden mandrel with alarge steel washer: edge has been pushed halfway across by the tool that is free torotate: didn't use any lubrication as it shouldn't be necessary when using aroller, and I would have to burn it off when annealing.Since the brass was too hard to spin easily, I had to anneal it half adozen times during the spinning operation. When the edge starts to getwavy it's time to anneal. Annealing the brass on a brick: edge is now pushed flat against the mandrel. The brass has to becompressed to get rid of the excess metal on the outside. That seemsto work OK. the rough edge: lid in place at lower right on the steam engine:

Apr 24, 2011 20 Replies

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Windmill 15 years ago

I'm always astonished, amazed, hugely impressed that there are people who can do things like this. Whether it's something old or new, to do with metal working or building your own light plane, the sheer craftsmanship overwhelms.

Myself, I'm usually lucky to be able to come up with minor variations while assembling something from ready-made pieces.

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