Hold Down Clamp

Hi Robert,

Almost all of the machining on those was done on the lathe faceplate.
 
I am making another but... where the heck can I buy Red Brass round stock???? Everyone has C360 but no C260 aka red brass aka 85three5. Any ideas other than burning 10 lbs of propane?
Robert
 
Hi Robert, Guys,

Those rollers that I used were bits of copper busbar from an old earth rod. From the days when they were copper and not just plated steel.
 
I have discovered that 85 three 5 is commonly know as 836 bronze. Unfortunately, I cannot find any in the 1" range on ebay or from my usual suppliers. Anyone have some by chance?
Robert
 
So....I decided I would cast my own brass for the next piece.
I started with some scrap and some red brass that had too much porosity for machining. I weighed my material and decided I needed about 3g of Phosphor Cu to degas my 11 lb melt:

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Added Phospho Copper after skimming:

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Stirred and poured:

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Shakeout:

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This seems to have removed most of the porosity and it machines pretty well! Very satisfactory!

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Thanks for watching.
Robert

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Hi Robert,

That material looks very nice and seems to have machined well.
 
Yes! I love the color. I am going to make more I think. I turned it between centers and had to cut off about .080 to get thru the rough outer surface. I still have slightly more than 1" diameter to work with. I am on the hunt for scrap copper.
Robert
 
rwm, Great looking hold-down clamp, I'll have to make one like it for myself. well maybe not as nicely finished as yours but just as functional.

Somewhere I have the plans/notes for them if you want them.
I would like to see the plan for your clamp if you you don't mind posting it or at least post a picture of the opposite side of the picture in your post, I'd like to see whether you used E clamps to fasten the bolts or just screwed in.
Thank you both for the inspiration.
 
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