A few useful tips to know

Thank you! Those small things make the difference a lot of times. Is there any salt in bacon grease? I know that,in a book I often study,about fine English gun collections in the 18th.C.,deer grease was rendered down,and kept the guns looking great for 200 years on at least 1 of the large estates. My journeyman,Jon,swears by bear grease as being the best thing to waterproof hunting boots with. He's a real out doorsman. I haven't availed myself of it!! I only wear sneakers these days anyway.
 
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funny that you mention the bacon grease..
my best long time customers is Prime Smoked Meats in Oakland, Ca., 220 Alice ST.
he has the BEST ham, bacon ,and sausage of any of the purveyors i service .
his bacon is salt cured for 7-10 days, smoked to perfection and smells heavenly, i can't wait for service calls there..

i eat only his bacon, there is a definite salt flavor i hate to think what the sodium content is. sodium nitrate is present as well.

thanks george!
 
The next time you have to drill brass with a drill bigger then 1/2 inch try drilling by cranking the table up into the drill bit with the quill locked. Any drill bit smaller then 1/2 inch i simplu put a drag on the quill. The lathe takes a bit more caution as the brass can jerk the drill chuck out of the tail stock.

Skip
 
The tendency to pull the drill out of the chuck,or to pull the brass out of the chuck can easily be avoided by grinding the cutting edges of the drill vertical,as I mentioned in my original post(which is a very long read)! You only need to grind about 1/32" of vertical grind on the drill. Using a drill press,lathe,or mill to drill with,I haven't noticed any decreased ability of the drill to drill. Might be noticed with a hand held drill,though.

Brass drills with straight,vertical flutes used to be made. I have some. Don't know if they're still made,though. You can also save ruining plexiglas by grinding flutes vertical. Drills grab coming out the other side,and crack plexi.

Also,use brown paper to line the vise jaws,or any paper(like news print) that has NO CLAY(shiny paper is full of clay). I have access to left over hand made cotton rag paper which is excellent.
 
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Another tip: When holding steel on a magnetic chuck for grinding,if the part doesn't get held firmly enough,lay hacksaw blades down each side of the work to get more magnetic flux into the piece you're grinding. Work with smallish surface area may not be held fast due to the lack of surface area. They make hold downs for grinding,but they cost money,and I've never bought any. Hacksaw blades usually work well enough. Old timers used tricks like this to save money they didn't have,and still get the job done.
 
In case of emergency,that is if you are short of silver solder, you can make a very good solder for brass & steel by mixing equal parts of electronics solder (Sn Pb 60 40) and brass rod solder,phosphated if i remember well.A side benefit is that the soldering temp is lower,the color is more white,to the color of steel and very good wetting.Use normal Flux for Brass rod.
Ariscats.
 
Ariscats,
Can you elaborate on the substitute for silver solder, please? Would I melt the two together? How would I phosphate the brass rod solder, or does it come that way?

Chuck
 
I may have mentioned this,but I found out many years ago that if you heat brass pieces red hot that were soldered with ordinary lead solder,the solder becomes alloyed into the brass,making the joint as strong as solid brass. If you try to pull the joint apart while it is red hot,you get long "stalagmites" sticking out of both brass pieces.

Never quench red hot brass. I have had it crack open finding that out. Also have had it warp badly from being quenched while too hot.

If you are a model maker,and use aluminum soda cans for metal,and need it annealed,just carefully heat the can till the paint burns off. Be careful,or the can will melt on you. I had a friend who needed to cut louvers in a model airplane. I made him a louver shaped punch,and showed him how to just punch the louvers into a block of lead,with the aluminm between the punch and the lead,of course ! . The lead snipped the louvers open at their back sides,and perfectly formed their shape. The annealing process helped make neat louvers,too.

If you want to make miniature furniture,or anything requiring very small complex shapes,like miniature Chippendale drawer pull plates do this: Make your punch the shape you want. Take thin,annealed brass shim stock. Punch the brass into the lead. The lead will neatly snip thin brass or aluminum sheet,leaving perfect punchings that you can dig out,or in the case of brass,melt out. The shapes will just float on top of the melted lead because brass is lighter. Re cast the lead for use again. I haven't tried melting aluminum out,but lead melts at a lower temp,so it should work the same. I have low temp. "fixturing metal" that melts at a very low temp that would work even better. But,a small ingot is about $30.00.

Note: Just noticed that the spell check put "filtering" instead of "fixturing" metal. So blasted helpful. Must have been programed by non craftsmen!!!
 
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Ariscats,
Can you elaborate on the substitute for silver solder, please? Would I melt the two together? How would I phosphate the brass rod solder, or does it come that way?

Chuck


Yes,you melt them together on the heated piece to be soldered. No you don't have to phosphate the brass
rod.It is made this way.The other piece to be soldered is preheated for better results.
Ariscats
 
I may have mentioned this,but I found out many years ago that if you heat brass pieces red hot that were soldered with ordinary lead solder,the solder becomes alloyed into the brass,making the joint as strong as solid brass. If you try to pull the joint apart while it is red hot,you get long "stalagmites" sticking out of both brass pieces.

Never quench red hot brass. I have had it crack open finding that out. Also have had it warp badly from being quenched while too hot.

If you are a model maker,and use aluminum soda cans four metal,and need it annealed,just carefully heat the can till the paint burns off. Be careful,or the can will melt on you. I had a friend who needed to cut louvers in a model airplane. I made him a louver shaped punch,and showed him how to just punch the louvers into a block of lead. The lead snipped the louvers open at their back sides,and perfectly formed their shape. The annealing process helped make neat louvers,too.

If you want to make miniature furniture,or anything requiring very small complex shapes,like miniature Chippendale drawer pull plates do this: Make your punch the shape you want. Take thin,annealed brass shim stock. Punch the brass into the lead. The lead will neatly snip thin brass or aluminum sheet,leaving perfect punchings that you can dig out,or in the case of brass,melt out. The shapes will just float on top of the melted lead because brass is lighter. Re cast the lead for use again. I haven't tried melting aluminum out,but lead melts at a lower temp,so it should work the same. I have low temp. "filtering metal" that melts at a very low temp that would work even better. But,a small ingot is about $30.00.


Yes George,you have mentioned this in this forum.I just wanted to point this technique. I discovered
it by accident,trying to solder stainless steel for the modification of cheap calipers.
Thanks for the very useful tips.
Ariscats
 
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