Brass sheet

[boatmadman]

Hi,

I have some 2mm brass sheet I need to cut. Now, I have just got a shiny new toy in a slitting saw, but, having never used one of these before I am a little concerned whether its ok to grip the sheet in my mill vice, use the slitting saw and hold the off cut with a pair of pliers as it comes free.

If this is a no no, how do I do it?

The sheet size is 150mmx150mm I need to cut strips from.

Thanks

Ian

 

[Blogwitch]

Ian,

It is certainly feasible to cut strips off using a slitting saw, but you must support the thin material as much as you can.

The C-o-C shows the preferred method of this type of cutting using a slitting saw. To mention again, you MUST get the thin sheet supported as much as possible.

If you cut the sheet into two, you might be able to get away using wide parallels, depends on how deep the jaws are on your vice.

Bogs

 

[don-tucker]

Sorry to put a damper on your fun but i have found it far better to cut the strips oversize with a hacksaw or bandsaw and machine them to size in the mill,if you are using a slitting saw use plenty of coolant.
Don

 

[Blogwitch]

I know what you mean Don, I would just set up the fence on my vertical bandsaw and hack away, or use my guillotine, or my air powered shears and a straight edge plus a multitude of other methods, but Ian just asked the one question, so got the one answer.

I know he stipulated if it was a no no, but because it is a yes yes, I showed him how.

I didn't want to confuse the issue like I normally do. :big: :big:

BTW Ian, have the blade only just penetrating thru the material, as depending on the size of the teeth, you could easily get yourself into a sort of semi climb milling situation, it will also keep the vibration down, and normally when cutting off like this, pliers shouldn't or not advised to be used, the material should just almost drop off.


Bogs

 

[tel]

;D Yep, certainly doable, but some games just ain't worth the candle. By the time you fool around setting that all up you could have 'em sawn and milled.

 

[boatmadman]

Thanks for the replies.

I was, of course, aware of the hacksaw option, but I cant saw very straight so was looking for a better option.

I must admit, I am a bit wary of cutting sheet using the slitting saw, so, I think hacksaw is prob the way.

What I want to avoid is causing distortion of the sheet around the edges, these are for two of Bog's engines.

Thanks

Ian

 

[mklotz]

Another option with thin stock is to mill the blanks to size...

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=9090.msg98276#msg98276

A sacrifical plate (can even be brown stuff) under the stock will protect your table or tooling plate. One benefit is that you'll end up with blanks that have already finished edges.

 

[portlandron]

Use double sided tape to attach it to a piece of wood then place in your mill vice and cut as needed.