Brass cutting

Are there any precautions to be taken when turning brass.? What lubricants are recommended ? What speeds are recommended ? I have never turned brass before and would welcome any hints and tips. Thankyou.

Lubricant isn't normally required. Experiment with speed, you'll know when it's correct as the metal 'sings' to you when it's cutting well. ALWAYS use eye protection, as a brass chip in the eye is no joke and can't be removed with a magnet.

Brass is usually machined without any lubricant; as for speed I usually cut starting at around 600rpm & working up over, depending on the type of cutting tool you're using, carbide tip or HSS... no top rake needed for HSS. As Gordon says, wear eye protection, brass chippings are no joke, they get everywhere.

George.

Hi Roger

Flat top to the tool and hone to a fine polish. The finish will only be as good as the finish on the tool so make the effort. Cut dry as has been stated.

If you are drilling stone your drills so that there is no rake or they wil grab. This can be done by rubbing the cutting tip on a stone or small diamond card parallel to the drill axis. You will want to keep a set for brass.

regards Martin

Ordinary Brass is my favourite metal. No lubrication needed. I find it machines well being altogether less problematic than some Aluminium Alloys (sticky), some Steels (Hard, gritty etc), Cast Iron( hard and soft and filthy), and Copper (tears). In general Brass is cut fast rather than slow.

Brass tends to come off as a spray of fine chips, especially forceful if you use carbide. Apart from showering the operator, they go everywhere else too. Cleaning up is a bit of a chore, and needs to be done regularly. Clear flakes before they are crushed into the lathe bed or slides etc. Gordon's comment about eye-protection is absolutely correct. Whatever you do don't get it in your eyes; it has to be washed out which is apparently VERY unpleasant.

Dave

I agree absolutely with all that's been said above. However I have found, perhaps counter intuitively, that brass machines very well with CCGT tips, the swarf tending to come off as ribbons rather than a shower of chips.

As always with this hobby of ours, there are many ways to skin the cat.

Cheers,

Rod

Turning copper was also mentioned above by SOD.

By coincidence I turned up a dummy rifle cartridge/bullet in brass and copper yesterday evening, for a mate.

Results below (for the shooters amongst us, I based it on a .50 BMG case, scaled up by 120%).

I turned the case out of a chunk of 1" brass bar I has lying around, and the bullet out of a piece of 5/8 copper bar. Overall length is just short of 7".

I also love turning brass, but as stated above, don't ask me what speeds, I just knew what was right, as it told me.

There was a bit of fiddling as I turned the extractor groove, plus mimicked a fired primer in the base.

And predictably, turning the copper bullet was a pain, horrible stuff, I would have been better turning a lump of Cheddar!

Five minutes on the polisher, and it was done.

But, overall result, not bad - in fact, I don't want to give it to him now!

As you know I've reluctantly concluded that allowing modern firearms in unsupervised private hands is too risky. (Apart from shotguns, single-shot weapons and black-powder hand-loaders.)

But that bullet is beautiful...

Dave

Honest ...I was going to do a candlestick... make it up as I go , like you do ... but I liked that bullet too much , so I converted it half way through and made myself one .

304 stainless case ,and I forged the bullet up to 1" dia , from a bit of copper bus bar 3/8" thick , that i had , and then turned it into shape . It's 7" long

Almost a kilo , but it's nice to hold

Why a fired primer? Usually there is only the case left after the primer is fired. Is it a 'legal' requirement?

Nah its not fired... that's a bit of polishing compound I failed to clean off

On a centrefire cartridge, the primer will have an indentation in it after the firing pin has hit it and it is fired. Nothing else, the primer doesn't go anywhere. So, strictly speaking, the primer showing in hacksaw's cartridge looks unfired.

Edited By David Standing 1 on 09/11/2017 23:06:35

Oh dear, I am a bad influence .

Nothing new in that! .

Earlier today I went into my local gun shop, and my mate that owns it saw my dummy cartridge and said he wanted one.

I solved this and the fact that I didn't want to give away the original, by making two more this evening .

I machined the bases of my dummy cartridges to look like they had a fired primer.

On the far right is a real fired .308 Win case, showing the fired primer . It looks tiny compared to the dummies!

Mine took a lazy /slow 4 hrs , but i had to fart about making a copper flat plate into 1" dia.. and the stainless was way oversize..so took a while to turn it down .

I'm going to give it ,at xmas ,to a good friend / client , who shoots , and has everything money can buy . But he won't have one of these ! Sorry to pinch your idea !!

Almost a kilo? I just weighed mine (yes, I'm that sad ), two both weigh 504 gms each, with the third at 510 gms. Quite consistent considering there was no accurate measurement, I made each largely by eye!

However, I am now feeling inadequate, but nevertheless eyeing the long bar of 50 mm dia 316 I have in the workshop

No copyright, pinch away!

What's BMG? I don't shoot...

At all...

I've got an early Gatgun tho The coin in pic 1 is a 10p..

Google rifle bullets , I think mine is a NATO issue ...

Edit  .Ah , browning machine gun..

Edited By Hacksaw on 09/11/2017 23:53:27

Edited By Hacksaw on 10/11/2017 00:04:11

Hacksaw,

I have made umpteen thousands of shotgun reloads and fired thousands of rifle rounds. The primer of David's was dimpled (quote: "plus mimicked a fired primer in the base." unquote), yours was not. Rounds of that size might be acceptable as models, but smaller calibre rounds could look authentic. Could result in getting a firearms response team on the scene these days.

Should I centrepunch it then ? I dont want 5 years mandatory I have another friend who's a QC , he had to send someone down for 5 yrs ,for an airpistol being too powerful .