How to cut brass

http://www.alstechnologies.com/index.php?page=alsg814



Do it in a open field and keep a hose ready, this stuff is nasty and burns hotter then the surface of the sun.

Good luck.

Hi, You should be able to cut it with an Olson band saw blade 1/8 inch wide, 14 teeth per inch and some of their blade lubricant stick.

If I am reading your numbers correctly, the piece is only .032" in thickness?
Seeing as I'm not sure how your shop is set up I am going to guess that you are using a band saw that is for wood. IF this is the case, you would be using the wrong tool. Brass is a pretty soft metal and "tears" pretty easily. A band saw that is used for wood simply has too high of a "blade speed" in order to cut most metals. Plus you have to use a different type of blade. I apologize if I am "stating the obvious" here. Just making sure that we are both on the same page...
If you are cutting across the 4" length AND if it is just a "one off", I would definately use a miter box with a good blade and DO NOT try to force the blade through. You may actually find yourself not even using the weight of the saw on the material. You will make it through eventually, so be patient.

Another idea is to buy a "upper end" manual (non-powered) miter saw. They have ones that look VERY similar to a normal hack saw, all you would do is swap the blade in for one that is designed to cutting which ever metal that you want.

Lastly, look in your phone book (or maye even your relatives?) for a Welding, or Fabrication, or Machine shop. THEY'VE got the right tools and will charge you a VERY minimal fee for making a simple cut. When I say "minimal" I'm meaning around $10 at the most. Be REALLY nice to those folks... ;-)

Good Luck!!!!!

Joel S.

All this talk about using a saw to cut 1/32 brass sheet. If your going to go to a small mach shop why not shear the brass sheet and save yourself a lot of work.

Joel S is right - take it to a machine shop, body shop(?), or, I would think, a sheet metal shop (A/C?).

I have cut brass sheet successfully with tin snips, as well as with a cutoff wheel on my Moto-Tool.

Needless to say!!: it depends on what you are trying to do, how clean the cut has to be and/or
how well you can dress it after the cut to do your job.

Wear eye protection, as I'm sure that you do. I even wear it when using the tin snips, as a springy piece of
cut-off brass can be a nasty thing.

If you are going to do much metalwork this is a great investmment. $150
I love my break/shear..




From Grizzly Industrial or Harbor Freight.

Carl

quote:

Originally posted by skip:
All this talk about using a saw to cut 1/32 brass sheet. If your going to go to a small mach shop why not shear the brass sheet and save yourself a lot of work.

+1. Get a pair of shears/tin snips. If was half that thickness you could use a pair of scissors. The only downside to hand shears is it will roll the edge slightly requiring you to straighten it out. A stationary bench shear won't do that and also give you a perfectly straight edge. If the dimensions of the fished piece is less than ~3 inches square you could use an xacto razor saw.

Pete

I have a 10 inch vice but if you don't clamp it between 2 2x4's and lay it down use a 18 tooth per inch hack saw . obviously by the size of your plate your not going to make a bunch of cuts. A machine shop will charge you out the wazoo for something you can do yourself.

If you were a practiced metal worker I'd tell you how to cut it with a skill saw with a carbide blade turned around backwards.

David

I use tin snips to get close, then a Dremmel with a cut off wheel for rest. For small inside cuts, like a window, a nibbler is priceless. I do not do a lot of it so I keep the tooling simple. If I did more of it, I'd move up to some better equipment.

Steve

I was taught a rule that says that there must be three saw teeth per thickness of metal. That determines what size teeth must be on the saw blade.

I concur with the others that a pair of snips should be enough to do the job.

quote:

there must be three saw teeth per thickness of metal

Excellent rule of thumb! I love the information available on this forum. Thanks for that great one!

I will get a pair of snips and enjoy? myself. I need to obtain 16 2" x 1 1/4" plates.

I will be using them to secure my Atlas trucks to my almost scale 85' Metroliners.

The other 2 are powered and do not need a thin stable shim to secure to the floor at the proper height.

Thanks for great advise,

mikeg

quote:

I was taught a rule that says that there must be three saw teeth per thickness of metal. That determines what size teeth must be on the saw blade.

I was trying to think of that but my addled mind had spaced it! Thanks!

And there are a LOT of great suggestions on here! Some I had forgotten about, and some, "Hmmm... That would work! "

The "Wood sandwich trick" will work really well if you have to drill holes in rubber. (Once I had to make a filter gasket for our fuel truck when I worked at an airport. Darn thing outlasted the manufacturer's replacement! :-) )

Try a paper cutter...the kind that one buys at an office supply store. Lift the blade high, position the item to be cut and lower the blade in a guillotine motion shearing the metal.

Steve

Mike,

I used a piece of .030 aluminum sheet to modify a number of MTH boxcars.

I turned the metal floor over, and cut the aluminum to fit each end of the car. I drilled the hole for the truck and the 2 holes for the screws that attach the floor to the body. I then shimmed and super glued a Kadee coupler to the aluminum plate:





The aluminum is much easier to cut than brass, but you've been given a lot of good possibilities for cutting brass. I use sheetmetal shears for rough cuts and a Dremel for final shaping.

I've been using these aluminum plates at least since the 3RS sub-forum took off and possibly before then, with no problems.

If you look close, that's a Kadee coupler in an Atlas coupler box! I had to modify the Kadee to fit the Atlas box (I had too many Kadee couplers but not enough Kadee coupler boxes).

Thanks guys, I have a paper cutter and will try it first before going to homedespot for shears.

Many great ideas.

mikeg

After cutting sheet metal, you will need to hammer the cut edge with a flat-headed hammer, holding the sheet against a flat iron surface, such as the top of the anvil. Then dress up the edge with a small flat file. This will easily get all the little bends and nicks out of it, and make a nice straight edge. When working with soft metals, and small parts, slower is better. Hand tools instead of power tools, for instance, will make a nicer job.

Wear gloves and eye protection.

Success

Tried paper cutter and did not even dent brass.

Went to Homedespot and purchased a larger pair of shears and carefully cut into many pieces. Flattened on flat spot on anvil with sledge hammer. Drilled holes while secured in vise, now can attach markedly modified Atlas trucks to floor of my Metroliners. IF only molding end for me was as easy.





Thanks for great help

mikeg

Mike if have brass to cut in the future you want to invest in a 3 pair set of aviation tin snips .This has one set that will cut straight lines a, a set that will cut circles to the left and one set that will cut circles to the right.

Because of the way they're made they take about 1/3 the effort that the ones you bought take.

Here's a set from Harbor freight so you'll know what to look for

http://www.harborfreight.com/1...nips-left-97902.html

David