Cutting circles
by Devin on May 7, 2010
If I ever lose a finger, this is the machine that took it.
The aluminum for the boilers comes in large, smooth sheets, which I promptly mark up and cut to pieces with this hand-held metal shear. The proper way to cut the circles is with a large tool called a circle shear but, you guessed it, this was cheaper. That’s been my M.O. with this project – start cheap, especially with equipment that is infrequently used and doesn’t affect the finish of the boilers. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In this case, aside from paranoia that the oscillating blade is going to nibble off one of my fingers, the results have been great.
The circles are then chocked up on the lathe, sandwiched between the mandrel and a follower-block, ready to be spun…
Tagged as:
cottage manufacturing,
metal spinning
