Thread: A simple idea for making bulls-eye washers

So I stopped by at the hardware store yesterday, and picked up a few things, as well as a new idea

There are many techniques and thoughts on making bullseye washers from scratch. Some of them are tricky and difficult, others require expensive tools (lathe). The idea I had though, was quite simple! Only requires some small brass tubing, and a ball peen hammer.

I thought to take some brass tubing of different sizes, that fit into one another. I picked up K&S rod, which is a brand most of us use for 1/16" rods and metal sheeting for lining scales. They had some tubes of varying sizes at my local hardware store, so I picked 'em up. My plan is basically, to peen those into a bullseye washer.

Proposed steps:
1.) Get brass tubing of a few different sizes, 3 should be enough... ensuring that they will fit into one another. Smallest size would be 1/16" hole, largest maybe 1/8".
2.)Insert the rod into eachother.
3.)Some sort of jig will need to be used for the peening part. I suppose that you could prepeen the rods, which may be just the way to do it... Then stick the largest rod onto the vice, and finish up the rest of the peening. prolly best to peen 1 rod at a time, from largest to smallest. This will have to be done carefully, to avoid splitting the tube...
4.) Saw off the washer, dremel cutoff wheel would probably be a good choice for this. I dont think that the seperate tubes would come apart, due to the peening. You could probably put a drop of superglue underneath, just to be sure tho.

And thats it, my idea. I hope it works, I am going to give it a go this evening. I invite you to give it a shot too, as this only requires very basic tools. It will also help us to decide if this is a viable method, and gain some critique on what works/doesnt work.

If I am successful this evening, I will post results and maybe do a pictorial.

Good or bad, how did this turn out Matt?? Inquiring minds want to know.

Originally Posted by superbleu

Good or bad, how did this turn out Matt?? Inquiring minds want to know.

Hehe...

Well, I did give it a shot, but my results were not great. I need to revise my jig (vice) and see if I can come up with something more usable.

The vice worked, but it made it difficult to get the tubes into eachother.

I think that this can definitely work, but only with the right method...