Thread: Making triple stacked washers old school

Very nice work,keep at it and keep us posted.

Originally Posted by Lemur

You can make the female quite easily by drilling a hole thru a piece of steel and then make a cut from the side thru the hole with a hacksaw.
Small pic but I hope it helps http://www.konradw.se/pub_images/ori...ggare_1643.JPG
The cutting surface of the male can for a small diameter like yours be all flat.
On the female you should polish the cut you made so you get sharp sides of the hole.
another pic Swanstrom Round Disc Cutter Set

I'm talking about a cutter to make the first blanks, the forming part you are doing nicely!
One trick to get a female for forming is to use a piece of poly cutting board, heat the male part up a little and press it into the board.

I have a set like that, and that would be fine for punching out circular blanks. What I was thinking of for a female end was more of an inverted copy of the 3-tiered stack so that you could push the two together to mold the brass blank. I tried using drills of increasing size to do it but the cutting end was too angled. I would need something like a tiny forschner bit.

Edit: just saw the rest of your post. I like the idea of heating the bit to make an inverted mold. I'll have to give that a try.

A very good method to make the washers. After cleaning the center hole, they can be stacked on a Dremel arbor with the screw in the end, and spun against a piece of abrasive paper or a fine file to get them round. That is best done before the stamping.
Thanks for sharing it with us.

A replacement for steel washers that is easy to stamp is nickle silver sheet of about 0.018" 26ga. thickness. From ebay or some craft shops. Also model/craft shops often have K-S nickle silver rod on hand in 1/16th" diameter. No silver in it but a combination of copper, zinc, and nickle that shows white when polished.

Have fun and count your fingers before and after shop time!
~Richard
edit:: I have used this set for a couple years.
9 Piece Punch and Die Set

all great stuff,If you could make a female and a Male,you could spin them no prob on a lathe.
Right now they are covers,what are you going to put under them??

I read him to say that he uses somewhat washers the same as the original trim washers of yore!

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

all great stuff,If you could make a female and a Male,you could spin them no prob on a lathe.
Right now they are covers,what are you going to put under them??

The problem for me is that my cutting tools are too big to fit in to make the holes for the female end. I would probably need to make a couple new bits for that but don't have the experience. Right now I'm using some punched aluminum washers that replicate the steel ones used underneath the brass covers. They seem to work fairly well.

Keep it up and you will soon have the experience!
I've got a full set of tools for jewellery work in boxes at home, now I want to set the whole workshop up tonight...
Metalwork is so much fun!

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

The problem for me is that my cutting tools are too big to fit in to make the holes for the female end. I would probably need to make a couple new bits for that but don't have the experience. Right now I'm using some punched aluminum washers that replicate the steel ones used underneath the brass covers. They seem to work fairly well.

As I have been reading this one thing popped out at me. I admit I am no expert at this but it is a thought. Galvanic corrosion. Aluminium and Brass are farther apart on the chart than Steel and Brass. Nickle Silver is closer to Brass than Steel.
Galvanic Corrosion, theory documents Galvanic Bimetallic Corrosion

Should this make a difference in the choice of metal?

Very ingenious! I like a man who loves to tinker. I am sure you will figure out the female part. Have you considered epoxy casting resin? Drill a whole in a piece of wood for the shank of your male form so the last ring sets flush with the wood. Build a form around it sufficient so the block you cast is strong enough to stand up to the pressure. Be sure all surfaces of the wood is sealed with several coats of poly and then coated with a release agent so the epoxy does stick to it. Also be sure your male part is also coated with a release agent. Then pour the epoxy resin into the mold and you have and exact replica of the male part.

Just a thought.

Randy

Originally Posted by 32t

Should this make a difference in the choice of metal?

Something to think and wonder about fer sure.
I have early 19th century razors with brass and steel washers together, brass thrust washers and steel or brass pins. The only thing I see is it is possible that the punched hole in the razor is enlarged over a couple centuries by that phenomenon. but, that hole was punched and could have been crappy to start with. I've seen numerous knives and swords way older than that with no apparent problem. If you wish to worry about it, go ahead and do something about on your work.
~Richard