# A brass dividing set I made for my rotary table



## george wilson (Jan 7, 2012)

This was made,believe it or not,by using ordinary dividers to step off the spaces for the holes. Light,concentric lines were turned into the brass to provide lines to use for stepping off the distances. This was done in the lathe. I soon got very quick at it. A tiny tightening of the knob coming very close to the required number of holes for the next circle,and a second adjustment,and I'd be right on. This disc is made for 90:1 ratio of the rotary table,not the 40:1 of regular dividing heads.

The small numbers you see on the brass plate are 1/32" high,with serifs. I spent many years looking for old stamp sets with serifs. To make a nice item,and use the regular"Gothic" stamps you can get today is just not suitable.

Pump drills,which I made quite a few of years ago,were used to drill the holes initially. Then,I used a small center drill(as used in the lathe) in a drill press,to drill the holes deeper,and to add the countersinks that help guide the indexing pin into place.

I am not recommending the use of brass for index plates,but I have used this device carefully for about 35 years without scarring it up. This is what comes of working in a museum!! Beautiful,but not the most practical metal.

The knobs were made and knurled with old fashioned rounded knurls that I have made by running blank knurls against taps. I need to post knurl making here,but I am a bad photographer,and really need to re shoot some of my pictures first.

The brass disc is 1/4
 thick,and 5"in diameter. The color shown in these pictures is the true color of the brass. I only handle it with nitrile gloves to not disturb the patina. The brass is 260 alloy.

P.S.: I have decided to include a picture of pump drills I made,as you may not know what they are. They work on the same principal as the old child's game of whizzing a button back and forth between the fingers,suspended on strings. The leather strip is wound onto the steel shaft with a quick twist of the little brass wheel that tightens the drill bits in. Only takes a second. Then,the drill is placed on the punch mark,and the wooden handle is pressed down,starting the drill spinning. The inertia of the brass flywheel carries the steel shaft around till the leather cord is wrapped around the steel shaft again. The wooden cross bar is raised up higher when the leather is all wrapped up. Then,you push down on the cross bar to spin the flywheel the other way,and so on. 

This whole operation takes just a few seconds to do. The thing is,you can drill exceedingly accurately placed holes with a pump drill,and some clock makers or jewelers still use them. If you see that the hole is a little off center,just tilt the drill to bring it back. Only good for small holes,usually of 1/16" or less.

I made the bits. They have a 1/8" shank,and the cutting ends are hammered flat,and filed to a vee shaped tip,the lips filed to cut like an ordinary drill. The drill bits are 1/8" drill rod,hardened and drawn to dark straw.


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## HMF (Jan 7, 2012)

Beautiful work, as usual George.

This will be an article in the machining projects section of the home page.

Nelson


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## george wilson (Jan 7, 2012)

Thank you,Nelson,and EdK. I was not sure if I posted the dividing plate before,and the pump drills are new,because I just scanned my slides for the first time ever. Glad you are enjoying the pictures. I'll warn you that some of my pictures are not very good,and many date before digital cameras.


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## sic semper tyrannis (Jan 7, 2012)

WOw that is stunning!!!

What other work do you do for the museum?


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## churchjw (Jan 7, 2012)

As always George stunning and inspiring.  

Jeff


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## jgedde (Jan 7, 2012)

churchjw said:


> As always George stunning and inspiring.
> 
> Jeff



Amazing!  Funny thing is I looked at the pictures before I read the post and knew you were the poster by your work!


John


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## george wilson (Jan 7, 2012)

You remove the regular handle on the rotary table,and mount the dividing unit on the shaft,just like commercial dividing outfits for rotary tables work.

260 alloy brass is available as sheet material. 360 can be had in round stock or sheet form. 360 doesn't work with lead based solder,for general info. It works fine with lead free solder,or silver solder.

360 brass looks a little pinkish when compared to 260,if you see the 2 polished kinds side by side. By itself,360 doesn't look pinkish.

Go on Ebay and look at metals and alloys for sale. Plenty of 260 there. I just bought a 19" x 23" x 1/8" sheet for about $185.00.

The 360 machines cleaner than 260. I just used to have 260 readily available when I could buy material from the Colonial Williamsburg main warehouse. That's what they stocked in sheet.


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## goldenchips2 (Jan 9, 2012)

Beautifull !!!
Where did you manage to find that really cool brass wingnut ???


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## george wilson (Jan 9, 2012)

You have to make the wingnuts,especially if you want the brasses color to match.


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## goldenchips2 (Jan 9, 2012)

You cast them, Yes?
that would be alot of machining out of a solid piece...


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## george wilson (Jan 9, 2012)

No way here to cast them. Just saw them out of thick stock,and file,file,file!!.


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## goldenchips2 (Jan 9, 2012)

A rotary file for the finger indents ( the rasied portion of the finger grips ) ??
Wow, I am impressed!!!hew:, just seems to me it would be alot quicker to make castings...IHMO


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## george wilson (Jan 17, 2012)

I'm not set up here to make castings. If I did,I'd still have to make a pattern. Just easier for a 1 off to be hand made. The shape on many things might be better off being cast. It just depends.

There are no indents on the wing nut. If I wanted them,I'd put a large,egg shaped rotary file in the mill,and mill the indents into the wing nut.


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## goldenchips2 (Jan 18, 2012)

Oh, OK..
I was looking at the wingnuts...in your pics..
looks like they have a raised lip around the edges
Great work though...cudos


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## Jeff G (Jan 31, 2012)

Wow 
That is gorgeous! I am a true newbie but it is projects and tools like that that inspire me to no end.
The pump drills are amazing and look like something I can attempt, especially as I am a wood turner and can make the handle out of some wood I have.
Any more info on them wiould be most appreciated. And again beautiful work, thanks for sharing it.
Jeff G
new owner of a Logan 9B-17


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## george wilson (Jan 31, 2012)

Thank you. More projects will be appearing in this column.


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## george wilson (Sep 23, 2012)

I just noticed that several of the posts with pictures that I thought were lost are in the articles section,under gunsmithing & under machining.


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## wawoodman (Sep 23, 2012)

George,
As with everything you do, stunning and incredible!


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## 8ntsane (Sep 23, 2012)

Oh ya,,,,,,,,Those look so nice George.
They look outstanding in Brass. That is outstanding work you have done there, I like the way you knurled the knobs as well. Really looks fine.

:thumbzup:


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## george wilson (Sep 23, 2012)

I have collected old fashioned knurls over the years,and letter stamps with serifs. Nothing looks worse than to make an antique looking piece and diamond knurl it(they DID have diamond knurls even in the 18th.C..They just don't look right to me). Sin #2 is to use modern,plain GOTHIC stamps. They just RUIN the piece. If I could not find OLD stamp sets(I make them sometimes),I'd AT LEAST make a teeny straight chisel,and add the serifs as a must. The biggest problem if you can't find old,artistic stamp sets,is you don't get the beautiful 5's,2's,7's,and 6's that some of them had back then.

My favorite set must be nearly 18th.C. at least,maybe older. It has true Roman letters with thicks and thins as well as serifs. The stamps are made of crudely rolled steel,with 2 flat sides,and 2 bulged sides,from primitive rolling. AND,the striking ends were left angular from being hot cut off with a chisel. It was left to the user to grind them square. The set was never used. Typically,tools like saws were supplied unsharpened,and chisels were supplied un handled. They were frugal back then!!


The brass dividing plates are actually that deep gold color from aging. I NEVER touch the outfit without nitrile gloves because the color has developed so beautifully. I made that outfit in the 70's for my 6" rotary table,which I still AM FORCED to keep!! Have larger ones now,too.


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## Pontiac Freak (Sep 23, 2012)

Very nice work!


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## 8ntsane (Sep 23, 2012)

George

All those fine detail, and personal preferance details do make all the differance in the final result of the parts you have built. Really nice work, a work of art really.  :man:


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## Tony Wells (Sep 23, 2012)

I like the serifs too, but they aren't cheap sets.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L8INR0...e=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B003L8INR0

I wonder about the quality of these.

http://www.etsy.com/search?includes[]=materials&q=serif+font+metal+stamp


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## george wilson (Sep 24, 2012)

Tony,I often find old serif sets on Ebay for MUCH less. Provided the seller's pictures are decent enough to see,and provided the idiots haven't photographed the BUTT ENDS of the stamps,as is often the case(sheesh!!!)  However,Rio Grande Jewelry supply has recently started selling a variety of stamp sets. Among them,the same stamp set you referred to,but for considerably less. However,your set is lower case,which is not desirable. Upper case is wanted. But,the upper case sets that Rio Grande sells,such as the "elite",has these cutsey little tails on their letters that turn me off. In their current catalog,Taiwan sets are about $79.00,and Chinese are about $40.00. Maybe those prices have jumped and I'm not aware. Usually Amazon prices are good.

These new made stamps are annoyingly ROUND on their stamping ends. They have big,flat areas around the letters.  I'd have to re grind those round ends away,to where I could readily see WHERE I was putting the stamp down exactly. That fact seems to have escaped current stamp makers. You're better off finding an old set for about $40.00 on Ebay. Their stamping ends taper down to near the edges of the letters,so you can see more exactly where you are placing them.


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## llarson (Sep 25, 2012)

I really like shiny brass, what you've shown here is pure eye candy. Great work, thanks for the show.


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## george wilson (Sep 25, 2012)

Like I used to say about the silversmith: "It MUST be good,it's shiny"(they buffed everything absolutely to death,spoiling details.)


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