How would a fella go about making this (vintage part of a vintage snare drum)

[auto.pilot]

The pictures below are part of a vintage snare drum that I own, which is from the mid 1920s. I would like to replicate this as close as possible for a different drum that is missing this part. My 6 18 lathe, would likely suffice for the tension screw, knob, turned part on the lever and the 'ball' that receives the threaded tension screw. The flat/folded parts are steel, approximately 3/32 thick, roughly 11 to 12 gauge and are the real reason for my post. What methods could be used to cut and bend the steel plate into these shapes? If this gives me good reasons to buy more tools, so much the better!

Would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

Jim

ps - clicking on any of the pictures will take you to the photobucket album.

 

[Tom Griffin]

Jim,

If you only need one set, all of those parts could be sawed and filed to shape and hand formed. The C shaped bracket would be the most challenging and would likely require a mandrel to hammer the tabs around. Also, unless you have the means to plate the parts, you might want to consider making them out of stainless. Then they could be buffed for a chrome like shine.

Tom

 

[auto.pilot]

Thank you. I would like to make one for my own use, but have considered making additional, to sell as reproductions. Even in this condition, people pay stupid high money. There are several other models with similar characteristics. They are typically nickel plated, which I can do myself. Stainless is a great idea. How would I go about cutting the half-moon shaped hole shown in picture 2?

Thanks.

jim

 

[Tony Wells]

If I were going to make very many of them at all, and wanted a consistent part, I would go to the trouble of making punch and die sets for all the sheet metal parts. And a bending die.

 

[Tom Griffin]

Thank you. I would like to make one for my own use, but have considered making additional, to sell as reproductions. Even in this condition, people pay stupid high money. There are several other models with similar characteristics. They are typically nickel plated, which I can do myself. Stainless is a great idea. How would I go about cutting the half-moon shaped hole shown in picture 2?

Thanks.

jim

Jim,


I was going to mention that they might be nickel plated being from that era so the stainless might not look exactly right, but if you are making the entire assembly it probably wouldn't be noticeable.

Unless you have a milling machine with a rotary table, the half-moon shaped hole could also be hand filed. Just lay it out, drill or punch out as much as possible and file to shape.

If you want to make more than one piece, you should definitely look into making tooling as Tony suggested, although that would be tough to do without a mill. You could at least make a set of templates to scribe the outlines and cut-outs of the parts.

Another possibility if you wanted to make a lot of them is have a bunch of the blanks laser cut. Then you would only need to do the bending and forming.

Tom

 

[Tony Wells]

Laser, or even waterjet cutting is getting much cheaper than it was, and smaller shops are acquiring the machinery. Definitely worth looking into for medium volume quantities. I don't think I would go plasma with these parts, but with the right operator and material, it is possible. You still would have to do the bending. That's the easy part though.

 

[toag]

+1 on the lazer/waterjet cutting. Plasma could be done, depending on the tolerance needed. A cutter told me he can hold .020 and .010 if the planets align right (i would be just about shocked if i could hold .020 on the whole part by hand with a file, i just dont have that patience). sounds like sloppy work, but often you don't need the tight tolerances. Also plasma cutting leaves a kerf that would need deburred/tumbled/cleaned up.
As to stainless/ plating, i know you can get nickel plating kits, i have no clue how well they work. I am willing to bet there is a plating company near you, i have no clue what that would cost for onesie twoes but i bet its not cheap. stainless is pretty, buffs great. looks like a cool project though, might justify a small press and anvil purchase, some stakes...

 

[auto.pilot]

As luck would have it, there is a shop locally that will do small-run water jet work. I'm going to send a sketch and get a quote for 25 of each piece (100 total parts). Since I'm not familiar with much of the tooling required to bend these shapes, can someone please help with what sort of bending press I would need.

This looks very cool, but i'll bet expensive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fGuF2qR1Ko&feature=related

Thanks,

jim

 

[Tom Griffin]

Jim,

Before you pay to have a hundred parts cut out you had better make a couple of sets first by hand to get the bend allowances right. It would be bad news if you ended up short or with extra material when you went to bend them up.

As far as bending them up, a press brake would be the tool of choice for parts like that, but it's not really something that could be justified for the home shop. The two simple bent parts could easily be done with nothing more than a good quality bench vise, a block of aluminum as a punch and a hammer. The more complicated "C" shaped bracket could be hammer formed over a mandrel after bending the two jogged legs. Of course bending fixtures could be made with the the proper machinery and expertise, but it doesn't sound like that would be an option at this point.

I've hand formed or bent a lot of parts over the years and would be glad to show you how to do it when you are ready to bend.

Tom

 

[auto.pilot]

Great suggestions. For starters, the plan is to determine if it would be cost prohibitive to even consider making them for possible resale. I will certainly hand cut and bend a few to determine the correct size and to assess my ability to even do the work. I was actually quite surprised to find a water jet company even wiling to talk to me. The first one was receptive to the idea - must be the economy.

Thanks

Jim