Made brass strap connectors for my wife's purse

[twooldvolvos]

Who would have thought I would be using my lathe to modify my wife's purse? She had a little black purse that had no place to connect a strap so I thought I would give it a try. Here is what I came up with (several hours later). These are try number 2.



I used a South Bend 10K with a milling attachment to get the job done. As usual, I learned several things I would not have learned without actually making something.

First, I learned how to make a uniform curved end. On my first attempt I tried to grind the arc in but that was a bust. Then I tried using a forming tool to round off the brass stock before I milled the flat spots. That worked like a charm although the process was a bit counterintuitive.

Secondly I learned that a regular tap needs a bit more length of material than it will make threads in because it has a good bit of starter area ground on to it that produces no useful threads. Eventually, I ground the end of a tap flat to try to get more good threads in a small bit of stock. I was a bit late though so I decided to just drill my hole clear through into the clipping hole as you can see.

And Bob is your uncle.

 

[GeneT45]

What a huge mistake! Now your wife knows that your hobby is "useful" and your project list will forever be filled with honey-dos... ;-) Ask me how I know...
In all seriousness, good job!

GsT

 

[toprecyler]

What a huge mistake! Now your wife knows that your hobby is "useful" and your project list will forever be filled with honey-dos... ;-) Ask me how I know...
In all seriousness, good job!

GsT

Just a better reason to have wife OK future new tool purchases. As long as she will benefit, she will be ok with the money spent.

Maybe….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gard]

First is some sets that include bottoming taps, then ball turner attachment and small milling machine. When my better half went to buy some nice kitchen knives I strongly suggested something made in the USA (a phrase google understands fairly well). She now returns the favor when I start looking at tools.

 

[GeneT45]

First is some sets that include bottoming taps, then ball turner attachment and small milling machine. When my better half went to buy some nice kitchen knives I strongly suggested something made in the USA (a phrase google understands fairly well). She now returns the favor when I start looking at tools.

So who makes good kitchen knives in the US? I'd have advised her to look for German or Japanese...

GsT

 

[gard]

You are correct now that I think about it, the google search was something like knife set not made in china, I think she went with henckel which has some made in Germany sets and others made in china. She talked me into buying a blake coaxial gauge instead of the import I had in my shopping cart.

 

[GeneT45]

You are correct now that I think about it, the google search was something like knife set not made in china, I think she went with henckel which has some made in Germany sets and others made in china. She talked me into buying a blake coaxial gauge instead of the import I had in my shopping cart.

Henckel's was a formerly German brand, now mostly made in China. Their parent company, Zwilling, still makes knives in Solingen, afaik, under the Zwilling name. Wusthof is still a solid German brand, at least at this point.

GsT