jmeineke

Just a bit of red on the table - nothing that I can see on the body. It's pretty caked up with crud.

I did a quick wire brush of the sides and the top. I still have more cleaning to do but but here it is for now.. Can't find a name or any markings. The face is pitted pretty bad, but rebound is really good. Looks like a pretty thick piece of tool steel on top. Too bad they stored it in mud!

All drilled and put together. Thanks to everyone who responded - I really appreciate all the help. Ended up using a crucifix I had on hand for now. Another member was kind enough to send me some bits that I'll be using for my next one and I'll be making some jigs and better tooling to make it go easier.

Well, here it is - finally finished it. I think it turned out pretty good. I may end up redoing the wire - I nicked it up pretty good in some places. I'll probably make a hand-made crucifix to put on it at some point, but for now I'm just using one I had on hand. Thank you all very much for your help on this. It's been a heck of a learning experience.

Yeah, not sure... Hard to tell from the pics. I'll need to check the rebound too.

Think I should pass? It has a mouseholeish look to me, but I don't know.

Been sitting outside. Paying about 75 cents / #.

I got all the beads drilled last night and am in the process of putting it all together. The crucifix is somewhat small and I don't have a centerpiece yet, but I'm thinking about making both from scratch. I thought it might be kindof cool to incorporate some copper in a metal cross using a process like the vikings used to do - cut out a groove in the metal and then hammer the copper into it to make patterns (at least I think it was the vikings). Don't know if I'd be able to do something like that or not, but it would look cool.

is 1/16" Piano wire that tough that you could hammer it into a 5/16" piece of copper? Seems like that would be pretty tough to do. I like the idea of encasing the sphere in a mold and then just punching a hole, but what kind of setup would you need to do that? Is it even possible?

Anyone?

Since I'll most likely do this again, my plan is to make all new tooling. The guillotine dies I made are about shot and the design needs improved. I'll be making a holder too. Here are some related threads in case anyone is wondering what I'm up to: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/18067-14-brass-beads/page__p__183805__fromsearch__1#entry183805 http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/18658-die-material/page__p__191032__fromsearch__1#entry191032

Yeah, they were cold worked so they are work-hardened. I had thought about annealing but figured they wouldn't be as resistant to any impact (accidental drops, bumping into each other, stuff like that). I don't know how big a difference it would make, though. They dent pretty easy as is.

Came across this 100# mystery anvil for a reasonable price and decided to go ahead and buy it. Might be a vulcan but I'm not sure. I'll be picking it up on Saturday. Any initial guesses on what I'm getting? I don't see a pritchel hole - don't know if that helps or not.

The bits are split point, TiNi coated O2. Not sure if that's high quality or not or how it stacks up against HSS (what exactly is HSS made of, anyway? I know what it stands for, but what kind of steel is it?). I'm using a center punch to put a dent in the surface. After I do that, I chuck the sphere in the x/y vise and visually line up the punch to be as vertical as I can looking from all sides. I then rough-adjust the x/y feeds to line up the bit with the punched area. Then I lower the bit onto the sphere, make any fine adjustments to the x/y position, examine the vertical alignment again. Once I'm satisfied that it looks ok, I lower the bit into the hole, apply light pressure and turn the press on to get the hole started. At that point I back off, apply lubricant and then keep going. This process seems to allow the bit to go right back into the hole every time raise and re-insert and as long as I keep it lubricated it seems to work. I don't have any special mount for the spheres on my vise, but I probably should. Right now I'm just wedging the part in the smooth jaws (which mars the surface of the copper a bit, but I do some more shaping to get rid of those after I drill). It's not optimal, but careful alignment and reasonable clamping force seems to be working pretty good. I know I need to come up with something better, but since this is just a small run I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time making mounts. If I decide to make some more of these, then I'll get serious about the setup. I'm less concerned about the bits than I am about losing the copper spheres - those take me quite a while to make. Once the bits break off inside, it's about impossible to get them out. I was able to salvage one, but the rest I had to throw away. I need to go back and make some more spheres. I had a few extra but have already wasted those and then some. I'll try to get some pics uploaded tonight.

I use a punch to get the hole started / bit centered. Yeah, consistent use of lubricant is making a big difference. I still have to go pretty slow on the feed - maybe I'm just paranoid now. Running dangerously low on bits!

Very interesting. Well, I tried the high RPM (can't remember exactly what it was, but it was over 2000) and the bits broke even easier - even with pecking - but I wasn't using a lubricant as suggested (I reasoned that if I only went a very small amount at a time, a half second "peck" or so, that it wouldn't matter. I was wrong...) Last night I experimented at lower speeds using WD-40 as a lubricant. As long as I kept it wet, I didn't have any breaking (I was going pretty slow, but had some nice long threads coming out of the hole before I pulled back to clear the flutes and re-lube). If it got too dry, though, the long threads would disappear, the bit would not feed right and it would break every time. I'll kick the speed back up to around 2000 and will keep it lubricated. I like the soap idea too - I may give that a try. I have some beeswax I was going to try too, but at this point I'll stick to what I know works (I'm running low on 1/16" bits!). If I still have breakage I'll experiment with dulling the bits a little. Quick Question - would I have better results with carbide bits? I know they are even more brittle, but would they handle this better?

I'm trying to drill 1/16" holes in 5/16" copper spheres and keep on breaking bits. These are decent bits made of O2 steel. I've run them on the slowest setting I could (around 400 RPM) and was feeding very slow. I've had some successes but stopped trying after breaking 3. What am I doing wrong? Shouldn't these be able to go through copper like butter?

That looks like it would do the trick and the price is right. Thanks - I'll be ordering one of those if I can't find an old drill to cannibalize like Phil suggested. I actually tried that with a small one from a Dremel but I couldn't get it to work. I think the chuck is too big to put equal pressure on the 4 points. The chuck has 3 points on it (probably not the right terminology). As always, many thanks to everyone who responded.

Prayers going up from Ohio.

Pretty sure I don't have one, but that's something I can probably get pretty cheap off CL if all else fails. Thanks for the tip.

Do you know what those are called?

I'm guessing this is a drill press 101 question, but here goes.... I have a clark metalworker floor model drill press that has a chuck that's too big for a small drill bit I need to use. Do I need to buy a different chuck or do they sell adapters that would allow me to use a 1/16" bit in what I have? If so, what are the called?

lol. I like that id. So you're saying draw it down to under 5/16" before cutting? Maybe instead of drawing down more I could just cut the pellet to around 9/32"and then coin it? I'm starting out with 3/8 and drawing it down to 5/16" (the size I'm making the beads - originally I was going to do 1/4" but decided I wanted them a bit bigger). I don't think I have a 9/32" drill bit to make that size die.

I decided to make a quick top die to use with the existing bottom finishing dies I welded to a small welding table. I made it out of some NAK-55 (not too hard or too soft at 40 HRC, easy to machine... been looking for an excuse to use it....). Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with the results. About 15 to 20 hits, rotating the bead after each whack, and they come out looking pretty good. I put them side by side with the rough ones for comparison. Second pic shows the dies I'm using for finishing - the two bottom dies are drilled to different depths (the second one tended to trap the bead until it was more rounded. The other die doesn't go down far enough to trap, but had the right curve to keep the bottom from flattening while hammering).

Thanks - this has all helped a lot. Phil - no, they aren't holding up so well. That's my fault, though; I'm not doing this right, but on the upside I'm learning a lot.