Brass Etched Components

jayell

Brass Etched Components

Postby jayell » Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:57 pm

I made a start on some wagon springing units yesterday and immediately found I had a small problem, namely seperating parts from the etched sheet. I tried using a sharp straight blade from one of those snap-off tools but soon realised this wasn't going to work. I have been out today and got a fairly heavy duty craft knife with a curved blade

similar to these:
http://www.shesto.co.uk/Hand-Tools-Kniv ... _info.html

but from Axminster Tools and some of the chisel blades to assist in folding the etched parts. I am thinking thay maybe I should get some XURCON PROFESSIONAL PHOTO-ETCH CUTTERS #910ET but at £25 a pair am reluctant to order them if they aren't _really_really_ useful.

What do others use?

Incidentally googling for answers I found a reccomendation to clean the etch with cellulose thinners to remove any traces of the photo resist, but didn't want to buy the half-pint size which was the smallest I could see at Axminster.

john lewis

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David B
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby David B » Mon Mar 17, 2014 6:40 pm

I use a sharp 1/8" chisel and cut on to a hard black plastic tile. The chisel is used vertically, just pressing down. The etch shows up on the black tile which being hard, does not distort the etch.

Occasionally, depending on the part, I use blue handled Xuron cutters. They are not cheap but are good. Don't use them to cut guitar springs!

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Wizard of the Moor
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Wizard of the Moor » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:50 pm

A curved Stanley blade on an offcut of laminate flooring.
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby shipbadger » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:05 pm

I've a small cold chisel which with a tap from a hammer does the job. I do the cutting onto a scrap steel block I keep on the bench. Just been to measure it (the chisel), it's 5.5mm across the blade and about 100mm long. A real dinky job I picked up many years ago. Once chopped out I can recommend the Xuron etch scissors which then leave either nothing or very little to fettle with a file.

Tony Comber

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby grovenor-2685 » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:23 pm

Mostly I use the Xuron track cutters which I have anyway for their official purpose, when I can't get at it properly with these I fall back on a Stanley knife.
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Penrhos1920 » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:30 pm


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Jol Wilkinson
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:19 pm

John,

I use a small chisel made from the end of a hacksaw blade.

tag chisel.pdf


This is a tip from John Hayes, loco builder extraordinaire, who made one for me over twenty years ago. I use it with a 2oz hammer on a piece of Formica (not melamine) faced chipboard).

Using the "flat" edge of the chisel against the part you are removing gives a clean cut with very little tag left to file away. As the chisel is short you can hold it between thumb and forefinger while holding down the etch with the heel of your hand.

Jol

edited to mention that the end of the hacksaw blade is not tempered so much as the rest of it so doesn't shatter when hit!
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jayell

Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby jayell » Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:23 pm

Thanks to all of you for the tips. Since I don't have a 1/8" chisel or a curved stanley knife blade I will have a go at making (and trying out) the 'etch tag chisel' mentioned in the most recent posting and I do have a curved blades for my newest craft knife which are rather sturdier than the surgical scalpel blades I had before. Those blades I acquired from a hospital 'somewhere up north' many years ago whilst on a work study project looking at hospital record keeping.

I am going to try to get some black acrylic sheet or similar to use as a backing to the etch tomorrow as the cutting mat is too soft and my plate glass 'surface plate' too hard. I also need to get something to clean off the brass before I can solder the top hat bearing onto the moving part of the spring unit.

Looks like I'll be busy for a while as I have half a dozen sets to make up :)

john lewis

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Will L
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Will L » Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:42 am

Strait edged X-acto large craft knife blade, with the point ground off square and then ground to a decent edge. Use like a chisle. Mine has a hock shaped cut out ground into the back edge so it also works like a scrawker See this CLAG entry to find out what that is. If you leave the edge on the rest of the blade you can still use it as a craft knife and sharpen your pencil, but you do have to watch your fingers on the cutting edge.

I wouldn't be without this, best tool in the box. Very good for scraping off excess solder too.

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby DougN » Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:10 am

I have used the Chisel method. Using a 1/2in onto a piece of timber. But it is very very very sharp. Since those times I have uses a scaple to cut the tags and now I have gone to the Xurcon etch shears which are absolutely beautiful to use and will do exactly the job you need. I would only vote for these now as being able to remove the cusp of the etch with these shears is a god send rather than mucking around with files to remove the last of the tag. To be perfectly honest I would buy the shears as it will save a lot of time down the track.
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David B
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby David B » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:02 am

The Xuron cutters are very good and I wouldn't be without mine, but in some circumstances where the piece is long, they can distort the etch because it rides up over one of the blades. This is why I generally use a chisel which I can get right in to the piece to cut it out cleanly. Doug points out how the cutters can cut right to the edge of a piece so with both cutters and chisel, you can cut pieces out which will require little further cleaning up.

Ideally, one cuts out pieces as they are needed and I find this easier to achieve with a chisel. With the cutters it is invariably necessary to cut the fret up in order to get the blades in to the tags. Some frets have more generous clearances and you have to choose your tool according to where the piece is on the fret, especially for small and delicate pieces.

I see Scalemodelshop have a range of small chisels, 1, 2 and 3mm, made by Trumpeter. They are also on Ebay. I have not seen them or bought any; I have only just found out about them. I imagine they could be very useful for scraping and removing surplus solder.

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Phil O » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:07 am

When I've had nothing else to hand I find that a piercing saw with a fine tooth blade works well enough up to the depth of the frame.

Cheers Phil

jayell

Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby jayell » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:38 am

davidb wrote:I see Scalemodelshop have a range of small chisels, 1, 2 and 3mm, made by Trumpeter. They are also on Ebay. I have not seen them or bought any; I have only just found out about them. I imagine they could be very useful for scraping and removing surplus solder.


They look interesting so am trying to order one of the 2mm wide ones (cannot connect to paypal at the mo) and have found a supplier of black acrylic sheet who do a 150mm x150mmx5mm sample for £3 so one of those is on order.

So in a few days should be able to resume making up those springing units with 'proper' tools. Just as well I have to wait as hints have been made about doing certain household chores like grass cutting before it rains again :(

john lewis

jayell

Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby jayell » Fri Mar 21, 2014 5:52 pm

johnlewis wrote:
davidb wrote:I see Scalemodelshop have a range of small chisels, 1, 2 and 3mm, made by Trumpeter. They are also on Ebay. I have not seen them or bought any; I have only just found out about them. I imagine they could be very useful for scraping and removing surplus solder.


I ordered one of the chisels but somehow managed to order a triangular one instead of a flat one, no matter I reordered and got it the next day (direct from Creative Models rather than ebay). They are nicely made tools and I cut out the remaining five axle guards from the first fiche in no time at all.

The acrylic sheet I got is a bit disappointing as the suface flaked where the chisel cut into it but I'm going to try using the other side in case there is a difference. I also picked up a 4"x2"x.25" chunk of clear acrylic from the new craft shop that opened this week. There hasn't been a craft shop in Yeovil in the five years we have been here and now it seems we may have two as Hobbycraft are reportedly opening a shop on one of the out of town trading estates.

So next task will be to finish folding up those springing units and then see if one will fit into a Parkside Dundas kit without too much surgery.

john lewis

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Terry Bendall » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:58 am

johnlewis wrote:The acrylic sheet I got is a bit disappointing as the suface flaked where the chisel cut into it


There are two types of acrylic John, extruded and cast. Might be worth while trying to find out what type you have.

Terry Bendall

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Tim V
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Tim V » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:13 pm

I use a piece of Tufnol.
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:27 pm

John,

try your local kitchen installer for an offcut of formica faced work surface. The surface will be cut slightly by the chisel but doesn't blunt it. It's cheap to replace but will last for years anyway (at least mine has). It's also a good general work surface and can withstand some heat from soldering irons.

Jol

jayell

Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby jayell » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:45 am

Having (mostly) sorted out my problems with removing components from sheets of etch I turned my thought to the business of folding those bits of etch. My first efforts involved blades of one sort or another and that was OK.

I know some people love the 'Hold & Fold' tools. I have no doubt they are excellent but are rather expensive for my small modeling budget bearing in mind I still need lots of 'stuff'.

So I had a browse around and came across a folding tool made of etched stainless steel, seemed appropriate somehow to use one bit of etch to operate on other bits of etch ;) Anyway I ordered it from the supplier way across the world in Oz and a few days later it arrived. Total cost was £15.81, inclusive of airmail postage.

It looked like this
IMG0012A.jpg


it folded up to look like this
IMG0016A.jpg


and finally a w-iron being folded
IMG0015A.jpg


Apologies for quality of pics

I don't know why I had to get it from Australia as the packaging reveals that RB Productions are based in West Cork, Ireland but my original google search hadn't found them. I could have got it from Ireland for 14 eoros plus p&p They do attachments for the Flip-R5 (the thingy I got) for folding channels and handles at 2.50 eoros each. Products are aimed at builders of model aircraft but potentially useful items are the Scribe-R which we would call a skrawker and the Rivet-R Mini which has a several pointy wheels for forming lines of rivets in plastic sheet plus some small sawbades (40tpi to 120tpi) designed to fit a craft handle all made from etched stainless steel.

John Lewis

P.S. the black thing with a pointed end is my 22mm wide chisel
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Last edited by jayell on Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Winander
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Winander » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:08 pm

It seems they make a larger version of the hold and fold tool

http://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/rb-prod ... -t001.html

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David B
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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby David B » Wed Mar 26, 2014 5:20 pm

There seems to be a problem with Scalemodelshop. Several things I have looked at and found interesting are 'out of stock' and have been for a while. I don't want to order in dribs and drabs, paying all that postage cost each time.

Do they ever re-stock?

David Thorpe

Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby David Thorpe » Wed Mar 26, 2014 5:59 pm

You can get these directly from RB Productions - http://www.radubstore.com/ (their price of 25 euros equates to approximately 21 GBP)

DT

jayell

Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby jayell » Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:53 pm

Not directly related to Brass Etched Components but often referred to in 'howto articles' are aluminium hairclips. Up until yesterday I hadn't been able to find a source for these, I even asked my wife's hairdresser ;) Most of what I found turned out to be plastic and I don't think delrin will be a good heat conductor. But yesterday whilst looking for other stuff to buy I found these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Approx-50Pcs-Do ... B008S4MRJM

providing they are the correct article (and they do look like they might be) 50 for £4.99 inclusive of postage from China might be a bargain with one proviso, they are not aluminium so might not be ideal for soldering.

john lewis

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby Philbax » Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:12 pm

Pop into your local Boots for hair clips

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby David Knight » Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:43 pm

There are two ways (at least) to get around the problem with clamps sticking to soldered parts. One would be to coat the clamp with gun blue, the other would be to just let it get rusty. Now that I think of it, oiling the clamp would be yet another way. That's three!

Cheers,

David

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Re: Brass Etched Components

Postby grovenor-2685 » Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:18 pm

they are not aluminium so might not be ideal for soldering.
How do you know? So far as I can see it just says "metal" which may or may not be aluminium.
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