Working with 1/16th" thick aluminum


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Old 12-31-09, 11:20 AM
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Working with 1/16th" thick aluminum

Hi folks -- new to the forum, and looking for some advice on a small craft project. I'm making a set of dulcimer hammers for my wife out of aluminum. Blade aluminum, with wood blocks on the end for the handle. Basically imitating a pair she borrowed once, but we can't find the maker any more.

I found aluminum bar of the perfect thickness (1/16th") in a width and length that is absolutely perfect to work with. 3 bucks, and it could support 3 pairs of hammers...so plenty of room for me to mess up

I will have to make at least one lengthy cut, and then quite a bit of shaping and smoothing. For reference, here's the shape:
http://www.pickssticks.com/images/hammers1.jpg
The ones on the left. If I can get away with some of the shaft-shaping like the other ones, I might consider it. But for now aiming simple.

I have a benchtop band saw, and a benchtop scroll saw but I haven't put in a lot of hours on either. I was thinking to use my dremel and cutoff disks to do the cutting. After reading around here, I'm leaning away from the dremel for grinding or sanding -- but I could clamp the pieces in the vice (wood blocks to protect the aluminum from the vise teeth), and work it with normal files.

Any advice or warnings would be greatly appreciated! I'll post my results, good or bad hahaha

jh
 
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Old 12-31-09, 12:10 PM
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if you have a fine toothed blade on the bandsaw, I see no reason you couldn't use that for the rough cut. If no fine tooth blade, the scroll saw would probably work just fine. Use some wax on the blade to help prevent clogging as aluminum is quite soft and will clog most blades. Just go slowly.



not sure why you shy away from the dremel for shaping. It is not the tool as much as how you use the tool that makes it good or bad. As long as you used the proper abrasives and did not get overly aggressive, a dremel, especially if it is speed variable, would work quite well in my opinion.

did I misunderstand that you are using the aluminum for the hammer and the wood for the handle? I would think you would do the opposite.

speaking of the dremel: it appears the hammers you posted are all wood. It would seem like they would be good projects to use the dremel for as well.
 
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Old 12-31-09, 07:22 PM
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Yup, for these I'll actually be making the blade out of aluminum, and wood for the handles. She likes the brightness of the metal, and the light weight. The wood is a bit for comfort, mostly practical -- I don't have any other materials that would look nice and work well (at least I haven't done any experimenting with other options yet).

I did assemble a wood hammer kit for her -- nice ones -- but I also get her some really nice ones from a pro every now and then. She has a set with ebony ends, and a few other woods, but she really likes the aluminum ones sometimes.

I also got a strip of brass that is thinner (1/32nd, maybe?), rigid enough, and I think I'll experiment with that eventually. But it's so thin I'm not sure how she'd like the striking surface.

Oh, and I found a pic of the same hammers I'm hoping to mimic:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1093/...8f181ad94e.jpg

What would be even cooler, imho, is a set completely milled out of aluminum -- handle and all...ahh if only I had the equipment, time, expertise...hahaha...
 
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Old 12-31-09, 08:06 PM
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again, why couldn't you use a dremel to machine a billet of aluminum to make your all aluminum hammers?

You could be as basic or as ornate as you want.

the hammers you are looking at making would be a piece of cake. I would cut out the exposed area of the hammer stopping where the handles start using the band saw (very fine teeth) or the scroll saw. Then I would mount the wood for the handles and cut out the profile cutting both the wood and the metal at the same time. Then using a sandpaper roll on the dremel, I would smooth the edges of the metal and shape the handle. You can use the same roll to taper the front of the handle as well and blend in the part where the handle ends and the hammer is exposed since you would have some smoothing to do due to the way it was cut.
 
 

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