Barrel Polishing small brass parts

[Guest]

I have a few small Brass parts that I've made for a 16mm scale Open Wagon. They are small hooks 8 x 6mm which have been cut from 2mm Brass. Ideally they'd have slightly rounded corners rather than the square edges of the cut sheet. Would a Barrel Polisher be any use to finish these parts and smooth those edges?

I could just file them but each Wagon has 4x hooks and I wanted to model atleast 5 wagons. So any way of cutting corners (literally) would be appreciated!

[Guest]

Stick them in a match box and put them in your pocket with a small file.

In the odd moments during the day, just file away.

J.

[Guest]

Hi Alan,

Many years ago I worked with barrelling small metal components, it is a fairly long process, days sometimes.

The real easy way is to get yourself a polishing kit (about £20 off ebay) and run it at fast speed on your lathe (cover the ways first), and just polish away, the corners will be rounded in seconds (depending which compound you use) and they will come off a nice matt finish, then to the next stage to polish them if needed.

John

[Guest]

I've got an old bench grinder not being used - It's spindle didn't have a large enough shoulder for the wheels to run true. I might bolt a couple of mops on that and give the brass parts a quick go.

[Guest]

Hi Alan

Id seriously avoid any form of polishing in the lathe. It takes very little polishing compound finding its way under and into machinery to start removing valuable metal you have paid good money for. Even with covers on the slide ways and bed its not certain you will avoid contamination. Go with the old bench grinder its a good fast way to do it.

Cheers kevin

[Guest]

I bolted the mops on the bench grinder - it did a nice job but was below freezing in the shed at the time and with the windchill factor from the grinder too... At least I managed to make my 8 little hooks!!

[Guest]

I know that one, it was touching -2 this week in the workshop. Its been so bad I have had to run the big propane burner for half hour to take the chill out of the shop. The other problem is getting the machines to turn over when there as cold as that. The oil in the headstocks turns to treacle. Iv taken to keeping a heater on over night but the rust from the condensation is a pain.

Cheers kevin