First Branding Iron Tests

Jason Beam

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Sacramento, CA
This video documents my first try at creating a custom branding iron. For my first try, I'm starting in aluminum because it's cheap but when I perfect the process, I'll begin making them in brass. All in all, this process was a pretty good success!

 
Thanks, Ted!!

I'll be giving it a go in brass soon ... but another project has sprung up so the next few videos will be about that, I'm thinkin' -- This is a fun one :D
 
good one jason! :thumb: a couple of ideas, if i may. would a center finder, such as the one in the picture, help with finding the center of the blank, along with a thin line sharpie. that, and if you took a v bit to narrow down the tops of the letters a touch. waiting to see the mkII test.
 

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good one jason! :thumb: a couple of ideas, if i may. would a center finder, such as the one in the picture, help with finding the center of the blank, along with a thin line sharpie. that, and if you took a v bit to narrow down the tops of the letters a touch. waiting to see the mkII test.

Thanks dan - while that method is fine for woodturning type operations. I have one of those and just can't see it adding to the method i used -- i didn't do a very good job of explaining what I had been aligning to in the first place. I'd chucked the aluminum in my metal lathe and turned the face down - this left me a perfectly visible spot in the center that I could align with. This is essentially the same as using a scribe with the center finder.

If i REALLY were serious about getting it perfectly centered, I would put an edge finder in my spindle and get it to the thous -- but ultimately, I had about 1/32" of room to play with so I'm sure it'd work fine with the center finder if the part is truly round. I had already made sure it was round by turning it true and by facing the end already had a marked center by that point.

Definitely many ways to skin the cat, though - and use what works for you, for sure. In metal world, hand scribing is no my favorite method so I tend to avoid it unless i have to. That could just be my own preferences, though.
 
Very cool Jason, looks like it actually did a pretty good job in aluminum. What feed/depth rates were you doing in the aluminum? Might be worth considering an electric element as part of the fixture in the final version, like the kind you can hold to brand a piece by hand.

BTW...what model of metal lathe is that, been looking at the 7x14 grizzly, but the 7 x 12 is in stock right now and it isn't.
 
Very cool Jason, looks like it actually did a pretty good job in aluminum. What feed/depth rates were you doing in the aluminum? Might be worth considering an electric element as part of the fixture in the final version, like the kind you can hold to brand a piece by hand.

BTW...what model of metal lathe is that, been looking at the 7x14 grizzly, but the 7 x 12 is in stock right now and it isn't.

Thanks!

The feeds and speeds were really light - maybe .002 chip load with the 2-flute v-bit ... i got better bits and I think i can do better than .002 with it... it was VERY light and pretty slow - IIRC 30ipm cutting speeds and really light passes because the vbit wasn't great. I turned the router all the way down so about 10k rpm.

Oh the lathe is Grizzly's 7x12 -- it was on sale at one time so i jumped on it. Got a lot of kit from LittleMachineShop as well - the QCTP is invaluable, imo.
 
Looks good.

I also did my branding irons in aluminum first. Brass is really easier to cut. Aluminum is gummy and will stick in the flutes. Brass is more powdery and will not stick in the flutes like aluminum.

When I did branding irons I used a 1/32 end mill at up to 45 IPM. I generally hold to 1/2 the end mill diameter do the DOC would have been around .010 to .015 and RPM around 20 - 22 K RPM.
 
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