Anyone have a good source for Brass Strips for inlays? I’m in the middle of building a rotating wall bed unit. For the accents in the bed panel and the cabinet doors on the right, I was thinking of inlaying brass strips in the Riftsawn Oak ply panels, outlining the black trans tinted accent pattern.
I can find 1/8”x1/8” x 6’ strips on McMaster (and other sources), but that would be 15x 6’strips @ ~17/ea! This is doable, but kind of surprised me when I added up the total footage needed.
Thoughts on sources? I’ve also seen coil rolls of thinner brass, but typically 1/4” min width…
FYI… this is a rotating “murphy” bed, where the center section actually rotates 180 degrees exposing a bookshelf on the opposite side, only the bed and frame pull down, so bookshelf can stay loaded.
AliExpress. “brass strip”. Decide if you want H59 or H62. As a material, H62 about 1 cent per cu mm.
They sell up to 0.5m lengths normally. More is going to be a lot for shipping and you’re probably going to have difficult doing that- the rolling process is highly accurate in width and thickness, but it is not nearly as accurate down the length. Even if you managed to make a perfectly straight 6’ slot in wood, the brass strip may not be straight enough to fit into it. You may run into that issue at less than 0.5m too. So consider adapting your artistic vision for practicalities.
Admittedly I have not done this before with brass, but a 1/8”x1/8” seems like it would be fairly flexible to slot in a CNC’d groove, am I mistaken? What am I missing on this?
ok, you’re not wrong. I was thinking in terms of wider strips like 3x10mm that wouldn’t straighten out as easily.
downcut bit to preserve the grain at the corners
I get brass wholesale from McMurray Brass in Dallas or Farmers Copper in San Antonio. McMurray is usually the best price but not as pristine as McMaster Carr.
Thanks. I ended up ordering from onlinemetals.com. They coincidentally had 3/16” x 3/16” x 4’ bars at a great deal. I got 25 of them, so hope I like them. I only need two that were the longer 6’.
Not having worked with brass inlays, I assume I will need to sand/polish the show side prior to install…. Also, I assume for cutting it is best to rough cut and finalize any miters or intersections with a small belt sander that has an angle plate?
My plan is to simply mill ~3/16x3/16 grooves for the brass and then a small 1/16x1/16 outer kerf to have a clean edge between the black finished material and the natural. Pic may seem confusing, but the only two material are the panel (with grooves) and the inserted brass. The black will be painted with SW Gallery Series. I plan to mask prior to CNC with Oramask 813 Stencil Film, then spray the black, then insert the polished brass, then finally coat the panel natural with Rubio.
Hi Eric
I do a lot of decorative metal work. If you are doing a mirror polish finish, I would do a pre polish on the ends before mitering them and then cut to final length. Polishing after a Final Cut can change the profile a little. A milling machine would produce the best result but you can also use a belt a sander with a miter gauge set up. The challenge is not sanding off too much. It happens really quick. Another finish that looks nice as inlay is a linear grained finish. 220 grit on a block then maroon scotch bride pad. This is less work and not as hard to pull off. You can use a waxed finish on the brass but it will still darken over time. If you want it bright you’ll have to seal it. That opens a whole new set of challenges.
Let me know if you have any questions or need help.
Good luck on the project. It looks like a good one!
Best,
Mark
Mark Figueredo
Principal/Design Director
631.764.0194 direct
Sorry for my ignorance, I usually just work with wood. Does ASMBLY have the milling machine tools that would help me to create these precision cuts? I am ready to learn and take milling classes to expand my horizons. Being retired and doing this for fun helps as I have no restrictive timelines and can take my time to learn to do it correctly!!! I also have a very understanding wife!
Also thanks for the finishing advice. I will plan to mock up some test pieces prior to the main project.
No worries. Metal and wood are very different materials and processes. Yes, they do and you could also sand them in the metal shop too. You’ll have to take a class to use them. Mock up are always good.
Mark Figueredo
Principal/Design Director
631.764.0194 direct
I don’t have advice (and others have that well covered anyway), but I just wanted to say WOW @niccumec this piece looks absolutely stunning!!! I hope you’ll share more about how the build goes and some finished photos when it’s done.
Also, if you’re interested, this would be a really cool project for people to learn about in Maker Showcase. I bet @jennxia would love to feature it in our marketing as well (you as well @markfigueredo!).
The trick with milling would be holding the pieces. The standard vices would have trouble holding pieces that small. You’d probably have to make a custom jig or supports.
Yeah, especially as there are ~53 individual pieces (many with miters). Just one more thing for me to learn to expand my skills!! Signed up for Metal Shop Safety and Mill Techniques…. another journey!! That is what I like so much about ASMBLY, many directions to pursue - and lots of gracious people to guide along the way. Thanks for the feedback.
