Well, the cost of brass bar stock has certainly gone up since the last time I replenished my supply. The bill came as quite a shock when it was totalled up during a recent trip to the local Metal Supermarket outlet. Free machining yellow brass was available in many cross-sections, but no bronze (either oilite or aluminium-bronze) was on hand for bearing material or pistons. Still, it's hard to work on your projects without the proper raw stock...
Busy Bee Tools was having another sale, so I picked up one of their 18" wide sheet metal brakes for about $20 CAD. It has no "box-and-pan" capabilities, but I suspect that a few fingers can be made of mild steel to aid in the forming of some small enclosures and trays. First order of business will be to box up the new drive for the lathe...
Lindsay Books (who has retired and no longer offers their wonderful selection of titles) had two apparently worthwhile books on sheetmetal forming. "Sheet Metal Technology" and "Working Sheet Metal", both by Dave Gingery. These would probably be worthwhile additions to the average tinkerer's library. I had purchased "Building your own Plastic Injection Molding Machine", "Build a Power Hacksaw with Vise" and "Uncle Dave's Shop Notebook" and find them to be excellent instructional material; well worth the price.
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