Experimenting with brass

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tool and feed rates?

I wonder if brass could be worked small enough to make a small branding iron, say 3/4" sq. with a flamingo silhouette on it?

I bought a metallic 3x14x38 cylindrical elzet tool.
Rpm 18000 /depth per pass 0,1mm.

Should be possible is suspect, need more experimenting though.the material I used now is to flimsy for branding.

Any suggestions on where to get bar or plate brass at a reasonable price?

I used esslinger.com which seemed to have reasonable prices

http://www.esslinger.com/search.aspx?find=brass
http://www.esslinger.com/search.aspx?find=polished+brass

I buy my metals from a couple of online places, but you have to shop between each one depending on the metal/alloy you’re shopping for because prices are all over the board and shipping can be expensive.

There’s also this place, who I’ve never bought from: metalsdepot.com

If you’ve got a metal recycler near you that resells then it might be worth stopping by. Some of them will have buckets of drops/leftovers that the big boys have brought in and you can buy some good metal dirt cheap.

i got it at a metal recycler for free. i need to get some reliable sources for the future though.

First being a machinist I do not understand why you are using a burr designed for cutting wood or other soft materials in a hand held dremal.

Just to see what Gwizard had to say about machining brass.
Material = Brass 143 BHN free machining
Spindle HP= .4
Speed = 18000

Cutter = Carbide endmill .125" diameter 2 flutes .75" stick out

DOC .02" .5 mm
WOC .125
Feed rate 36 IPM 914mm/ min
Plunge rate 18 IPM 457mm/min
SFM 589

HP .059

deflection .0006"

So all of this says that using the correct cutter and parameters machining brass should be doable.

Dave