Bit to cut into brass

[Bronxbrez (Tom Brealin)]

I am using a Shapeoko pro XXL to try and cut a piece of brass in order to make a branding iron. Can anyone suggest a good bit to use for small details cutting into brass? I have seen Winston Moy use Shapeoko to cut metal. I hope to follow suit but want to use the correct bit. Thanks all!
Best of Luck!
Tom

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Pretty much any carbide tool we sell will cut metal — see:

(the exceptions would be the various tools w/ inserts such as the McFly surfacing tool)

See:

#MaterialMonday on YouTube

@wmoy has begin a series of YouTube videos on #MaterialMonday. For the full list: https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/materialmonday A central tenet of this series is an acknowledgement that the hobby CNC routers need different numbers for different sorts of paths. Thus far he has done: Aluminum: Shapeoko 3: [Aluminum Feeds and Speeds for the Shapeoko - #MaterialMonday] [Machining Aluminum with the 278-Z on the Shapeoko - #MaterialMonday] Nomad 883 Pro: [Sing…

for some videos w/ various suggestions.

I used a #112 to cut out a small brass insignia a while back.

[Bronxbrez (Tom Brealin)]

Wow, thanks! Super helpful! I do appreciate the reply and source videos.

[AndyC (Andy Corteen)]

I’ve just made a small (from 19mm dia stock) branding stamp for a friend’s leather work, and used a 1/8" 2-flute for the roughing and a 1/16th 2-flute Ball Nose for the fine details. Speeds and feeds were kept low, out of caution rather than specific knowledge, and ramps to reduce engagement stresses. Ball Nose 1/16th 2-flute run at 22k rpm and 350 mm/min feed, 0.2mm width of cut and 0.33mm depth per pass (acknowledge wider than deeper is common S3XL advice, but these are tiny steps, so protecting the tool was more my concern than rigidity or MRR). This recipe gives a chip load of approx 0.01mm according to the simplified FS worksheet (obtained from this forum).
Air blast to cool the cutter and clear any debris from the deep cuts. No cutting fluid used.

Short clip of the cut in progress (1/16th BN) Brass Stamp cutting on ShapeOKO 3 - YouTube
https://youtu.be/3rBE3lu8Jm4

[Bronxbrez (Tom Brealin)]

Thanks Andy! hats very helpful. Did you use air assist? Unfortunately I don’t have that set up. How much does it help if you did use it?
Tom

[AndyC (Andy Corteen)]

The air blast likely cools the tool but to what degree I am unsure, but more important is that it removes chips from slots etc and removes any risk of re-cutting. In wood, especially slotting, this helps a lot. I have a small air brush compressor and a hose run up through the wiring channels and attached to the HDZ, and got a set of ‘needle like’ nozzles that screw onto the Flexi hose to optimise flow/pressure. I think @Julien has a similar setup and spoke highly of it.

[Julien]

@AndyC

I think @Julien has a similar setup and spoke highly of it.

Indeed, here’s a very long thread about all things “air blast”.
I would probably have purchased one of the fancy California Air Tools quiet compressor if they were easy to get in Europe, but the cheap Amazon air brush compressor does a decent job and I’m still using that.

[Bronxbrez (Tom Brealin)]

Thank you
Tom

[Dooryard (Knox)]

I wrote up this as well if it helps

Brass Stamp for Leatherwork

Made a Brass Stamp for my leatherwork side hustle on the Shapeoko Pro tonight. I’ll try to cover all the details in this post but I miss something or if anyone has additional questions I’ll try my best to answer them I bought a 2’ of free-cutting Brass C360 in 1"x1" bar stock. I designed my stamp around a 1" by 2" piece and my hot foil kwikprint can easy accept this bar stock once machined. before we get too into the “cutting the brass” bit lets go over work holding. cutting m…

let me know if you have any questions