I have in mind to build a jig of sorts and am wondering what I should make it out of. The pieces will be short rods (about 1'), flattened at the ends so they can be bolted together -- I want the width of the flat section to be about 3/4". They should be rigid but do not need to bear too much weight, a pound or two is all. The lighter the pieces are, the better.
So I want something that comes in cylindrical form and is easy to pound flat. My first thought was aluminum -- is it easy to find aluminum rods? I guess if I got 1/2" diameter rods they would get a bit wider where I flattened them. 3/4" diameter rods seem like they would be overkill. I don't actually know if aluminum is easy to work, I'm just going on my experience with aluminum in can form actually. Am I on the right track? Any suggestions would be welcome.
Pound away on the copper pipe! I wouldn't soften the ends, although that would make it somewhat easier to flatten them. It would however, make the resulting rods weaker right where you want to bolt them together.
>Copper pipe will do fine for you. An alternative is EMT (electro-mechanical tubing). It is thin wall conduit. Go to your local big box store and look at both. Neither needs to be heated to be worked.
It will be easier to flatten the ends in a vise than with a hammer. Are you making a giant erector set?
>It is a way of holding my vacuum cleaner's nozzle up close to the work I am turning on my lathe. The usual idea of a dust hood in back of the work doesn't work for me for two reasons: my lathe's motor is in back of the lathe so there is no room for a hood; and I don't own a real DC that can generate enough suction to make a dust hood effective. So I'm building a cantilevered arm that will hold the nozzle above the work when I am sanding, and that I can pull up out of the way when I am doing rough turning. The vac generates a strong enough suction to pull most of the dust away when it is held a couple of inches from the work.
The arm will attach to the lathe at the same place as the tool rest.
>If the bolting together of the pipes is just to hold them together at a right angle, you could also just buy 4 right-angle copper fittings and solder the whole thing... That's be stiffer than bolting it, I think...
>You won't see it in copper pipe, I don't think, but look for any evidence of a seam in the tubing you use. Look inside particularly. If you can see any seam-like lines, these should be at about 45 degrees, neither horizontal nor vertical -- less likely to split that way.
Also, consider a rubber washer between them to add friction to the joint.
>Yeah but I want to be able to adjust it. I think I will go with Bill's idea of using rubber washer. I flattened some pieces last night and they came out just fine, and started drilling -- BTW are there any health hazards associated with copper dust (from sawing, and filing corners off) and shavings (from the drill press) in the shop? I vacuum it up but will inevitably miss some.