Brass faceplate mini-tutorial
Well,
as with most contraptions, it all starts with a plan and
a drawing. After taking detailed measurements of the wooden
frame, I sketched the rough design onto a large piece of
drawing paper. I kept the design symmetrical by drawing one
quarter of each shape then making a small template with a
piece of clear plastic (old overhead projection transparencies),
flipping and tracing it into each corner. Finally, my photoshop
skill set applied to something tangible! |
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After
that, I laid a piece of graphite transfer paper between
the paper and the brass and traced over the lines. |
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The design was then cut out with a pair of aviation tin snips and a steady hand. If you have the time, patience and equipment, it's actually more advisable to use a coping saw instead of snips. As the snips cut through the brass, the teeth leave tiny twists and ridges which warp and stretch the metal slightly. It's not too big a deal, but cutting with snips will require a bit of finish work later. Ignore the off-center hole in the wooden face. It's a scrap piece from when I was experimenting with different placements of the mouse. |
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 (this was a keyboard border that I eventually left out of the finished design...BTW that's my Bass Amp in the background) |
You may have noticed that I drew a small border around the design in the first pic. If you didn't, go ahead...scroll up and look again. I'll wait. .............ok, back? Good. That border is for a small 90-degree bend that goes around the entire perimeter of the brass border. Putting a bend in any piece of metal stiffens it greatly and in this case, also smooths out the warps and wrinkles in the flat display surface of the border. To make the bend, I simply clamped the brass tightly between two pieces of scrap wood (with nice, sharp corners on them), leaving the small margin sticking out, then tapped it down with a flat-faced auto body hammer. Apologies for the blurry pic. |
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After that, I bent
the front piece of the faceplate that hangs over the front of
the laptop and performed a test fit. |
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Voila! A brass faceplate. |
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Noncommercial users are welcome to copy my images provided they acknowledge the source. I am more than happy to help people design or create their own steampunk contraptions, but if you are a company looking to steal my work for mass-production, please know that I have design patents, trademarks, and copyrights pending or in place on most of my designs, my logo, and my name. They will be brutally enforced if necessary. |
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