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Where to buy or how to make 1mm square steel rod


ElgaKoster

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Later this year I want to make a typical 18th century Cape Dutch table with two fold down leaves, to attach the hinges they used square steel and riveted the hinges to the table top and leaves right through the wood. I was wondering if they used this method in any other country, I can't remember that I have seen it on other furniture.

In scale this will work out to a 1 mm thick square rod, is this possible to source, somehow I doubt it and think I will have to make it, the only thin steel that is easy to find in South Africa is piano wire. So I am thinking I will have to anneal the wire and get a draw plate with square holes, I haven't used a draw plate before so any advice would be appreciated. I have had this question for months now and thought it would be a good one for the forum.

Here is a photo of a similar antique table that clearly shows the steel rivets, I like how they put it in to make it look like a diamond shape with the edge of the wood.

post-6-0-44985800-1398522014_thumb.jpg

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Getting stock like that is always hard.... It never seems like you can find the right size. One thing I do as I travel about is always keep my eye open for any small sizes of anything that I have not seen before.... Last summer I spent $ 350. On brass tubing in odd metric sizes in a hobby shop in Rotterdam, NL..... I simply bought all they had..... Funny thing was it came in one meter lengths..... After I paid I asked if I could borrow a wire cutter and cut each piece in thirds to fit in my bag.

But back to your question..... I would take some 1 mm steel flat stock, regular steel, not hard, not stainless, just plain steel sheet.... File the edge square and scratch a line 1 mm from the edge..... Now if you know me this won't sound so crazy.... Take a jewelers saw and just cut outside the line.... It will cut real easy..... I am assuming you need something under 3" long.... Now find a nice vise that has a a flat on the top of the jaws... I have special vises I use for this purpose.... This is one place the cheap Chinese ones are perfect..... Anyway stick the piece of steel in the vise with the scribed line even with the top of the jaws and file across using the top of the vise as a guide..... You do not want to use a hardened vise for this as it will damage your file..... You basically file until you start to file on the vise.

You will be surprised at how easy and perfect this method works..... I could cut a couple of pieces in less time than I could go to my local metal supplier only 12 miles away!

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Thanks Bill, hmm...I remember the cheap Chinese vices from the hinge class and you showing us how to file the uneven edges level with the vice, just never thought of doing it this way for the square rod and there probably is a piece of steel somewhere in the garage.

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If you have acces to a metal shear, try cuting to Bill's line with this.  If the shear is sharp and set properly you may get good results.  If the cut isn't square make the cut a little larger and go to the vise and file.  Pete

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Thanks Pete, I have a metal shear, bought it last year, not so sure my hands are strong enough to cut 1mm thick steel though.

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You can extend the length of the handle with a short length of pipe. The shear has to be bolted to some thing solid, though. I forgot to mention to make sure the shear is rated for 1 mm thickness in steel and that the steel is not hardened.

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One problem with shearing thin and narrow pieces..... They want to curl. I find it takes less time to cut them out of flat stock keeping it flat than it does to straighten the sheared ones. I have access to a big shop with a bunch of shears and almost never use them. I also don't like the sheared edge.... It is not straight across ( top to bottom) or square.

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Yes, I found the same Bill, so I am not really fond of them, they leave a serrated edge, I have a pair of multi purpose scissors that cuts very thin metal if you only need a tiny piece nice and clean but they won't work on 1mm thick, so the fret saw it will be, thanks to both of you for your input.

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Well, I had to try the shear anyway.  Found some .055" steel and some .031"  but no .040" (1mm).  The .031 worked pretty well with the little 6" Micro Mark shear I use for most of the gluing jigs and sheet metal things.  There was a little twist but a reasonable smooth edge.  The .055 was a different story and left a line down the edge like a stamping die with too much clearance.  I suspect the .040 wouldn't work very well either.

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Thanks Pete for your experiment, my shears aren't very big either and since I need such a small piece I think I will rather just use the jewelers saw.

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In talking to Pete he mentioned the possibility of using 1 mm key stock? Key stock is square steel stock used as locking keys between a shaft and a pulley. Anyway I asked on the Practical Machinist Forum…… they don't make it, but close...

 

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/do-they-make-1-mm-key-stock-284234/

 

FYI  For those that don't know this miniatures forum is somewhat patterned after the Practical Machinist forum, I have been on that for over 10 years with 5,700 posts…. I have learned so much from it…… if our little forum takes off and is used it can become a resource in miniatures like the PM is for machining. But we have a long way to go… they have 85,000 members and over 2 million posts.

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Thank you for asking on PM Bill, the website in the UK that RayG posted looks promising, there is a 1mm square silver wire, it doesn't need to be steel, just look like steel. An interesting feature of the the really fine Cape Dutch furniture is that many of them had their hardware made of silver and not brass. There are some nice wires in other metals and sizes too that can be quite handy for miniature use.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Have you tried your local hardwarestore?

 

Square nails.

 

They are very common here in Denmark.

 

/Niels

 

PS: I have 1mm square brass in my shop.

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Hi Niels, good to see you here on the forum, square nails...I will have to check on my next visit to a hardware store. And I am planning on visiting your shop after Tune this year. See you soon!

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  • 11 months later...

I found the solution to the square wire today...well...because I won't need it any more. I had the privilege today of a private tour in the massive store rooms of a museum where I was allowed to take photos and touch some prime examples of our Cape Dutch 18th century furniture. They had about four of these tables where the table leave hinges are attached to the wood with rivets that are square on the top and show on the right side of the wood...not ever having seen anything like this before I couldn't guess at all at how it worked...but it is actually quite simple, think massive nail with a square head instead of a round head, and that I will be able to easily make by turning down round stock and then filing square heads. Here are a few photos, those hinges sure are thick, the table leaves on this specific table are half round and I found it very interesting that the hinge was also curved...nothing beats seeing and studying the real thing. I have an open invitation to go back to the museum as often as I want :-)

The top of the table

image.jpg2_zpscrv6993o.jpg

The hinge on the underside of the leaves

image.jpg1_zpsau4ojalf.jpg

Close up with the leave hanging down

image.jpg3_zpsswzsoa4z.jpg

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I thought I would throw this in to add to the filing of metal strips.  I have found this very handy over the years. I found I could set the hinge up in my mill and mill an inside step on  edge of the hinge to the correct depth to serve as a more accurate stop rather than trying to accurately glue in a stop strip.

 

Bill 

 

http://www.scalemodelhorsedrawnvehicle.co.uk/(Tips%20&%20Ideas).htm#brassstrip

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Thank you Marie-Laure, I bought some of the 1mm square brass rod from Niels in Copenhagen last year.

Bill, thank you that is a great tip!

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