Some metal work

I've been taking a metalsmith class at MHC and I attached a project we are working on. It is a 'memory' box, made from a piece of copper that was embossed in a roller mill then shaped in a hydraulic press to form an impression into a piece of plastic that we cut the negative design into. Does that make sense? anyway, we the cut a rim around the depression to form a flange, kinda like a bowl. I then cut a piece of brass to match the shape, laid out the design and cut the internal openings. Once that was done, I cut a 1/8" thick piece of acrylic into the same shape to sandwich between the copper and brass. After tapping the three layers, I drilled holes for the screws and put it all together. The layers did not quite line up, so I cleaned up the overhang with a disk sander so all three pieces match. It actually is a lot more work than what I just said. I put 2 fish-hooks in it to remind me of an earlier time when I would fly fish in the local rivers.

Since I had a thin piece of copper that was very soft, I thought that I would try spinning it to see what would happen, not having any of the proper equipment and no training other than to watch y-tube videos. I turned a form for the finished birdhouse, and a support for the tailstock. Well it didn't work, which was not surprising, but I did get an interesting shape and results. I tried to use an oak dowel to move the metal around the form, but a steel ratchet extension worked much better. You can see where the oak dowel caused it to fold, and I grabbed the steel extension afterwards and got better movement, but the damage was already done. Haven't decided if I should still try and make something from it or not. The curved portion of the metal is hard, while the flatter portions are still soft. An interesting project. Penn State has a kit for setting up a mini-lathe like mine for metal spinning, which I may have to get.

Enjoy and be careful of the splinters.