DIY cantles?

**wildrover** · 25th November 09, 08:52 AM

It's worth mentioning that an angle grinder can be had for a mere 15 bucks at a discount (read: Made In China, cheap quality) tool supply (like Harbor Freight, aka Horror Fright)...and flap wheels are cheap (what you'll want to use for anything other than steel)...that's probably the most often-used hand tool I own, on everything from small tabs and brackets to large assemblies.

Clearcoat your mild steel, to keep the finish. If you don't, it'll corrode over time just sitting in the open air, and heaven forbid you spill beer or something on it (or it happens to rain)...it will be orange in short order. You'll be oiling & polishing the exposed material all the time, which is a pain in the butt...clearcoat is much easier.

4130 takes much longer to corrode, but it's more expensive, good luck finding scrap...the saying goes "there's no such thing as scrap 4130".

If you're interested in steel (or other hard metal) buttons, take a look at Jancy Engineering's "Slugger" sheetmetal cutters, the small sizes use a non-penetrating, spring loaded center (vs the 1/4" pilot of the larger cutters), and the drop is a very clean circle of material. Drill the holes for thread, clean the piece, and you have a button from the metal of your choice. If someone were enterprising and had a good CNC mill, it would be easier to make a bunch of them at once, and they could even be engraved in the process. Polished brass, coarse-cut aluminum, or brushed stainless surfaces would look great, I bet.

The cantle I have in mind is just mild steel, grinder-polished, maybe run a bead around the outside edge for appearance, hit the entire piece with a wire wheel, and clearcoat it.

As a matter of fact, that just sparked an interesting idea. I usually make my practice welds on straight tickets, now if I did the same thing on a curved ticket of 1/8", laying the appropriate beads, I'd end up with a roughly 1/4" thick cantle that looked like scales, and since the beads would be running around rather than across the cantle, there'd be much less concern about the piece warping funny. I think I'm going to try this...1/8" is easy to cut.

If only I had a set of dimple dies...it would be pretty funny if my excuse to buy a set were to make go-fast holes in a cantle

.

-Sean

**Bugbear** · 25th November 09, 09:26 AM

Just between you and me... I had been plotting to make a pewter cantle with a smooth mirror finnish rather than the satin finnish, and just not tell anyone... I've lost intrest in cantles etc, though.

**Chas** · 25th November 09, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by Ted Crocker

Just between you and me... I had been plotting to make a pewter cantle with a smooth mirror finnish rather than the satin finnish, and just not tell anyone... I've lost intrest in cantles etc, though.

Ted, weren't you considering making a ceramic one some time ago? How did you get on or not? Or am I just imagining this?

Regards

Chas

**Bugbear** · 25th November 09, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by Chas

Ted, weren't you considering making a ceramic one some time ago? How did you get on or not? Or am I just imagining this?

Regards

Chas

I could still try that. I had been practicing making the design in clay. The choice would be either to burnish the cantle (still leather hard) and have a molde made of it, then have the metal cast made from that.

If I were to make the cantle from ceramic, I have to take into consideration how the glaze will behave on the design. It's basically a relief sculpture on a tile, so with the glaze thickness, some of the detail and sharpness would probably be lost. It can be adjusted to some degree, though.

Another option would be to make the design with the glaze or partly with the glaze. I have no way of doing that on my own.

I don't fire my own pieces, in fact, I make leather hard sculptures for other artists to finish. So it's almost as easy to have it cast in metal from a clay model.

**Charlie Mc.** · 25th November 09, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by wildrover

I've a feeling there's a wide variety of stuff out there...I'm not really thinking of engraved, or cast stuff tho...more like the stuff you might make in the garage with metalworking equipment...plasma torch, band saw, laser/water table, stuff like that.

Plasma cutters and laser or water tables are garage equipment? Man, I want your garage!

**wildrover** · 25th November 09, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by Charlie Mc.

Plasma cutters and laser or water tables are garage equipment? Man, I want your garage!

LOL...I want that garage too. I don't own those particular items, but know where to go for the work...about all I have space for eventually is an old Bridgeport and maybe a nice 4' swing lathe or something...what I have at the moment is a variety of hand tools, a light industrial horizontal band saw with a vertical option, and a MIG...

I'm gonna try the "welded scales" cantle idea tonight, will post a picture later, curious what you guys will think (and how well it'll work in the first place!).

-Sean