Brass Teardrop Pendant
Here are some picture of a teardrop pendant i made out of a small scrap of brass sheet metal. I based my piece on Mrballeng 's instructable, Teardrop Pendant . I'd been looking at all of his instructables and was really interested in having a go myself, but this was the only one that i had the right tools for.
The only tools i used were pretty basic and you could do it with even less if needed:
•my rotary tool with cutting disc, grinding bit, sanding bit, brass wire brush and buffing wheel;
•a fairly heavy hammer- i used a claw hammer;
•a carriage bolt and piece of wood to act as a dapping block;
•a few needle files (although not nessary, i don't think they made a difference to the piece, but can be easier to add a little more controlled detail when shaping);
•400 grit wet and dry sand paper;
•pliers to hold the piece (if i do it again i will find/ make some rubber tips for my pliers as i had to spend a while sanding out dents from where the pliers had been gripping the piece);
•A small drill bit to wrap the loop around;
•A permanent pen to draw on the design;
•My workmate, safety glasses and dust mask;
•and some liquid metal polish, like brasso (you probably should use polishing compound from dremel or something like that but i used what i had and it worked out fine)
My attempt turned out better than I had previously expected but it still isn't great and can only stand in the wake of Mrballeng's standards. It didn't end up looking much like a teardrop in the end because i didn't leave a long enough stem to wrap behind to form the loop so it flattened the top off top much. Anyway, it polished up fairly nicely and only took a few hours. I am pleased with it to say it is my first attempt.
mdog93
p.s. Sorry if the pics aren't very good. I should really have waited until i could take photos in natural daylight but i couldn't wait that long :P
The only tools i used were pretty basic and you could do it with even less if needed:
•my rotary tool with cutting disc, grinding bit, sanding bit, brass wire brush and buffing wheel;
•a fairly heavy hammer- i used a claw hammer;
•a carriage bolt and piece of wood to act as a dapping block;
•a few needle files (although not nessary, i don't think they made a difference to the piece, but can be easier to add a little more controlled detail when shaping);
•400 grit wet and dry sand paper;
•pliers to hold the piece (if i do it again i will find/ make some rubber tips for my pliers as i had to spend a while sanding out dents from where the pliers had been gripping the piece);
•A small drill bit to wrap the loop around;
•A permanent pen to draw on the design;
•My workmate, safety glasses and dust mask;
•and some liquid metal polish, like brasso (you probably should use polishing compound from dremel or something like that but i used what i had and it worked out fine)
My attempt turned out better than I had previously expected but it still isn't great and can only stand in the wake of Mrballeng's standards. It didn't end up looking much like a teardrop in the end because i didn't leave a long enough stem to wrap behind to form the loop so it flattened the top off top much. Anyway, it polished up fairly nicely and only took a few hours. I am pleased with it to say it is my first attempt.
mdog93
p.s. Sorry if the pics aren't very good. I should really have waited until i could take photos in natural daylight but i couldn't wait that long :P