I've had to buy several sizes of brass rod for frame members and turn down from half inch bar. I also ran out of 1/16th" sheet and got the last offcuts from a local engraver, but soon used that up and have had to buy more. Bloody hell! have you seen the price of materials these days? Ebay had to be trawled for what I considered a decent price. Every price hike is dent in the coffers.
Here's the latest work on the Vincent model. Engine crankcase halves, covers and sub covers.
I used car body metal bashing techniques to make the crowned shape in the teardrop shaped cover and the round clutch cover.
The metal is heated to red and allowed to cool down, then with a pear shaped box wood dressing mallet (but a ball pein would do) the metal is hammered into a dip in the end of a log or a dip in a lead ingot which I happened to have. Neither will mark the outside of the piece. Then the cover is silver soldered to a rim made of a strip of 1/16th" brass and all rounded off with files.
Where the shapes are too complex to make without extreme difficulty and waste of now expensive brass I've done them in Ureol and Milliput epoxy putty. These parts will be moulded in silicon moulds requiring no heat to make them.
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