I was looking for something thin, reasonably durable and attractive to cover
some ugliness where I am filling in holes in a trumpet case left by
removing the original hardware and replacing it with something completely
different.
I remembered one of my neighbors had given me all these coon hunting award
plaques that hadn't been awarded to anyone. Useless MDF with useless thin
pieces of anodized aluminum held on with some pretty screws that might be
worth removing some day.
I threw them in ye olde junque binne because I knew I could find a use for
something some day. I always find a use for everything eventually. That's
why I have so much of ye olde junque everywhere, and my place looks like a
flea market.
Ah hah. Thin, reasonably durable, and kind of attractive. This will work.
Then I got to looking at the engraved plaque thingies. Painted on top,
brass inside. Real brass? I pried one off. Yellow all around. Real
brass!
I wanted to cut them precisely, and I decided the best way to do that was to
hold them against a piece of sacrificial lumber and run them through my
table saw. A little 1/32" thick brass won't hurt a carbide blade. Worst
case, if they're anodized aluminum, a little 1/32" aluminum won't hurt a
carbide blade either.
On the last one, I finally noticed the sparks. Urk. The engraved ones are
STEEL, with a tiny plating of brass on both sides.
Urk. :(
It probably still didn't do any serious harm, since the material was so
thin, but I REALLY wish I hadn't done that. The blade was so new it still
had that "new blade" smell.
Shouldda used a magnet. :(
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/