to all you metal workers out there...

[darthdan]

I am trying to find a way to make this hand guard for my new personal saber. I was thinking of contacting a company that does waterjet cutting here, but it's a little pricey. I asked Tim, and he said since he couldn't easily do it I could ask here. So...
Anyone have the skills to make this into reality? I just want a disc approximately 1/8" thick, whatever metal(as long as I can polish it up), in this design...
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/huskerbrewdad/Crap/tsuba1.jpg
If you feel that the Force is strong in your metal working skills, shoot me a PM.

[meiv4]

waterjet is gonna be one of the only things that will get the points in the cutouts. Milling machines use round bits so all the corners would be round if someone milled that. You might try checking local colleges seeing if they have a class with a waterjet and then slipping the instructor or a student a 20 .

[Dregan]

There's a few ways you could do this without a waterjet as well.

Start with a 1/8 sheet of whatever metal you can get your hands on. I would do this with aluminium, personally. Cut out the disk shape with either a jig saw, sawsall, radial arm saw, or band saw. You will not get this cut perfect, so leave a smidge extra room. We will fix this later.

Draw your design on one side of the piece. I like to use black sharpie marker, but use whatever you like.

I would use a drill press for everyhing else you're going to see here, but you could also use a dremel or even a power drill.

Using your smallest bit, drill holes into each corner point of your piece. drill more holes about 1/16" further down your 'cut' line. Keep doing this until you completely outline each cutout section.

Did I mention you'll need a set of small metal files? No? Go to the hardware store and pick up a set.

Now file out all the metal left between the holes. You will be left with jagged edges all along your cutouts. Smooth those out. Use the sharp end of the file to make the corners. Continue filing to smooth the ragged edge around the disk that we left from when we cut it out. Finish by polishing it up to whatever level of shine you want.

I work insanely fast in my shop, but it would tame me 3-4 hours to crank this out.

[Tenric Starkindler]

Dregan gives sound advice.
I did similar things ages ago in metal shop.
it is labor intensive BUT you would have the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

I have a snake attachment for my rotary tool that allows me to hang the unit on a hook and just hold the bit like a fat pen.....makes those kinds of corners do-able if you work slow and steady.