Brake Bracket Bingo, Part 2

It's hard to believe it has been a week since my last update.  What am I doing all day?  Anyway, in my previous post, I was preparing to make brackets to mount the rear brake calipers. 

The first thing I had to do was find some 1/4" thick steel plate for the brackets.  Where does one go for such a thing?  The supermarket, of course!  Okay, not just any supermarket, but the Metal Supermarket.  It's just like a regular market, only with metal, lots of metal.

I found what I was looking for on aisle 4, between the cereal and the canned tomatoes.  At the checkout, I showed the guy my template with the graceful curves and tight radii, and all he could say was , "How are you going to be able to cut that shape?"  "Oh, don't worry, I have a few different saws I can use", I said with confidence.  But, the whole ride home my worry grew.

I was anxious to get started so when I got home, I traced the template onto the metal and tried the first saw, my band saw outfit with a metal cutting blade.  I pushed the stock into the saw blade expecting it to slice through like butter.  It didn't.  I pushed a little harder and still nothing other than having ground all the teeth off the blade.  There was barely a scratch on the metal.  Maybe this wasn't a metal cutting blade after all.  Undeterred, I went to the backup plan.  I got my angle grinder and fitted the metal cutting wheel.  This is a thin wheel of abrasive that spins at about 7000 rpm.  As I was preparing to start the first cut, I thought "Am I really going to be able to control this machine when it touches the surface of the metal?  Maybe I should try something else first."  So I made that the backup to the backup plan and came up with a new backup plan.  I had just bought some metal cutting blades for my jig saw so I decided to give it a try.  What could happen?  Break more blades or break the saw?  Maybe.  I clamped the workpiece to my table and brought the reciprocating blade to the metal.  I pushed, and to my own disbelief, it started to move into the metal.  Not fast, but it was cutting.  After about 1/4" of progress, I checked the blade and it was okay, but was so hot I wasn't sure if I was cutting the metal or melting it.  I got some water to quench the blade frequently and got into the routine.  Cut, quench, cut, quench...  It actually didn't take as long as I imagined it would.

I got both brackets cut and used the grinder to do some final fitting.  I then drilled the holes and now have two brackets.

And they actually work!

I still have to do a little more fussing to get the final alignment of the brake caliper and make sure the emergency brake cable fits, but the hard part is over.  Of this one step, anyway.