Dear MMDians,  This is how I make harmonic freins.

1.  Buy a big sheet of brass from a metal supply place.  There are
generally one or two such places per large city.  Purchasing a large
sheet will help to reduce cost, although transportation can be tricky.
Have them cut the large standard sized sheet down to panels of roughly
3 by 3 feet.  A good sheet metal distributor will pack your sheets
between two panels of plywood, thus preventing any bending or
scratching to them.

2.  Take your sheets and cut them into long strips on a foot-operated
shear, much like the one you see in the first photograph.  You should
cut these strips such that their width is equivalent to the length of
the freins you will be making.  Note that just about every foot shear
or metal shear out there will have some sort of adjustable referencing
system so that this cutting process is a fast and uniform operation.

3.  One you have cut the strips of metal, reset the shears referencing
system to whatever the greatest width of your freins will be.  The
width you are accounting for is the span of the top edge or 'head' of
the frein.  Insert the strips lengthwise into the foot shear and
proceed to cut out the rectangles.  If all is well, you will have a
nice pile of rectangles waiting to be turned into the T-shapes that
will be your freins.

4.  Now you move onto the corner shear.  The corner shear is designed
to cut squares out of sheet metal.  Using an assembly of clamps, a
steel straight edge and carpenter's square, set up a jig system that
will allow you to cut out the portions of the metal that will leave you
with your T-shape.

5.  Understand that, in order to set the jig up right, the straight
edge must be parallel to one edge of the corner shear and spaced away
from that cutting edge at exactly the height of your frein head.  Once
you clamp the straight edge down, you will not move it at all for the
duration of this program.  It must stay in place.

6.  Place the carpenter's square against the straight edge such that
it cuts out a rectangle of metal from one side of the larger rectangle
that you insert.  This will leave you with an 'L' shapes piece of
brass.  Cut out a series of these.  Remember that you will have to
account for your stem width.

7.  Unclamp the carpenter's square.  You must now re-clamp the
carpenter's square so that it is spaced away from the cutting edge
perpendicular to the edge running parallel to your straight edge.
This space should be equivalent to the width of your frein stems.

8.  You will now be punching out the second smaller rectangle from your
larger rectangles, thus leaving you with your T-shapes.  Remember that
you are now flipping over your "L" shapes to create a mirror image of
the cut describes in step 6.  By having kept your straight edge in
place, you have made sure that your freins head heights are identical.

10.  Punching out your holes can be done with the Whitney Roper hand
punch, specifically, the No. 5 Junior punch, which is currently for
sale at http://www.roperwhitney.com/

End of process

This process will leave you with freins of rotational symmetry.
Rotational symmetry is characteristic of my freins, and perhaps yours,
should you desire to make your own in this fashion.

After having mass produced these freins to the point where my inventory
is several thousand freins, I can assure you that this system is fast
and efficient.  In my last production run, I stamped out 1500 freins in
one night.  You can do it too.  Disclaimer: I work on these from 10 PM
to 6 AM.  I'm an architecture student, see.

If there are any questions regarding this or any previously described
steps, please feel free to contact me at <kushpo@vdn.com>

Warmest regards,
Marc Elbasani

 [ I'll place this article and the accompanying photos (including a
 [ picture of Marc!) at the MMD Tech Site, http://mmd.foxtail.com/
 [ -- Robbie