That's a great tip! I am learning to use brass rods, bars, tubes and sheet material for scratch building as well. Nothing as sophisticated, but I like the fact that the brass is soft enough to cut, bend and shape while being rigid enough, and often more to scale in thickness... have some .1mm and .03mm sheet roll. How much heat is required?

I've also been using 'Black Back' Copper Foil 1.25 mil tape used for stained glass. It is self adhesive and has come in handy more than once.

I love how you are mixing analog and digital elements, next level 'steam punk' for a future age!