Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[MichaelK]

Hi,
It is easy to aneal copper.
Is it the same with brass sheet.? .025" thick  ??
I need to make a curved piece of brass with a flat bit on the curve, I was thinking of anealing it like a copper tube and then hitting it with a well directed (small) hammer.
Thanks
Mick

[matphoto]

Yes,  just heat up to cherry red and drop in a bowl of water. Don't forget that it will normalise after a while.

[derekwarner]

  ...sorry Mick.... to bend/curve or reshape a metal it must be malleable [able to be beaten into shape]

1. copper as a pure metal is.....generally @ 99% & is a workable metal...& annealing by heating & cooling works well...copper has the highest malleability of common metals only surpassed by Noble metals....silver & gold etc
2. brass metals range but are generally 65% Cu + 45% Zn....it is the zinc that has low malleability....pure zinc just tears   when deformed

Please explain more on your issue..... ......Derek

[MichaelK]

Hi Derek
Imagine a triangle of brass sheet (0.025")  about 60mm on the base, 30mm to apex. Curved, about 50mm radius, along the base, (the total deformation of the brass, along the 60mm base, is about 5mm)  so the apex is pointing foward.
The pointy end (apex) needs a flat bit on it.
I want to flatten a bit near the pointy end.
If I follow matphoto's idea, it will be easy to get the desired flat bit on the end.
The deformation won't be such that the Zn content will tear it'self apart.
I like the simple ways.
Mick

[gondolier88]

Yes you will be able to anneal, but be very careful you don't add too much heat- ie. cherry red; this is far too hot for sheet that thin- in a low light situation you want to see it just beginning to glow and wait for it to cool down naturally as thermal shock can distort thin sheet.

Greg

[dpbarry]

Hi Folks..

Its that long ago since I worked with copper/brass at school.   I seem to remember heating the copper/brass up then quenching it in a 'Belfast Sink' that had some sort of liquid in it.  I know it wasn't just water. I think it was some sort of liquid to remove oxidation so that it wasn't 'hammered' into the metal. Wasn't the hammer called something like a plannishing hammer.


Ahh!! Brings back memories.  Urrgh!! Some bad ones

Declan

[gondolier88]

Could have been a weak acid solution- dilute citric acid or similar.

[Colin Bishop]

Coud the moderators get the title spelled right please?

[Shipmate60]

Done

Bob

[dpbarry]

Coud the moderators get the title spelled right please?

How was it 'spelt'? 

Dec

[MichaelK]

I thought "spelt" was a type of wheat.
Mick

[derekwarner]

....courtesy of that Wikeipepidiea thingy & just to prove we are not off the thread track...spelt & the Bronze age relate

Spelt (Triticum spelta) is a hexaploid species of wheat. Spelt was an important staple in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times; ...

........Derek

[Peter Fitness]

I thought "spelt" was a type of wheat.
Mick

It's also the past tense of the verb "spell".

Peter.

[BarryM]

It's also the past tense of the verb "spell".

Peter.

Not in the land that the language came from! 

G'day,

Barry M

[MichaelK]

Hi Peter,
I thought a"spell" came from Hogwarts.
ps     nice photo
Hi Barry
it's "G'day mate"



I'll follow Gregs idea, and do it gently.

Thanks to all.
mick

[ooyah/2]

Mick,
There is no need to heat .015" shim brass, in fact you could almost straighten it out by hand.
If you heat shim brass to any colour you will distort the shape of your job.
Put the end that you wish to flatten over an anvil or the end of your vice and give it light taps with a Pin Hammer to flatten it, if you don't wish to have hammer marks put another piece of brass on top before hammering.
This way you don't need to re polish or risk distortion.
I make water tanks from .015" shim and have tried silver soldering them to my cost.
I now soft solder at low temperatures, shim brass is very easy to work, so just try it.
George.