im having a weird problem with brass

DannyinJapan

DannyinJapan

Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
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i need some small horseshoe-shaped pieces of brass tubing, about 1/4" diameter and about 2 or 2.5" long.
Every frigging time I heat it up and try to bend it, it flattens out in the middle of the bend.
I looked up methods to keep this from happening and I tried a few, but it's still not working.
I'd be happy to pay someone for making me three of these stupid little things.
I need them for my yoroi.
This is driving me crazy.
 
DannyinJapan said:
i need some small horseshoe-shaped pieces of brass tubing, about 1/4" diameter and about 2 or 2.5" long.

Every frigging time I heat it up and try to bend it, it flattens out in the middle of the bend.

I looked up methods to keep this from happening and I tried a few, but it's still not working.
Click to expand...

DIJ have you tried putting a very tightly wound heavy duty steel pring in the tubing after heating and before bending?
When my grandfather and I had to bend soft lead pipe we used a really heavy stiff steel spring to prevent that very thing.
 
i cant find anything that size...I did look for a spring, but i didnt want to buy a spring that cost 6$ for tubing that cost 2$ !
 
Fill the tubes with dry sand, packed tight, seal the ends, warm the tube up and bend away. Afterwards, remove seal and empty out sand.
You can seal the ends by crimping them over, soldering in plugs etc, the sand must be compressed tight.
 
The sand trick works. You can also buy a "tube bender" from a hardware store. It clamps the tube and supports it against a radius while it bends, so the crimping doesn't happen. You have to like the radius of the tool, though.

Might be an idea, if you use the sand trick, to still bend it round a form (bottle, dowel, pipe etc.) ... so you get the diameter of the curve that you want.
 
Folks used to use a metal alloy that melted at 160 degrees to fill the tubing. It was called Bendalloy. It could be melted out after bending. You still need to file a round groove in a piece of wood or something to bend around. Different resins, tar, lead, sand, etc have also been used. (paraphrased from Machinery's Handbook, 20th edition)

Steve
 
i burned my carpet this time.
ill pay 15$ for five of these things.
2.5" long, bent in a smooth U shape.
1/4" inner diameter brass or copper.
or, ill trade you for something from japan..
First man to step forward...
 
In the steam plant we use tube benders to bend and form tubes to shape for pneumatic and steam controls. We commonly work with quater inch copper tubing and some standard half inch copper pipe. Clamp the pipe into the bender and bend away. It works really well, and we do not heat the brass or copper when doing this. The bending process does deform the roundness just a bit, so the sand packing advice may help reduce this deformation some.

Tube benders for small diameter pipe are quite cheap, check out a good plumbing supplier.
 
nothing is cheap in japan. i know that i may end up having to spend 60$ for several small pieces of brass...
 
Danny, if you can wait until the weekend, I'll give it a try. The sand filling idea sounds interesting.
 
Remember the old Navy saying "If it doesn't work, get a bigger hammer." I have faith.
 
Joe, let me know how it goes. I have a couple of tubing benders and could probably do this if I had the stock. Last stuff I bent was bigger 1/2 inch copper line though for my water heater TPR valve connect.

Norm
 
DannyinJapan said:
i burned my carpet this time.
ill pay 15$ for five of these things.
2.5" long, bent in a smooth U shape.
1/4" inner diameter brass or copper.
or, ill trade you for something from japan..
First man to step forward...
Click to expand...

I'll take one of those Japanese women on a Yamaha! :D Make sure to put air holes in the box this time... ;)

Norm
 
Hobby shops that specialize in Radio Control models sell small diameter spring tubing benders for making fuel lines. Know any RC model builders? The sand idea sounds good too. I once watched a guy make a French horn by filling the tubing with the low melting point alloy described above. The bends stayed very round, as I recall. Some tubing is soft (annealed) and some is pretty hard. It can be re-annealed by heating to dull red with a gas torch (or the stove) and quenching immediately in water. It does get black this way, jewelers use an acid solution called pickle to prevent the oxidation - or remove it - after the annealing.
 
DannyinJapan said:
, but it's still not working.
I'd be happy to pay someone for making me three of these stupid little things.
I need them for my yoroi.
This is driving me crazy.
Click to expand...
Danny, if my yoroi was wilting to the place I needed brass reinforcers, I would consider seeing a good Urologist. I never did hear about horseshoe-shaped Viagra, but if all else fails, go see Alice....she's got a pair o' them things what would knock the kink right out your ...yoroi.
 
jurassicnarc44 said:
Danny, if my yoroi was wilting to the place I needed brass reinforcers, I would consider seeing a good Urologist. I never did hear about horseshoe-shaped Viagra, but if all else fails, go see Alice....she's got a pair o' them things what would knock the kink right out your ...yoroi.
Click to expand...

Don't quite understand the reference. I thought that "yoroi" or "o-yoroi" was a kind of "rich man's armor."
 
On the way tomorrow.:)

Steve

180-brass.jpg
 
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