How do you bend your brass etched kits?

[John_Hughes]

Sorry about that Chris. Anneal means, basically, soften. Heat the brass part to red on a cooker flame and plunge immediately into cold water and, as a result, it will be more plastic and easier to form to the required shape.

 

But all this is getting a bit technical and in danger of making your kit seem harder to build than it is. Build and enjoy!

 

Actually I don't think the cold water bit is necessary with brass - for sure I've never used it! Not that I ever did metalwork in school, you understand, even woodwork was pretty-much beyond me!

 

Brass work-hardens quite rapidly - depending on the grade, I presume, but note the caveat above - and this is worth bearing in mind; for instance, I always anneal the middle bit of those awkward one-piece handrails which come along one boiler-side, loop over the smokebox door and return along the other side of the boiler; then bending them to shape is enough to get the brass hard enough again to resist knocks. And the flame of a match is quite hot enough to anneal a bit of 20-thou brass wire!

[Kenton]

On the subject of annealing and another one of those nice to have tools ...

A butane gas micro burner ... also quite handy for dismantling brass kits

 

You can also use one to solder things together but another technique (black art) only professed by the members of the magic circle

[chriswright03]

OK I have the bars now and have used them this weekend on the catfish kit. They do the job but Adrian is correct when he says that a milled edge would be better for bending to 90 degrees. Also Craig is correct when he says that wing nuts would be better than Allen bolts. Having said that they do the job and for the price I am pleased with them. I will continue to look for tools and may well be back to ask advice.

 

In respect of that I will just be opening yet another thread on soldering.

 

Thanks for the help

 

Chris