Today I needed to make an extended nut with a tee handle to screw a compresson fitting to
a product we make to pressurize it and do a leak test.

Our old line has a compression fitting nut that looks like it was brazed to a cylinder of
360 brass. Not sure if filler metal was used. Then a couple of pins at the far end to
implement a tee handle.

I didn't like it. I obtained some fittings and decided to use a chunk of 1/4" pipe with a
taper cut to match the taper on the brass fitting. I also looked up the liquidus values
for some silver brazing wire we have and the 360 brass the fitting is made out of.

Silver brazed using Harris black flux and some 40% silver brazing wire. That went well.
Any tips on getting the flux off other than wire brushing?

Then I needed to add the tee handle. I thought about drilling holes 90 apart and adding
two pins. Then I decided to just stick a long rod though the cross drilled holes and
chucking up the pipe and using a two flute end mill to cut out the center area where some
1/4" tubing has to pass.

I *thought* the 1/4" round stock for the tee handle was low carbon steel. Guess it
wasn't.

After I brazed the tee handle in, I tried a 2 flute HSS end mill in a drill chuck on a 22"
swing lathe drilling into the end of this thing clamped in the chuck. Wiped out the end
mill instantly. I guess that tee handle stock was not low carbon steel. Oops.

Found a 8.5 mm carbide drill in my tool box and used that to drill through. Went through
easy. Mystery metal can bite you some times. The strange thing is I brazed in the tee
handles and went to lunch. I'd have thought air cooling would have left the tee handle
fairly soft.

Wes