I'm trying to make what's essentially an eye bolt out of 1/4" diameter
brass rod. My first inclination was to simply heat the rod and bend it
around a mandrel. Wrong inclination. The stuff seems to get brittle
as it cools. Snapped right off. Do I have to keep the heat (MAP gas
torch) on it while bending it? Should I try to anneal sufficient
length on the rod and bend it cold?

I don't know what kind of brass this is, just whatever the local
hardware store carries. I cold bent a hook in one piece but it was a
much larger radius than what I'm trying to do this time.

In article , Dennis Shinn
wrote:

I'm trying to make what's essentially an eye bolt out of 1/4" diameter
brass rod. My first inclination was to simply heat the rod and bend it
around a mandrel. Wrong inclination. The stuff seems to get brittle
as it cools. Snapped right off. Do I have to keep the heat (MAP gas
torch) on it while bending it? Should I try to anneal sufficient
length on the rod and bend it cold?

I don't know what kind of brass this is, just whatever the local
hardware store carries. I cold bent a hook in one piece but it was a
much larger radius than what I'm trying to do this time.

Try freezing the brass

In article ,
Dennis Shinn wrote:
:I'm trying to make what's essentially an eye bolt out of 1/4" diameter
:brass rod. My first inclination was to simply heat the rod and bend it
:around a mandrel. Wrong inclination. The stuff seems to get brittle
:as it cools. Snapped right off. Do I have to keep the heat (MAP gas
:torch) on it while bending it? Should I try to anneal sufficient
:length on the rod and bend it cold?
:
:I don't know what kind of brass this is, just whatever the local
:hardware store carries. I cold bent a hook in one piece but it was a
:much larger radius than what I'm trying to do this time.

Bending brass while it's hot is absolutely the wrong thing to do. You
need to anneal the brass by heating it till it just begins to glow dull
red, then cool it. The cooling rate doesn't matter at all. Quench it,
or let it air cool -- your choice. The brass will harden again as you
are bending it, so to get a really tight radius you might have to bend
it part way and then re-anneal.

You'll have the problem that the part of the brass you did _not_ bend is
now going to be soft, and there's no practical way you can re-harden it.
Brass conducts heat so well that to heat just the part you want to bend
you'll need to have the rod partially submerged in water. Some
experimentation would be needed to determine what length needs to be
exposed.

--
Bob Nichols AT comcast.net I am "rnichols42"

Dennis Shinn writes:

The stuff seems to get brittle
as it cools. Snapped right off.

You have discovered why the iron age superceded the bronze age.

"Richard J Kinch" wrote in message
. ..
Dennis Shinn writes:

The stuff seems to get brittle
as it cools. Snapped right off.

You have discovered why the iron age superceded the bronze age.

Well, I think the lack of aluminum and beryllium bronzes really soured that
one more than anything...

Tim

--
"California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes."
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms