What kind of brass do I have?

[Saskford]

I have to rely on my brother to pick up used brass and mail it to me. It isn't cheap but it is my only choice. The last batch contained 6' of 2" x 1/2". With the tarnish on it looked like regular brass but I discovered it was very hard to cut. When I went to mill it, I found it to be almost as hard as steal to work with. The milled color is more of a silver gold compared to the deep gold of my other brass. By accident today I discovered that a rare earth magnet is mildly attracted to it. What kind of brass could this be and what would it normally be used for? I wish now that I did not have so much of it.
Gary

 

[Metal Butcher]

Hi Gary. It sounds like you have a bar of 'bearing bronze', unlike 'cast bronze' its tougher than a forged nail to machine. The pieces that I have show a faint silver colored wave-like pattern on the mill finished (rolled) surface.

Ask your brother to check with the scrapie to make sure his picks are indeed 'yellow brass'. The 'yellow brass' is usually free machining 360. Most Seasoned Scrapie's refer to bearing bronze as 'red brass'.

I just checked and mine is also mildly magnetic, but 'only' with a 'rare earth' magnet. You might want to try machining it with carbide. I haven't tried that yet.

Quoteing Saskford; "I wish now that I did not have so much of it."

Me too! ;D

-MB

 

[kjk]

http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=4195.15

Post 18 and others in that thread are instructive.

Regards,

Ken in Winnipeg

 

[mocaquita]

I think you have a chuck of aluminum bronze. It's not very user friendly. Sometimes used for bearing type applications and is corrosion resistant.

Dave

 

[Saskford]

Thanks very much for the replies. It sure sounds like this version of brass has very limited uses. I will have to order a carbide cutter and see if that makes it more milling friendly. With the color being so light it is not a very attractive metal. Maybe I can use it up in making jigs.
Gary

 

[tel]

A bloke gave me about a aquare foot of 1/4" stuff that sounds to be the same thing - it's gonna last me a looong time!

 

[Cedge]

almost sounds like the Nickel Bronze I have here. Hard, slightly magnetic and cuts with long razor sharp stringers. Beautiful golden silver color that I hope to use for something, someday. Tough stuff for sure.

Steve

 

[Saskford]

Hopefully someone will post a good use for this brass and we can all use up our stock. I'm going to tell my brother to take a magnet along on his next buying trip so I don't end up with any more of it. I tried drilling it and found you need a sharp good quality bit. I ended up using a cobalt bit.
Gary

 

[rake60]

You have to be careful with "mystery metal" brass alloys.

They could be beryllium bronze.
That is a material you don't want to be cutting in your home shop!

Rick

 

[Ken I]

Beryllium bronzes & copper (use to be commonly used for welding electrode applications) normally develop a fairly dark blue-black patina.

Beryllium oxide is deadly - more poisonous than cyanide - Beryllium Oxide insulating washers (sky blue in colour) are used in some ultra high frequency radar and microwave devices - skull and crossbones all over the place.

Even the small amount used to alloy will have some people develop skin blisters from simply touching the stuff whilst others have no problem. Your imune system can become sensetised to it over time.

I used to use beryllium copper extensively for projection welding tooling but nowadays no one will cast the stuff - its basically no longer available and you have to make do with Chrome-Zirconium coppers.

Most countries health and safety acts list Beryllium as a prescribed substance requiring all sorts of special conditions.
Technically if you have a piece of the stuff, you can't even throw it away - you have to have it disposed of.
Similarly scrapyards are not allowed to sell it (but how would they know ?).

You should machine it using ventillation, a respirator and gloves.

Like lead it probably has a worse rap than it deserves. I fear we are banishing useful materials which should be treated with respect.

As Rick said - not something you want in your shop.

Ken

P.S. I was told (don't know for sure if it's true) that beryllium copper was used for electrical sockets in multi-pin connectors because it has no fatigue mechanism - as long as you don't exceed its elastic limits it will not fail due to fatigue - usefull stuff for such applications - spring blades etc.


View attachment FAQ%Berillium20108.pdf

 

[Saskford]

This brass has a patina very much like my other brass. It might be somewhat darker but nowhere near blue or black.

 

[Ken I]

Judging by your previous posts - I would guess you have a piece of Aluminium Bronze.

This is indeed as tough as steel and highly wear resistant. Often used for valve guide bushes and as wear plates in flat surface sliding action (where lubrication doesn't work very well). Its really good stuff for the right application.

An inconclusive test - try soft soldering it - if it won't soft solder it's probably ally-bronze. Normal bronzes and coppers will soft solder as well as those with Beryllium.

Ken

 

[Saskford]

I just tried soldering it and sure enough it will not stick. I guess that confirms that it must be aluminum bronze Ken. Now I wish it was round stock as it will probably be more useful used on the lathe.
Thanks for all the help guys.
Gary