Thread: How to bend thin flat brass bar

Hello, my first posting here, being a woodworker, metal work is a black art.

I have a piece of flat brass bar 1" x 1/16" 300mm long that I want to bend at right angles about 4 inches apart. I need this bend to be pretty sharp.

What is the best way to do this? If heat is required, would a heat gun be adequate? Waht is the best wasy to grip the metal to turn it , etc

Kind regards to all,

Dengue

My experience with brass on model steam engines tells me you would anneal the brass first - I have never tried a heat gun but I doubt it is good enough, you need a flame like a propane torch, stove top or even a cooks blow torch that is used for melting sugar on fancy deserts - get it good and hot and dunk it in water and bend it cold. While you don't need a folder to bend it, to get a good sharp bend you really need a folder. Before I had a folder I would clamp the annealed brass in the vice and using a bit of hardwood push and bend the brass as close to the vice jaws as possible, as the bend gets closer to 90deg you can try some persuasion with a hammer working as close to the vice jaws as you can. The brass work hardens as you bend it and you may want to bend it half way and then re-anneal before finishing the bend I have done this when forming boiler ends - get it part way - re-anneal and then finish it. If you need the brass to have a good surface finish a pair of hardwood vice jaws helps prevent marks on the brass.

If I need a very sharp corner in flat bar I cut the bar half way through and the bar will naturally bend along the cut. I then solder, weld or braze fill the outside corner notch and file it square. The deeper you make the cut the sharper the corner will be. Maybe that method isn't suitable for you , it depends on if its a decorative item or not.

A variation of morrisman's method is shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uST7iJgC_gs

Originally Posted by familyguy

would anneal the brass first - get it good and hot and dunk it in water and bend it cold. .

Thanks for this valuable info, Familyguy, much appreciated. Sounds like the way to go with this thin metal.
Once heated and annealed, the brass is badly tarnished, I should imagine. Is it possible to get it back to a bright shiny finish?

Discoloured brass is easily polished - good old Brasso/Silvo if you have it or AutoSol used for polishing mag wheels, anything similar - I should mention if you need to used a hammer to on the brass to get a sharp bend then do not hammer the brass directly, it will show the hammer marks - use a block of wood against the brass.

Thanks for the comments above about polishing annealed brass. Have both Brasso and Autosol, used to polish chisels to make them look pretty

Found my Wagner heat gun will only get to 590degC. Would this be adequate to anneal brass, or do I need something with a flame?

also, I understand this annealing process softens the metal, allowing it to bend without damage.

Once the annealing and bending is finished, how do you treat the metal to return its hardness and strength?

Not sure if the heat gun is up to it, there is probably some info online giving temp required to anneal brass, do a search - once annealed you will feel the difference compared to non annealed metal when you try to bend it by hand - you will also feel it getting harder as you bend it and it work hardens, I guess the best way to see if a heat gun is up to it is to try it - be interesting to see if it is. Brass is not really a hard material the action of bending it usually returns it back to it's original strength - I have always just left it once it is bent how I want. Try some scrap material - anneal it and bend back and forth you can feel it getting harder - it only takes a few times and it feels like it not annealed any more. Do a you tube search I'm sure there are plenty of videos out there that give lots of info.

There are many types of brass some bend and some break ask uncle Google to tell u more