Need help working with brass wire.

[Bexley]

I've recently begun working with brass a bit more- mostly wire, making grab handles and such for my giant pile of Dust models- and I'm having some issues. Mainly, about one in three grab handles breaks when I bend it. I tried annealing the wire (the K&S stuff that's in just about every hobby store) to make it more flexible. Which works, in that they don't break then. However, because of their small (~1/48 scale) size, I can't just anneal the point at which I intend to bend the handle, without annealing the whole piece. Which makes the portions I want to remain straight soft, and easily bent out of straight, especially when handling the model after installing them. This might not be a problem for display pieces, where I could just be very careful, but these are destined for the gaming table, and so will see a lot of handling. (Mostly in removing them from the table when they are blown to bits, as I am a far better painter/modeller than I am a wargamer.)

I know a few people here are pretty good at constructing models out of brass, so any tips would be welcome.

[lab-dad]

I've never had an issue with brass bending.
Not even .015 all the way to .062
Can you give some more details on the issues?
Mj

[Bexley]

Hm. Maybe I just have an overly-hardened batch of wire, then. It's .020". Not much more to add. Fairly sharp bend, using a smooth jaw needle nose plier.

[Malachi Constant]

If the main concern is grab-irons and such, get some phosphor-bronze wire from Tichy ... bends easily and holds up well to handling.  Some of the real fine brass wire can be very soft and "bendy" in my experience and/or you did get some funky stuff!  -- Dallas

[Bexley]

Well, I would say it was the opposite. It's too not-bendy, and is breaking.

[lab-dad]

Is it breaking after you anneal it?
I never anneal rod that small.
-Mj

[mabloodhound]

I concur with Dallas' comment.   I use all Tichy PB wire and never any problems.

[Bexley]

lab-dad: No. I tried annealing to stop it from breaking. Which worked, but it left the wire too soft- the handles get bowed inward easily after installation.

Ah, well. My FLHS doesn't carry Tichy wire, and I'm not about to mail order a bunch of special wire just because the K&S stuff breaks occasionally. I had hoped there was a trick to it or something.

[greenie]

If the main concern is grab-irons and such, get some phosphor-bronze wire from Tichy ... bends easily and holds up well to handling.  Some of the real fine brass wire can be very soft and "bendy" in my experience and/or you did get some funky stuff!  -- Dallas

I noticed this comment about the Tichy Train Group and then went looking for them.

Well, once I found the site and had  a look, I then had to order some PB wire from them, that was on the 7 Feb, today is the 20 Feb and the parcel has arrived.
OK, some will say "so what", but this parcel has arrived in AUSTRALIA in just on 2 weeks.
So, from the States to Aust in that time, WOW, excellent service, if I do say so.

Thanks for the tip fellas, it's a bloody good-'un.

regards  Greenie

[marklayton]

There's a fairly new sterling silver alloy being used in the jewelry trade called Argentium.  It's primary attraction is tarnish resistance.  But it has another useful property:  after forming, it can be baked in a normal kitchen oven to achieve a reasonable degree of hardness.  A jeweler can make a fine filigree and then harden the work to make it more durable for wearing.  Argentium wire is available in a wide range of sizes, along with sheet and tubing.  It's a lot more expensive than brass, but it does offer the builder flexibility for fabrication and an easy way to harden.

Mark

[narrowgauger]

Hi Guys

instead of using brass wire with its attendant problems such as; hardness, low tensile strenght and paint adhesion, I recommend (and always use) nickel silver wire.

the advantages of nickel silver wire are multiple insofar that:

- it is relatively soft in its natural state, which suits many situations, such as locomotive piping;

- it can be hardened by using tension or by twisting the wire on its own axis with a pin vise or similar device in relatively long legths, where a harder wire is required.  one of the advantages in this method is that you can control the hardness by the number of turns being applied to a length of wire;

- due to the initial softness it can easily be shaped into tapers, such as round to flat, the end can be flattened to form hand grabs, it is easily drilled to allow pins to be inserted to simulate the bolts on hand grabs;

- it holds paint far better than brass

- and above all it is available in long coils so that you dont have to put up with short 300mm lengths.

My source for nickel silver wire in the US is Precision Scale Model Engineering (www.psmescale.com)  Great supplier who will gladly ship worldwide.

No connection with PSME except as a happy customer.

have fun & stay cool

Bernard

[W.P. Rayner]

Argentium Silver is a very nice material and yes, being silver, it can be expensive. Thanks for the tip Mark. I've used it in a couple of jewelry projects and have a small stock in the model shop. It's available in different hardness ratings as well depending on what you need to do with it. Rio Grande is a good and reputable supplier.

Paul