dale r fox wrote: > > Tempering is done by heating the subject material and purposely > introducing stress by cooling the material quickly. The thinner the > material the faster the quench necessary. I believe that heating the > entire rail at the same time would be a better approach, even if that > can only be accomplished by sweeping the heat source back and forth on > the brass. The brass should then be allowed to cool very slowly. Slower > the better. Actually, there is no reason to cool brass slowly since it cannot be hardened by quenching, unlike steel. The only way brass hardens is by work hardening. It is written elsewhere that people quench brass after annealing (shell casings), probably because red hot brass is a hazard, for obvious reasons. Also, heating the entire rail at once is not necessary. The only requirement is that you get every part of the rail to glow red at some time or other and your done. Just don't get it too hot. Tom -- Thomas A. Cole, RPT Santa Cruz, CA mailto:tcole@cruzio.com
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