Spring brass

Can anyone please tell me what spring brass is? Is it the same thing as half-hard brass? I have to make a clip to go on the high tension pickup of a 1909 Humber motorcycle (Bosch magneto). The pickup is ball-shaped and the clip has to spring over it (and stay there!).

There are obviously other ways of killing this particular cat but I need to accurately reproduce the original 1909 item

Chas

It may or may not be original, but Phosphor Bronze is probably the best choice out of the “brasses”

… I suspect that something may possibly have been lost in translation.

MichaelG.

Brass can be made springy by putting work into it. Half hard brass has been rolled to put some work in. More work makes it springier, annealing softens it. The traditional way to make brass springs is to hammer them. Too much work makes the brass brittle. Copper beryllium can be formed in the unhealed state and then baked at about 320C to promote the spring properties.

Rod

Beryllium Copper is useful for spring applications such as earthing fingers. Very good conductor.

If you happen to have any old quality computers hanging around you may well find a bunch of them to ground the case. If you Google beryllium copper fingers you will find suppliers, digikey stock them.

You can use CZ120 for light duty springs where it is useful to work harden the item by hammering.

regards Martin

Rod beat me to it

Edited By Martin Kyte on 03/01/2023 13:53:01

Brass is made hard by rolling and re-rolling, to reach various states of work hardening. Many years ago you could buy sheet and strip brass at annealed, 1/4 hard, half hard, 3/4 hard, and spring hardness. We bought large qty's of all of them for stamping electrical components for various controls at a firm I worked for. I have not seen these materials advertised for a long time. Now, most brass is advertised as 360 grade which is about medium hardness. 510 bronze sheet is advertised as available in spring temper and many thicknesses at several big industrial supplies. It is not cheap. It would likely work fine for your bike project. The colour of it will be coppery rather than gold like brass. If need be you could plate brass onto it to get the gold colour, if needed, but the plating could affect the temper, so I'd recommend using it as is. Good luck!

I'll look for my book which says exactly what's in the alloy. If memory serves the Brass contains a little Iron and maybe tin.

Electrical sockets are a source of small quantities. Multi-sockets sometimes have long strips of it, which might do if the various punchings and bends don't get in the way.

Dave

While agreeing that beryllium copper is the stuff be careful as a cut from it can become infected very quickly.

From a CuBe safety data sheet:

Rod

Edit for previous post "annealed" not "unhealed" (?!*?*!* predictive text )

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 03/01/2023 17:45:55