Fitting a patch box

[bradmartin]

I'm putting a patchbox on my Kentucky. What I'm wondering is how do you get the lid to curve with the stock? Or do you mount it flat? Any help would be great. Thanks

 

Scarecrow, I use a male and female die that I made from hard maple and sandwich the lid in between the two and whack it with a rawhide mallet. You may want to anneal the brass first so it is dead soft. That way it will not spring back flat but will retain the shape of the die.
Don

 

[bradmartin]

I'm new to working with brass. How would I "anneal the brass"?

 

[jmckenney]

You can heat the brass with a propane torch and quinch it in water to anneal.

 

[bradmartin]

O.K. That sounds good. Thanks.

 

[George F.]

Heat it to a dull red( in a dimly lit room ). I've found that a propane torch doesn't provide enough heat over the entire area to be annealed, I'm always going back over and back over trying to get the whole piece up to a dull red at the same time. My solution was to put it on the gas stove with the gas on high and use the torch at the same time, then quenching it in water .........George F.

 

[mikelange]

Or use two propane torches, if (like me) the only gas in your kitchen is what comes after you eat. :redface: Clamp the finial in a vise, anneal the lid, then clamp the lid and anneal the finial. Or, if you're working with a new box that has some excess length to the lid, clamp the bit that's going to get cut off before fitting to the stock.

 

[aragorn]

A dumb question - for how long after quenching is the brass still soft enough to bend? I'm also experimenting with annealing for the first time, to bend a triggerguard.

 

[LSU TIGER]

The brass will stay soft until it's work hardened again.

 

[bradmartin]

O.K. Thats what I needed to know. :thumbsup: What do I have to do to harden it once I'm done?

 

[TANSTAAFL]

What happens, is working the brass (work hardening) hardens it. But there is no need to harden the brass per se, it may harden up a bit from just the forming you will be doing.

Brass can be work hardened and annealed several times. (BEWARE OF ATTEMPTING TO ANNEAL BRONZE)

 

[Zonie]

"What do I have to do to harden it once I'm done? "
____________________________________________

Nothing. There is no reason to harden the brass after you form it. It turns out that this is a good thing because there is no way to heat treat brass to make it hard.
The only way to harden brass is to bend it. The more times you bend it, the harder it will become.

The little bending you do to form the patchbox to fit your stocks contour won't harden it much, if at all.

 

[bradmartin]

I would have never known. Thats why I like this site. I'm always learning something. Thanks to everyone who helped keep me into the sport. Thanks! :hatsoff: