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Grades of brass

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ieezitin:
Ned.

Great link.
That was an interesting read, I never knew about the EN marking and the reasoning.

I like working with stainless too but my stock room (local scrap yard ) often supplies me with WTS grade stainless. I swear you could split the atom next to it and it would still be in one piece.

Anthony.

DavidA:
Harold Hall seems to swear by 230M07 for his steel projects.

Dave

Ned Ludd:
Anthony,
Thank you kind Sir, we aim to please.
Ned

AdeV:

--- Quote from: DavidA on January 16, 2011, 11:46:20 AM ---Harold Hall seems to swear by 230M07 for his steel projects.

--- End quote ---

Is that like when you type 55378008 into a calculator & turn it upside down?

Lew_Merrick_PE:
Bogs,


--- Quote ---Don't get me wrong, we also use a very cumbersome number and lettering system for our metals, but it is only usually used in the manufacturing environment where critical specifications are required. I used to have to use numbers and codes for everything I did when I was in work.
....
No offence intended at all, but it seems to me that we have a more laid back attitude when it comes to selecting our materials for use in the home shop.
--- End quote ---

We are in violent agreement.  The difference is that, on this side of the pond, most metal comes from commercial yards that sell it unless you are in one of a very few places that have "retail" salvage yards (usually found just outside active military repair depots).  If we, on this side of the pond, walk into a steel yard and ask for low carbon steel, the yard man will look at us strangely.  However, if we walk in and ask for "something in the C1015-C1022 range," we will get what we want for 1/10th the price we would pay in a "hardware store."  It quickly becomes habit.

On the other hand, I make my living as a design & development mechanical engineer.  Precision in specification is a legal requirement this realm.  I tend to prefix my statements about such things as being from "my side of the universe."  I don't know if you have run into the type, be most American companies place MBA-types in positions where they are Program Managers (PM's).  It gets to be stupid in extremis when trying to explain the them that any one of several specific grades of material are fine for their application and that they should purchase whatever is less expensive when they go to order it!  They want to be told, "this and only this will work."  This explains a lot when you look at the American "industrial trajectory" of the past few decades.

I do not (and never have) "suggested" that HSM-types need this level of detail.  The main area where I come unglued is when I see blanket statements (such as the one a few months ago) about aluminum being totally equivalent to steel.  Yes, structural grades of aluminum have very similar yield and ultimate tensile strengths when compared to low carbon structural steels, but they have rather different properties in shear, modulus, thermal, and wear.  It may not be important in the instance under discussion, but it lays the groundwork for someone else to gain a misunderstanding that could come back and bite them.

Otherwise, it is all about increasing knowledge and skills.

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