Increasing Square Brass Tubing I.D.

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cxo23

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I needed some 0.625 x .050 Square Brass Tubing yet, while this is standard size, it appears to be poorly stocked.

So, I'm considering either milling, or filing, down the insides of 0.625 x 0.062 stock. I'll be working on only a 1/2" length of tube so, it's only .012 to be removed and that only on two opposing sides. Milling would still require a bit of filing to finish the edges.

Any comments or better ideas?
 
Could you make a square plug with a cutting edge and drive it thru with a hammer?
 
aliva said:
Could you make a square plug with a cutting edge and drive it thru with a hammer?
Click to expand...

Sounds like it would be easier to use a suitable keyway broach, were the brass to be held in a restraining block.
 
I think filing is your easiest approach. I'd mill a .5" wide x .050" deep groove in a piece of steel as a jig/guide. Put the part in the groove and file till flush, easy peasy.
 
For 1/2" of length, I would try to mill it . You can set it up in a mill vise and center it either with a 1/2" dowel pin or find the outside faces depending on how accurate you want to be. I would us a 1/4" end mill which will leave 1/8" of untouched surface in the corners. That can easilly be removed by hand filing.
 
Realistically I think I would probably just go with hand filing if I were faced with doing the same thing. However, I think it might be possible on the shaper too, much like cutting a keyway on the inside of a pulley bore. No shaper? You can do it in the lathe too using the carriage as the ram and advancing the cut across using the cross slide. Brass cuts pretty easily like that, and half inch deep wouldn't be bad for tool deflection.
 
cxo23 said:
I needed some 0.625 x .050 Square Brass Tubing yet, while this is standard size, it appears to be poorly stocked.

So, I'm considering either milling, or filing, down the insides of 0.625 x 0.062 stock.
Click to expand...
If the insides have to be bigger, why not just stretch the tube? Starting with any tube that has
the right cross-sectional area (and mass-per-inch of brass) , sandwich it in 0.625" vee blocks
and put a whopping big pressure pulse down the axis. Probably a hand hydraulic pump would work
(but the big players do water-fill and make a spark-driven steam explosion inside).
 
whitmore said:
If the insides have to be bigger, why not just stretch the tube? Starting with any tube that has
the right cross-sectional area (and mass-per-inch of brass) , sandwich it in 0.625" vee blocks
and put a whopping big pressure pulse down the axis. Probably a hand hydraulic pump would work
(but the big players do water-fill and make a spark-driven steam explosion inside).
Click to expand...
Like pressing balls through brass musical instruments’ tubes to round/size them: just use a 0.625” square plug.
 
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