Brass or Bronze

[Fingers]

Hi everyone
I have a question about a brass cylinder which i made for a flame eater some of you may already have read how I learned from listening a little to late. But my question this time is while somebody was looking at my little engine they were convinced i had made a bronze piston and not brass. How can i tell the difference. He said my burner and bearings and linkage arms were brass but not the cylinder by looking at the colour . I did get these both from different places is there anyway i can tell?
Regards Jamie

 

[Mainer]

There are about a million brass alloys, and a million bronze alloys. Anybody who can unerringly tell the difference just by looking at a part is a lot smarter than I am.

IN GENERAL, a bronze alloy is more difficult to machine than a brass alloy. If the parts you made all machined easily, they're probably brass.

IN GENERAL, bronze is a copper-tin alloy and brass is a copper-zinc alloy. If you can find a chemical test for tin, or zinc, you should get a good indication. I'm not sure this distinction is true of every bronze or brass alloy, however.

 

[Fingers]

Thanks
Sound for that. That sure is a big beauty in the link above.
The cylinder was rather easy to machine with small fine chips and it would buff to mirror no prob so I'm leaning towards brass aswell I just taught they might be some simple check i was missing. I will save the above speedymetals link it looks like a good reference, now that im almost looking for a new project 8)
Regards Jamie

 

[RMS]

Hi everyone
I have a question about a brass cylinder which i made for a flame eater some of you may already have read how I learned from listening a little to late. But my question this time is while somebody was looking at my little engine they were convinced i had made a bronze piston and not brass. How can i tell the difference. He said my burner and bearings and linkage arms were brass but not the cylinder by looking at the colour . I did get these both from different places is there anyway i can tell?
Regards Jamie

Hi Jamie,

Can you post a picture of this "little engine" I would be curious to see myself. I also noted that my local scrap yard charged me the same price for a copper round bar and a brass octagon bar, someone made out better not sure who.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[RMS]

Rob-

Jamie's flame licker is over here.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=11674.msg129028;topicseen#new

Click on the photo for the video.

Pat J

Thanks for the link; After looking at it quick I did see some slight color difference. My thought was that the Piston Cylinder the taller one with all the grooves looked like Brass and that the middle section of the burner looked darker so I was thinking Copper.

Nice Motor!

Rob

 

[Fingers]

Thanks for posting the link Pat J I way off celebrating my runner lol.