How to make a stair rod bracket?

[kingcod]

I'm trying to fit some old stair rods, but the brackets are really hard to come by on their own. I've searched for brackets to buy I could modify but no luck so far.
I thought I could make some up myself but no clue where to start. A metal strip could possible be bent and cut for each one. Brass won't bend. Copper too soft. So maybe thin steel strip? Not very attractive but I could spray them.
I'm sure there is a nice business opportunity for someone to do a bit of casting!

 

[novocaine]

why won't brass bend? heat it up to anneal it and bend it. then silver solder the gusset. if you are struggling to bend the thickness to the radius shown above, kerf cut the long bend side then infill with solder.

 

[bjm]

... Brass won't bend.

It doesn't have to. Look online for brass angle of the nearest size, cut to length and round the edge. Braze or solder the gusset piece and polish?

 

[marcros]

I am not a metal worker but I would be tempted to try soldering a setup into the angle then slicing off to length.

 

[chaoticbob]

why won't brass bend? heat it up to anneal it and bend it. ...

Doesn't it depend on the grade of brass? I've tried pushing things with CZ121 (the ubiquitous 'free machining' alpha/beta brass) and I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't cold work to that sort of radius without cracking whatever the annealing regime. Maybe I've not tried hard enough though! Different story with alpha alloys (eg 'cartridge brass' ) but they seem hard to find in the same range of sizes as CZ121. Not all brasses are born equal!
Personally I'd silver solder as novocaine suggests, but rather than cutting a kerf and filling I'd make them from three pieces - with a 55/45 Ag/Cu solder the joints would be invisible.

Bob.

 

[TFrench]

It's hard to gauge the size of the angle from the photos but I think it will be hard to find the correct thickness - looks like 40x40x6 at a guess? As others have said, definitely possible to fabricate it from flat stock.

 

[chaoticbob]

But Brian's suggestion is better!
Bob.

 

[novocaine]

Agree, hadn't thought of angle stock. it would be useful to get dimensions, I thought they were bigger yesterday than I do today. I also like the idea of making 1 long unit then cutting it to width. you could the "silbraze" the gusset in place, lay a length of solder on the fluxed join then heat from the other side.

CZ121 has a high zinc content, I would form it hot instead of annealing it.
or I'd use CZ131 for this application.

 

[pe2dave]

To me looks like cast brass? If you can find one, a foundry may be able to take one
and make a mold from it.

 

[Old.bodger]

It might be worth talking to Hunter and Hyland, Leatherhead. They used to stock them.