Is this fitting brass, bronze or DZR?

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burgundyben

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A pair of these came with the boat I recently bought, I need a pair for the raw water intakes.

This one has no makings on it, seller of the boat was unsure about the material.

It has a label, looks like a stock number or similar. I did a bit of googling but no luck.

Any thoughts?

Skin%20fitting_zpsbtzteeif.jpg
 
The yellow colour suggests brass rather than bronze. If it were DZR it would have a marking on it - someone will be along to explain what as I can never remember.

I'm with Tim - assume its ordinary brass.
 
burgundyben said:
A pair of these came with the boat I recently bought, I need a pair for the raw water intakes.

This one has no makings on it, seller of the boat was unsure about the material.

It has a label, looks like a stock number or similar. I did a bit of googling but no luck.

Any thoughts?

Skin%20fitting_zpsbtzteeif.jpg
Click to expand...

There is no reliable way to be sure of the material. If in doubt it is not worth taking the chance it may be brass. I once had a fitting checked on a scanning electron microscope to see if it was brass or DZR but even that could not detect the 0.1 percent of arsenic in the DZR brass.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
I recently purchased what looks like an identical fitting from a guy in Plymouth. He advertised it as Bronze, and told me it had come with an ex-naval boat : "I'm fairly sure that the fittings are Bronze as they came in the stores of a Cutter bought out of Her Majesty's Devonport Dockyard, and they don't use any old rubbish. There are no identifying marks to show the metal content."

It has the same two pimples inside. Now I hope I;m not going to be worried??
 
They look silver in the photo's on my screen, which would say to me they are likely plated brass. On my 2011 bav, the ball valves were similar silver and were brass. All other BWL fittings on the plumbing were also brass and I replaced them with DZR via ASAP. For what they cost, just get pukka DZR ones.
 
Thank you, I was hoping someone might recognise the label from a chandlery and that would tell me.

Best assume its brass and pop it in the 'do not use' pile.
 
As has been said, the colour suggests it to be brass, not bronze, but to be certain compare it with a new, or freshly abraded plumbing compression fitting, which will be 60/40 brass. Skin fittings have only been available in DZR for the past two or three years and all are marked CR, although I believe other markings are used in Australia. If the fitting is old and not marked there is every likelihood that it is brass. Is still almost certainly good for at least five years and probably twice that, so I would not bin it out of hand.
 
Australia: DR, Dezincification Resistant.

Sorry that we could not conform - we must be mad :(

Difficult to imagine you have Australian coded product in the UK.

Jonathan
 
vyv_cox said:
As has been said, the colour suggests it to be brass, not bronze, but to be certain compare it with a new, or freshly abraded plumbing compression fitting, which will be 60/40 brass. Skin fittings have only been available in DZR for the past two or three years and all are marked CR, although I believe other markings are used in Australia. If the fitting is old and not marked there is every likelihood that it is brass. Is still almost certainly good for at least five years and probably twice that, so I would not bin it out of hand.
Click to expand...

I redid my boat in DZR throughout back in 2010 (all sourced from ASAP) so the stuff has been around a little while now.
 
vyv_cox said:
.
so not sure whether it works for anything other than rod.
Click to expand...

Despite what Facebook says, it doesn't work for rod either. In the spirit of enquiry I've just been dropping various sizes of brass and phosphor bronze rod onto my workshop floor. Some round, some hex. They all ring, the main factor governing the note seems to be the rod diameter, not the material.
All were "as drawn", so annealing, or "as cast" might alter the note, but I didn't try that.
 
earlybird said:
Despite what Facebook says, it doesn't work for rod either. In the spirit of enquiry I've just been dropping various sizes of brass and phosphor bronze rod onto my workshop floor. Some round, some hex. They all ring, the main factor governing the note seems to be the rod diameter, not the material.
All were "as drawn", so annealing, or "as cast" might alter the note, but I didn't try that.
Click to expand...
The principal of ringing is to determine a solid material or not, nots its molecular structure - as would be the case with a seriously de-zincified piece of brass, which would not 'ring'. Not sure I would want to trust my seacocks to this mode of testing, especially when practised by a non experienced ear to this technique.
 
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