Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Thanks,
I made some forming blocks from aluminum on the lathe. I then annealed the brass and slowly beat the ends over.

Small taps and re-annealing is the key.

Once I had them formed up I took very light clean up cuts on the lathe. I think Tony Bird documented this pretty well in one of his old threads, that's pretty well where I saw it.