OT: What's this type of bracket called?

Gallows bracket.

OK, thanks guys.

I think I'll try the annealing approach first with aluminium. If it breaks again, I suppose I'll have to have go at the same method but with steel.

Sylvia.

Don't waste your time.

Whoever suggested annealing it is clueless as annealing aluminium is a very complex process compared to other metals such as steel or copper, and unless you know what type of aluminium you're using and what temperature to heat it to then you're going to achieve absolutely nothing.

The problem, as mentioned previously, is that you're using the wrong material for the device you're making. Aluminium tube does *not* like to be crushed and bent as you're doing, and no amount of "home annealing" will help you as aluminium needs to be heated to near melting point to achieve any kind of pliability. Quite simply, it is far to brittle a material to do with what you're looking to do, and all you'll manage to make is something that will fail like it already has.

You'll get far better results using thin wall steel tube while will be just as easy to form and bend and it can be done cold to the point you have in the picture without hurting it. Better yet get some 30x5 flat bar cut to length, bent and drilled as required and your problems will be solved forever.

Don't listen to me thought. Waste shitloads of time and money on something that can be fixed for 10 bucks worth of steel from Bunnings :)

Ordinary electrical conduit is steel.

Ordinary electrical conduit is generally Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC.

It is? Maybe in the dim dark past, these days its plastic.

Not these days but it wasn't suitable for the task anyway as it was split rolled steel conduit.

Where do you guys live where they allow plastic conduit? In New York I've never seen it.

You think rolled would break down the seem if you flatten the end? A hole drilled on the sides first would keep a crack from spreading.

Different countries, different rules. Been the norm here in *housing* for decades.

The rolled type formerly used in housing here was open seamed, the rolled ends coming together but not welded. I haven't seen it in use for decades now.

A mate works as a *hazardous area gaseous environment* inspector in the petroleum industry and they use threaded steel conduit exclusively with all connectors being gas sealed along with all junction boxes, instrument cabinets and the like. All electrical equipment must be isolated from the atmosphere due to the potential presence of flammable gases. Everything electrical is sealed up tight to isolate sparks from the general environment.

They even install steel conduit here for low voltage wiring in many places, but usually not for the whole distance. They could use plastic but apparently choose not to. Our steel conduit looks seemless in some cases, and with a smooth welded seem in others.

Believe it or not, there is life West of the Hudson. It's New York that's half a century behind the times.

You *know* who suggested annealing Noddy. Sylvia was, quite naturally, thinking along the same lines. But thanks for proving yet again that you read *e v e r y s i n g l e w o r d I w r i t e*

Complex? Who are you kidding? The *process* is detailed on the link *I* provided. Hardly complex, except maybe to you.

The method of temperature assessment provided in the link serves to determine the *appropriate* temperature regardless of the grade of aluminium.

FWIW, the correct term is *ductility*.

All annealing, regardless of the material requires heating to near melting point. That is the whole point of the annealing process - heat the material *above* its *crystalisation temperature*. Any material that is extruded is work hardened so annealing serves to normalise the crystal lattice. The aim here is to improve the ductility of the material.

How do you know what the task is? It wasn't detailed.

Work hardening will make most metals more brittle. Aluminium, in its normalised state, is quite a ductile material.

One could ask why you intend to waste money on restoring a rusty car body that has absolutely no cachet, its only value being as scrap metal at Sims.

Australia.

It does seem a little old fashioned to only be using steel conduit.

You will find, in most cases of variation, that it is local ordinances that are the cause.

Yes, even plumbers use plastic piping these days.

We have had that for several decades.

Electricians here have an art for bending steel conduit exactly the way they need it. With plastic I suppose they need to assemble more pieces and use a selection of standard bends.

When I was a wee tacker, my family was in the building business and I used to see all sorts of things. Back then the conduit I saw couldn't be bent since it would kink and split open. It had, like the plastic conduit, premade bends and connectors with, IIRC, inbuilt clamps to connect to adjacent pieces. I'm going back a good 50 years there though and that was in business premises, not residential.

They used to use both split and welded seam but stopped split a long time ago which had special fittings with screw clamps ,they still use screwed steel conduit in special areas like flameproof and for mechanical protection in industry.