When are brass fasteners acceptable?

I've seen alu. nuts holding brake calipers on before. Universal I think they were. These were
non-recessed nuts. Also, don't kid yourself on the quality of the nuts on most brakes. I've stripped
nuts on brake calipers using only a Y-wrench and one hand. They aren't steel, more like some [censored]
pot metal alloy. Some are steel to be certain, but not all. Most recessed nuts are chromed something
and I'm not sure they're steel either.

Cheers,

Scott..
--
Scott Anderson

"ant" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I need to make a recessed nut for a brake caliper, and I was thinking about making a set of water
bottle boss screws at teh same time. Are brass fasteners acceptable? The water bottle screws are
just to fill the holes, so they dont have to do much, but I dont want my brake to snap off
mid-emergency. The recessed nuts sold online are steel- brass is obviously weaker. However, spokes
nipples are heavily loaded, so I was thinking there is no reason the threads wouldn't be able to
hold the fairly moderate pre-load. i was thinking brass becuase it will speed up the machining
process. (could i use aluminum, or is that too weak?)

Thoughts?

Also- if i wanted to make brass parts for a bike where generally Aluminum ones are used (just
'cause it would look cool), is there anything i should know? i'm assuming, with my minimal
metal knowledge, that the only reason brass isnt used is because it is heavy, but not as strong
as steel.

For instance, could i make a brass hub? I'm not talking about dura-ace weight here, obviously.

Thanks,

anthony