Whoops!
It turns out that if someone is brazing rack struts and they plunge the finished item into the soaking bucket before the metal has had a chance to cool below red hot it works hardens like mad. One of the struts i’d just brazed together and plunged into the soak too early hardened to the point where I couldn’t file it anymore, and, worse yet, when I attempted to bend the mounting tab the metal simply shattered instead of bending.
Whoops.
And, of course, this was one of the struts for the midlifecrisismobile’s rack.
Oh well, I’ve cut a couple more rack tabs and slotted them into new struts, so tomorrow I’ll be able to braze ‘em up again (and this time hopefully not drop them into the soaking tank until they’re cool!)
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Betcha you could, should this occur again, heat the whole thing back up and let it air cool and it’d be much more tractable.
I’ve known people to anneal small pieces in a stack of firebrick with propane torches, oxygen not necessarily required.