Brass extrusion warping

[Bernalcrawler]

I recently started using a vertical mill, and in order to save some time I cut down a .5 by .5 brass extruded bar on the table saw (proper blade, waxed). Of course, as many of you out there will already have guessed, the bar warped as badly as if it were poorly seasoned wood.
I am fairly sure this was not just because of the friction/heat of cutting. I hit the back side of the bent bar with a torch just for giggles to see what would happen, and it didn't budge. My suspicion is that the brass extrusion has internal stresses like cold roll steel bar stock. Is this an annealing issue or is the best way to machine off the outer skin of the extrusion?
I did a search to find if this has been covered already, but couldn't find it, wrong keywords most likely. Thanks in advance for your answers

[jburstein]

if this is, as you suspect, a case of internal stresses then you need to do balanced cutting
That is to say, if you take the skin off of one side, you should take an (approximately) equal amount off of the other side. That way the stresses should still be (approximately) balanced, and your part will stay straight.

-Justin

[SGW]

It would be worth trying an annealing step before machining, to see if that solves the problem. It won't help you now -- the piece is already warped -- but it might with a new piece.