Hardening Unknown Grades Of Drill Rod

[trumpy81]

GDay All,

I have just acquired a box of what appears to be drill rod offcuts. Unfortunately, I have no idea what grades I have. The box was labelled Tool Steel, nothing else.

The question is though, if you quench A1 or W1 in oil, what would be the outcome?

Would it affect the rod by being too brittle or cause it to warp or would it have no adverse effect at all?

At this point in time, I have no plans to harden any parts made from these rods, but there is always that one time when I'm in a pinch and need to, so it would be good to know the possible outcome beforehand.

 

[Mainer]

If you quench W-1 in oil, my guess is that it may not harden.

I'd also guess that quenching air hardening steel in oil might crack it....but maybe not. It would somewhat depend on the shape of the part.

 

[maverick]

It may pay to experiment with a few pieces. W-1 quenched in oil may not reach full hardness, so for a cutting tool it won't be the best
but for other parts it's ok. A-1 is easier to identify, just heat to orange and hang in free air. Check for hardness with a file, if it skates
across the surface, it's hard. When you get a piece that hardens then check for brittelness before and after tempering. This should give
a general idea what the material is and what you can use it for. It doesn't take long to harden a few pieces, you get some practice at
the process and some knowledge to boot. Sounds like fun anyway.

Regards,
Mike

 

[trumpy81]

GDay All,

Thanks guys. I was thinking along the lines of parting off thin slices and hardening those slices by oil quenching to see what happens. I would then have some idea as to what grade I was working with.

As far as hardening goes, I have only worked with Hot Rolled, making various parts for ride-on lawn mowers. At least I gained some knowledge of the hardening/tempering process from that, but this will be a new experience for me.

 

[Swede]

Trumpy, it's hard to resist free (or cheap) stock, but may I suggest - this stuff is not all that expensive. If you are going to machine a complex part, you'll have a lot of time and effort invested, and not knowing exactly what you have can lead to problems. You can always save these pieces for stock that will be used as-is, annealed, and buy a few known steels for more critical parts.

I made a bar-stock storage unit by cutting lengths of 4" PVC pipe and making a pigeon-hole rack, with each hole labeled. Even then, every so often, I'll find a length of SOME sort of tool steel kicking around the shop, and I'll be mad at myself, because I don't remember what steel it was. You can color code the ends, but these get cut off.

With larger diameter stock, I've taken to writing the metal type all along it with a paint marker or similar.

 

[Dave G]

Our heat treat guys would spark test an unknown steel for type. I keep small samples of many types of steel that I use in a box and they are all labeled as to type. When I have some steel that is unknown I will turn off most of the lights in my shop and touch the steel to the grinding wheel to create a spark and then try to compare to the sparks given off by my sample steels to get a match. It takes some practice and a good eye but it can be done. If you attempt this be very careful.
I agree with Swede, don't spend the time making a part from unknown steel. The cost of these steels are small compared to the time invested making something from them. Remember safety first, Dave

 

[trumpy81]

Trumpy, it's hard to resist free (or cheap) stock, but may I suggest - this stuff is not all that expensive. If you are going to machine a complex part, you'll have a lot of time and effort invested, and not knowing exactly what you have can lead to problems. You can always save these pieces for stock that will be used as-is, annealed, and buy a few known steels for more critical parts.

Swede, I do not plan to use these for much else than an odd non critical shaft left unhardened, but there is always the possibility that I may need to harden a piece for whatever reason. In that case it would be good to know what to expect if I did harden a piece of unknown grade material. Hardening a slice of the material to be used and observing it's characteristics before hardening the workpiece makes sense to me. At least I would have some idea of what to expect.

While this stuff is fairly priced, it's not always available to me in a reasonable time frame. Delivery can take days to weeks, which doesn't help if I want to get something done. It's bad enough with my health problems limiting my time in the workshop without an additional headache.

Lets not talk about storage space, I have none .... :big:

But thanks for the suggestions, there are definitely some good ideas in there and if I ever get to reorganize my workshop I will certainly consider them.

Dave, I have read about and seen spark testing in action, but I lack the skills needed to perform such a task. The time needed to gain such skills, and the sheer number of sparks one would require to adequately learn this skill would in itself be prohibitive. Not to mention the safety factor involved in lots of sparks flying about under my house which is mostly timber.

Another factor is having a suitable range of steels available for comparison, something which I lack at present, due to the aforementioned storage constraints.

Thanks guys! for taking the time to try and edumacate this ole duffer ;D it is appreciated!