Santa brought me steel!

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chrisinestes

chrisinestes

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It's probably a small percentage of people that would think a bunch of chunks of steel was a great Christmas gift... Probably a high percentage here.

I got 40-50 chunks of steel round bar, & I like it! They're about 1 1/2" dia. by about 18" long. They came by way of my brother, from a guy that got them from the estate of a machinist in Wyoming.

Word is they're highway concrete slab expansion joint dowel pins. The first pic is one of the dowels, the second pic is off Google and shows what they seem to be.

Anywho... They're supposed to be good machinable steel. I have visions of cannon barrels dancing in my head... Any ideas for me what the alloy may be?

Chris

Steel rod.jpg


Dowel Pins 1.jpg
 
If they are dowel pins you would expect them to be hi tensile but if they machine well then congrats.I wish you could post me one
 
People ask me what I want for Christmas, birthday, etc. I tell them a block of brass.

I haven't received one block yet.

...Ved.
 
vederstein said:
People ask me what I want for Christmas, birthday, etc. I tell them a block of brass.

I haven't received one block yet.

...Ved.
Click to expand...

When I picked up the package, I knew immediately it was a hunk of metal, Brass was the first thing that popped into my head, but right after I opened it my bro said there's 40-50 more in his truck. I've had a few suggestions on some simple tests to check the hardness & alloy of it. I'll likely find a place that can test a piece so I know just what it is.

Chris
 
Chris, some scrap metal merchants have handheld PMI testers, you may be able to find one nearby and sweet talk them into a cheap test.
 
If you take a known piece of mild steel and hold it against the bench grider stone, you can make a note of the spark size, quantity and colour. Do the same with the rods and compare the results, usually if the steel is of a better quality the sparks are finer and more quantity. Being used for road join dowell pins, I would think that they are only a low grade steel, I have seen pins for floor slabs, and they weren't much better than reo bar.

Paul.
 
i would imagine its probly plain old hot roll cut to length for a dowel. hot roll machined ok in that it is soft, but it likes to gum up and rip off and make a rough surface unless you take a cut of about >0.100 in. or have nice sharp tools.
 
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