Spencer in NH
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2007
- Location
- Southern New Hampshire
I am making some small pins from 0.25-in diam. 416 SS. These have a 0.06-in. long head, a roughly 0.125-in. diameter body, and a groove for an e-clip. Overall length about 0.56-in.
I want to harden these by torch, but they were not coming out too nicely. I had originally made these out of O-1, and they worked very well, but the real thing needs to be 416SS. The hardening temperature for 416 is 1800F. I cross-referenced that to an approximate color (a red-orange), held that with a MAPP-air torch and the part supported by Inconel wire and oil quenched.
I was not too thrilled with the resulting hardness, so I decided to soak it longer at red-orange heat. A one-minute soak resulted in decarb (or so it seemed to me), and the part was very hard to clean up.
For the next one, I tried using the anti-scale compound from Brownells. This seemed to be the hardest part, but the crust from the compound is impossible to remove.
I do have a muffle furnace with a top end of 1000C (1850F), and stainless foil. Have not tried that approach, mostly because it is a 2-3 hour project to get the small furnace up to temp.
How can I achieve my goal and produce decently hardened, small prototype parts in 416SS in a similar manner to how I do it in O-1 (torch)? Do I have unreasonable expectations?
(And, yes, I will temper them once I get this process figured out.)
Thanks in advance for the wisdom.
-Spencer
I want to harden these by torch, but they were not coming out too nicely. I had originally made these out of O-1, and they worked very well, but the real thing needs to be 416SS. The hardening temperature for 416 is 1800F. I cross-referenced that to an approximate color (a red-orange), held that with a MAPP-air torch and the part supported by Inconel wire and oil quenched.
I was not too thrilled with the resulting hardness, so I decided to soak it longer at red-orange heat. A one-minute soak resulted in decarb (or so it seemed to me), and the part was very hard to clean up.
For the next one, I tried using the anti-scale compound from Brownells. This seemed to be the hardest part, but the crust from the compound is impossible to remove.
I do have a muffle furnace with a top end of 1000C (1850F), and stainless foil. Have not tried that approach, mostly because it is a 2-3 hour project to get the small furnace up to temp.
How can I achieve my goal and produce decently hardened, small prototype parts in 416SS in a similar manner to how I do it in O-1 (torch)? Do I have unreasonable expectations?
(And, yes, I will temper them once I get this process figured out.)
Thanks in advance for the wisdom.
-Spencer