Hardening Bright Steel Rod

[Mr shiney]

Whats the best way of hardening bright steel rod? Heat it with Oxy/Acet until glowing red and wager quench?

 

[Paul.]

If its only mild steel, bright or otherwise, then heating and quenching will have no effect at all,

 

[nickk]

unless you get some 'kasenit' or a similar powder/paste as a hardening compound to dip it in.

 

[Fazerruss]

I've successfully hardened any old scrap before by heating then quench in old engine oil then reheat and quench in water.don't know if the science was right but it worked for a drive pin on an sds drill I repaired

 

[BrokenBiker]

that will work to an extent as when the material is heated, pores open up and the oil which has a high carbon content is allowed to soak in and coat the material, but it wont have the same hardness or skin depth as kasenit or similar. I have used the dip it in oil method on some mild steel parts just to slow down the speed that they wear and it does work a bit but now I take them into work and get them case hardened properly

 

[Mr shiney]

It's for a rear axle I have made for my enduro bike. Thought it might be worth hardening it before I zinc plate it. It has 7 sets of bearings (over engineered, 3 on the sprocket drive and 4 in the wheel.

 

[BrokenBiker]

im pretty sure rear spindles are soft? although I may be corrected on this. I am positive that the rear spindle on my 1200 bandit was soft because I had to replace it, and used the old one for part of a new tool and filed a flat on it quite easily

 

[Paul.]

Something tough rather than hard would be better, I would look for a piece of EN8 or EN16 and use it as is.

 

[Mr shiney]

The spec for the original is just EN1. I thought I might put something a bit harder in but if its going to be a pain I will just leave it as it is. I have machined it up, just need to cut the thread on it and then try out my new zinc plating kit!!

 

[Paul.]

I'm sure it will be fine, EN1A is a free cutting low carbon mild steel, as it contains sulphur and possibly lead, any heat treatment including welding is not going to do it much good, just plate it as it is.

Just for interest a handy chart here with material specs and their uses
http://www.steelexpress.co.uk/engineeringsteel/

 

[Mr shiney]

I have used bright steel rather than En1 as it's what I had sitting around. It think its en3?

 

[Shox Dr]

I might well be talking out of my butt, ISTR a rear spindle snapping in half while someone was riding itm and that had been hardened.

 

[Mr shiney]

I might well be talking out of my butt, ISTR a rear spindle snapping in half while someone was riding itm and that had been hardened.

You would have to be going some to snap this spindle. Its 305x16.92mm running through seven sets of bearings on a ex military enduro bike with the awesome power output of a coral full of 28 horses!

My KLX has a hollow 15mm spindle in comparison!!

 

[graffian]

that will work to an extent as when the material is heated, pores open up and the oil which has a high carbon content is allowed to soak in and coat the material, but it wont have the same hardness or skin depth as kasenit or similar. I have used the dip it in oil method on some mild steel parts just to slow down the speed that they wear and it does work a bit but now I take them into work and get them case hardened properly

Any chance you could get a shim cased for me?

im pretty sure rear spindles are soft? although I may be corrected on this. I am positive that the rear spindle on my 1200 bandit was soft because I had to replace it, and used the old one for part of a new tool and filed a flat on it quite easily

You don't need them hard. I have cut more threads on them quite a few times, it cut's like EN16.
Any chance you could get a shim case hardened for me?

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

En3b is just as mild steel. Don't cut that nicely and tears a bit. Ideally needs grinding to finished side on a cylindrical grinder. I can do it if required. Needs .1 to.2 left on over finished size. En16t cuts nicely and has a much higher UTS than mild steel. If you need any heat treatment doing its not a problem. I'm 3rd year apprentice at a toolmaking and machining company.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I can get stuff case hardened but it does rely on me having time in work to get into the tool room, LMB have more facilities and easier access than I do

 

[Mr shiney]

Any chance you could get a shim cased for me?


You don't need them hard. I have cut more threads on them quite a few times, it cut's like EN16.
Any chance you could get a shim case hardened for me?

All done now, finish came up really nice in the end. It was a little daggy at the start but I offset the slide to 45d and it finished nicely.

 

[graffian]

If you need any heat treatment doing its not a problem. I'm 3rd year apprentice at a toolmaking and machining company.

I have a gearbox that has a layshaft shim the size of a 2p[a thick 2p], only one size is available, but they are 25 thou to
thin, which might explain why the gearchange was bad. I have a few I chopped out of EN36 that need casing.
What sort of thickness do they case to?
How much change to the dimensions is there?
How flat would they stay?

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

It's about 5 thou per cycle if you see what I mean. They will grow very slightly but only by a couple of microns at most. should stay pretty flat but can be planished on a fly press which is quite common practice with various bits of press tooling we do. Pm me if I can help.

 

[MattF]

I have a few I chopped out of EN36 that need casing.

Pack them tightly in bone meal in a sealable, thick wall metal container and chuck it on a hot fire for a few hours.