Reference numbers & conversion charts from old data lists for steel etc.

[DAPPH]

I'm a born again machinist after nearly 45 years of holiday , can anyone point me ( give me a link ) to current charts that indicate the type of steel , brass & aluminium etc. currently available and the older classifications for it.

I'm asking as I want to buy some reasonable quality steel etc to play with on my antique lathe .

What I've managed to get so far was off eBay as a 50 kg lot.

It's just lots of steel bar off cuts that have all the usual stressed metal in them from where it ha been forged or die drawn ..they are only fit for scrap in the vast majority of cases because of this .

On the ends of the off cuts there are often paint codes ?
These are what I discovered so far :-
green ( mild steel ????)
green with a white stripe.
orange .
dark red /maroon
purple over painted on royal blue .

What do these colours indicate please ?

Any advice and numbers for a steel & what it is used for would able be helpful.


Thanks
Dave .

 

[Maker]

The colours are specific to the manufacturer AFAIK, so knowing the colour is useless unless you know who painted it said colour.

 

[oilyneil]

Here is a colour chart from parker steel, with the old EN numbers to match.
https://www.parkersteel.co.uk/doc/BS/ColourChart.pdf

 

[DAPPH]

Oilyneil , thanks very much , that's exactly the info I'm after .

 

[DAPPH]

The colours are specific to the manufacturer AFAIK, so knowing the colour is useless unless you know who painted it said colour.

Maker ,
Do you know of any different manufactures colour codes if so who are they please ?

 

[AdrianH]

Colour codes for Bright steels from an old K Steels booklet

Yellow = Imperial M/S
Magenta = Imperial LED F/C EN1A
Red = Imperial EN8D
Green = Imperial NON LED F/C EN1A
Orange = Metric EN8D
Blue = Metric M/S
White = Metric LED F/C EN1A
Gold = Metric Non LED F/C EN1A

I would have thought LED was Lead but that is how it is printed.

Adrian

 

[Reckless_engineer]

The colour codes are usually different at every stock holders, all but impossible to work out the grade unless you know the stock holder it came from. I buy the same grade from a handful of stock holders and everyone use a different colour code. A spark test is your best bet in this case

 

[DAPPH]

Tonight's experience bears every thing you guys are saying out .. i had somepurple ended bright looking stel but it has a lot of microscopic pore marks all over it
I center drilled it no probs , used a drop of oil, and then bored it to 8.68 mm to a depth of 2 & 1/2 " ( making some extra gear mounts for the lathe ).
The bored hole went like a dream the metal came out like tiny flakes of cast iron not a single spiral in sight .

Trying to turn the top hat shape for the gear spool insert was the exact opposite .

The cutter fair stripped it off once it got going however the finish is like a loofah wrapped in sea fishing line , no matter what speed or feed I used . I kissed the tip on the grinder and stoned it , things improved but not very much .
Tip clearance is about 8.4 degrees ( I have one of the digital angle finders ).

It does not like being parted at all , it produces a nice long screech at all speeds & feeds wet or dry. The parting blade is spot on the centre line ( I turned some aluminium to check it and managed a 3 mm long needle point that was taken right down to a hairs breadth before it sheared off ) I even tried to use the back gears to drop the speed right down but it still screeches

I guess it is a steel grade that is designed to be precision ground rather than turned on a lathe.

 

[DAPPH]

Being a Yorkshireman , it looks like I'll have to swallow my pride and see if my short arms will reach the bottom of my deep pockets to find my wallet & then go buy some free cutting steel from the local steel suppliers if they do .

" Oh My , the indignity of it all , having to buy quality steel of a known grade ", " Will my heart stand the expense ? "

 

[Maker]

The cutter fair stripped it off once it got going however the finish is like a loofah wrapped in sea fishing line , no matter what speed or feed I used .

What type of tool are you using?

 

[DAPPH]

Brazed TCT's ground to 8 deg and 12 deg side clearances with a smidgeon of back rake on top . They work well on most metals as well .

I also have quite a few tool steel square bars that have been ground up for all manner of purposes ( not by me ) . These came with the lathe when I purchased it in July last year .

The indexable ones I got are not perhaps the best buy I've ever made , as I quickly discovered I'd need zillions of different tips or tools for different metals .

 

[DAPPH]

After a half day away from home I had a better result this afternoon .
I played with some aluminum & mild steel for a while then tried the hard steel cutter again ...

On putting the QCT on the QCTP I decided to check the centre height of the cutter by slipping a darning needle ( with the eye ground off ) in the 3 jawed chuck . Hmmmm it was about 0.4 mm above centre & I don't know why , as it was dead on centre when I set it up a couple of months ago .
The tool tip has had on,lyb had an angels kiss on the grinder but that was only on the side clearance not the top rake & it looked & cut OK when I checked it afterwards .

Could resetting all the gibs have bedded the saddle in a fraction more .

Anyway whatever happened .....I reset the centre height of the cutter after giving it a stoning , set the height to spot on using the darning needle method .
It cuts like a dream on the other steels .. tomorrow I'll give it a whirl on the awkward piece .