[TheForge] quench questions

[gblacksmith]

I think the hammer dies would harden fully if made from a deep-hardening 
alloy; ie, those with chromium added.  The 10 series would not be as deep 
hardening as the 4140 or 5160 previously mentioned.  The plain-carbon steels 
have a tough time hardening sections thicker than one inch, in my 
experience, regardless of quenchant used.  Grant
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer" <artgawk at thegrid.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] quench questions


> My fuzzy memory is that Rob G said he had used it for  A36 hammer dies and 
> it yielded " Enormous toughness".......PF
>
> Andrew Vida wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> David E. Smucker wrote:
>>
>>> It is always a good discussion on "super" quench, (I wish it was called 
>>> "rapid" quench, keeping in mind that there is no magic at work here.) 
>>> Best data I have seen to date is that with small section (1/2 x 1/2 
>>> square A36) you can get to a Rc of 50 or so.  An that is without any 
>>> drawing or tempering.
>>
>>
>>     That would seem about right.  I've made quite a few tools from A36... 
>> punches and chisels... and for the most part they have worked well. Most 
>> I made as throw away tools, only to find that they were too good to toss 
>> adter use, so they went into the handy bits bucket.  For quick and dirty 
>> tooling, I don't think you can beat it.
>>
>>>
>>> In large sections such as a hammer die or even a hammer die insert would 
>>> someone please explain the physics on how you will quench this rapidly 
>>> enough to get a hard surface let alone any depth of hardness.
>>
>>
>>     You may not be able to.  dies for a typical 25# hammer may work out 
>> OK, but I'm not at all sure that anything bigger would.  The only thing I 
>> can think of is if you had perhaps a couple hundred gallons of the stuff, 
>> had an enclosed area with hose and pump, donned a space suit and exposed 
>> the work to a violent jet of the medium, which I would expect would 
>> harden to a case at best... maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch? But that might 
>> be just good enough. That's just a guess based on what I know about the 
>> materials.  For all I know, it might fail completely... or maybe do even 
>> better, though I doubt it.
>>
>> I agree with you that just using a good plain tool steel is probably a 
>> much better bet.  4140 isn't that expensive, comparatively speaking, and 
>> the headaches saved, I think, are well worth the few extra dollars. Some 
>> things just are not worth rigging if you don't have to.
>>
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