[TheForge] Dies

[David E. Smucker]

Most railroad rail is close to 1080 steel with the addition of manganese at 
about 1 percent.  It does make good power hammer dies.  I suggest a oil 
quench as a water quench may give you cracking problems.  On the other hand 
I have used a water quench -- via a garden hose spraying on the hot metal 
without cracking.  For 1080 I would then follow the quench right away with 
an oven temper at 500 F.  I have used the kitchen oven many time and am 
still married -- going on 40 years now.  All you need to do is clean the oil 
off before going into the kitchen oven.  If you have a toaster oven in the 
shop -- no need to clean oil.  To clean oil I use hot water and detergent.

Other good steels for power hammer dies.

4340
4140 for both of these temper at 400 to 450 F.  The 4340 is a little tougher 
and a little easier to weld to a mild steel base plate.  4140 is what has 
been used on most of the Clay Spencer spare tire type hammers.

S7 -- very expensive but makes great dies -- newer dies form Big Blue are S7 
professionally heat treated.
H13 -- similar to S7

1045 -- not high enough in carbon but this is what Tom Clark uses.  The dies 
on my Tom Clark hammer show more damage than I would like but are holding up 
well in general.

Dave Smucker
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Childers" <munlaw2 at hcsmail.com>
To: <feorge at kc.rr.com>; "'Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 2:29 PM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] Dies


> What kind if steel is rr track? I've heard it makes good dies, but some 
> work
> to make it usable.
>
> Ron C
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Feorge
> Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 1:07 PM
> To: Sponsored by ABANA
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Dies
>
> Mark A. Pesetsky wrote:
>>  i use s-1 tool steel.
>>
>
> feorge
>
>> Going to take a trip to the steel supplier this weekend and I was
>> wondering what some of you guys are using for die material on your air
>> hammers?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Mark
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