Hard Face Or Ss

[whateg0]

I was talking to somebody the other day about wanting to put some hard-facing on the homemade blades of my homemade shear. They mentioned that the weldors they knew were getting away from hard-facing, unless it was spec'd, and just using stainless rod. Does anybody know of this? Would this work for my shear? It doesn't see much other than Al and brass, but it would be nice if I could cut mild steel and even nicer if it would cut stainless.

Dave

[Alloces]

Dave
ya know this just My opinion for what it is worth but personally I would go for the hard face .....granted SS is good for some abrasion ....but good ole hard face is definately hard to beat......after all that is what it was made for ya know..hence the name ...."hard face".
again tho it is just My opinion

[SND]

Use hardface. I really don't know how anyone would ever come to the conclusion that stainless is hard and could be substituted for hardface rods on equipment that needs to be hard and to hold an edge. Stainless is soft. Although there is a couple kinds of stainless filler for the hardenable 410 stainless and such. It would probably cost more then normal hardface rod and still not have the same properties.

[vicegrip]

post a pic of the blade you have .......likely much easier to make a new one ......if you can't heat-treat it .....send it to me ...and I will

[prowess]

I'd definately go hard face.
I just bought a re supply for my shop.
I have used it. I like it. It has its' place. Sounds like your job is one of them.

IMHO.

Good luck!

[vicegrip]

or have the blades you have Ion nitried??

[whateg0]

Here's a pic of the shear. Keep in mind it was originally done to cut aluminum, which it does great. It is all mild steel that I had laying around, so it was cheap. Ideally, it would be great if it could cut 17ga 304SS, but that might be a bit optimistic, even with the right blades. What do you think?



Dave

[prowess]

Whateg0:

Nice. Good use of spare parts!
17g may be a bit optomistic. Hard to tell from the pic as I can't really judge scale. The vice grips help a bit. You may be able to swing 17g.

I'd definately stick with hard facing.

[BillDaCatt]

I saw a cheap way to case harden mild steel the other day, though I don't know if it would be as good of a choice as hardfacing. Heat the whole piece in a forge or a hot BBQ grill to a red heat and quench it in used motor oil. (FIRE!!! lol) The high carbon content of the oil will soak into the mild steel as it cools. Repeat for deeper treatments.

Like I said. It may not be a good choice for this application. Might not even work as described. May even be a bad idea. Who knows? But I think I remember reading in another thread that you had a small forge and it sounded like fun. So I thought I would share it with you.
Dave

[whateg0]

Dave,
I don't actually have a forge; just a small furnace, but I could use the burner to heat it up. It does make lots of heat. I guess I will just try the hardfacing. I think the next question is, do I have enough welder to do it (85A)? Or do I need to use Dad's red tombstone? (I am thinking mine won't do it.)

The bottom blade, for reference is 1/4" thick and the upper is 3/8".

Thanks.
Dave

[vicegrip]

I saw a cheap way to case harden mild steel the other day, though I don't know if it would be as good of a choice as hardfacing. Heat the whole piece in a forge or a hot BBQ grill to a red heat and quench it in used motor oil. (FIRE!!! lol) The high carbon content of the oil will soak into the mild steel as it cools. Repeat for deeper treatments.

Like I said. It may not be a good choice for this application. Might not even work as described. May even be a bad idea. Who knows? But I think I remember reading in another thread that you had a small forge and it sounded like fun. So I thought I would share it with you.
Dave

Trust me these are a simple parts to remake ....unless you blow-off the whole cutting edge , your results will be OK at best ! you could maybe do (??? tig filler , sorry don't know the name :gives 54-56 / RC i think but your edges will have deformed by then ....one blade will have to be ground to the other.....just find a couple of chunks of A2 or S7 or D2 ....Ican H. T. for less than Culver's for the Familly

[wworks]

BillDaCat did you see that on the latest mythbusters?

[Thomas Harris]

I saw a cheap way to case harden mild steel the other day, though I don't know if it would be as good of a choice as hardfacing. Heat the whole piece in a forge or a hot BBQ grill to a red heat and quench it in used motor oil. (FIRE!!! lol) The high carbon content of the oil will soak into the mild steel as it cools. Repeat for deeper treatments.

Like I said. It may not be a good choice for this application. Might not even work as described. May even be a bad idea. Who knows? But I think I remember reading in another thread that you had a small forge and it sounded like fun. So I thought I would share it with you.
Dave

I thought mild steel was not heat treatable. I was under the impression that the oil simply disssapated heat much faster than water, so it was used. Also leaves a finish on the steel indicating this process was performed on it. Anyone?

[SND]

Low carbon steel can be case hardened. It takes hours and some proper equipment to get good results. Casenite is normaly used. I've made shears before for special jobs. I used mild steel for the construction with machined pockets for the knifes that I made out of tool steel which I hardened and ground. Tool steel isn't that expensive, even using something as simple s 1080 will make all the difference in the world compared to 1020.

Heating low carbon steel and dipping it in oil or water will do nothing good. It won't harden it. It will make it more brittle, it lowers its flexibility. Along with other things, there's a lot involved in the molecular structure of materials and their reaction to different heat threatments. I won't pretend to know it all. I do know that this is why you don't quench a test plate before doing a bend test.

[BillDaCatt]

BillDaCat did you see that on the latest mythbusters?

Yup! I also read an article in the past week (that I can't find at the moment) explaining how to do it with a case hardening compound.

SND kind of confirmed my suspicions. It's much harder to do well, than it is to do poorly. Nice to know it can be done at all though.
Dave