"john" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
wrote in message
...
"Ed wrote:

Yup, that's been my experience with it, too. I use it because I happen
to
have a couple of bars of normalized 4140 that were given to me, and
I've
used it for a number of little shaft jobs, turning it with what is
probably
M2 -- my ancient stash of Crucible Rex (no number) -- on a 64-year-old
South
Bend 10L, with a rocker (lantern) toolpost. It cuts nicely.


Is 41L40 much different that 4140? Reason I asked, is I ordered a piece
of that to make
something and got impatient when I saw it wasn't going to make it to me
until 1/4/2010. I
really hate turning 1.25" dia stock into 9/16" dia stock but I didn't
feel
like waiting.
12L14 is a joy btw.

Wes

'Don't know about it, Wes, and I've never machined it. If it's as
advertised, it must be something like 12L14 is to 1214.

If you try it, please let us know how it is.



41L40 has lead in it to make machining easier. It is not recommended to
weld because of the lead. 4140 can be easy or hard to cut depending on
the sulfur content. I think the max allowable sulfur is .2% The more
sulfur the harder it is to weld it, but the easier it is to machine it. If
you get a piece with no sulfur in it machining will be miserable.

John

Huh. It's interesting that a strict alloy like 4140 would allow enough
difference in sulfur to have much effect on machineability. It's not
something I have a lot of experience with, and most that I've turned
probably all came from the same batch.

--
Ed Huntress