"Ken Davey" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 15:35:16 GMT, Steve Austin
wrote:

Tom Gardner wrote:

I'm reading an interesting novel about the island of Nantucket
getting transported back in time to 1200 BC. (Island in the sea of
time) The residence have to gear their technology back quite a
bit, understandably. One of the first things they do is organize
the hobby machinists into an industry to produce necessities and
trade goods. Machine shop heroes! One big problem looming is the
finite supply of tool steel and cutting tools. How would someone
with such limited resources make small quantities of serviceable
tool steel cutting tools? They have plenty of mild steel from
boats and cars.


Burnt out light bulbs and bumpers from old American cars?

Axles

Why?

Source of tungston and chrome.

Most production car axles were made of 1040 until 20 years ago; 1050 today.
When 1040 was the standard, 4140 was used for high-performance axles. Today,
1541 is used for high-performance axles. Race cars use other grades,
including chrome-vanadium types. None of them contain enough carbon to
harden over Rc 45 or so at the max. These grades make great hammer heads but
they can't be hardened enough for metalcutting tools.

No tungsten. And you'd need a hell of a lot of lightbulbs to get it. g The
flash chrome on bumpers would require a lot of stripping to get enough to do
any good, and chrome doesn't make HSS. You need tungsten or molybdenum.

In any case, you'd face quite a trick to make a HSS alloy without some fancy
technology.

Until HSS steel was developed, high-carbon steel (Rc 60 - 65) was used for
cutting tools. It works OK. You just have to keep speeds 'way down so you
don't wreck the hardness. It doesn't wear as well as HSS, either. So, you
just change or sharpen tools more often.

You can carburize low-carbon steel in a charcoal grill with a bellows for
blast. You need a boat (sheet steel, or local clay) or a good carbon pack to
keep the blast from decarburizing the steel. Bone charcoal makes a good
carburizing compound. So, you have to kill something to get some bones. d8-)

There doubtless is some high-carbon steel in cars, but I don't know where.
Shock absorbers usually use the same grades as axles. Maybe pushrods or
lifters. Valves are made from dandy steel, but I don't think they're
sufficiently hardenable, either.

--
Ed Huntress