Oh, it's not THAT easy, you have to smell it while it's cutting...everybody
knows that!

"Grunty Grogan" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:53:26 GMT, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

Try turning a whack of each piece with HSS tools, you'll
know by the way it cuts and the finish it leaves. You can even tell by
the
smell of the cut.
Oboy,,,
Years ago we had a machinist who was not exactly a rocket scientist.
We did a lot of SS, and generally from this vendor the color codes
were predictable.
The guy was looking in the stock bin for a piece of 316...we noticed
the blue end, and it was one of those afternoons where people were
feeling humorous. We told him, "Just breathe on it and smell it
quickly when it is moist...you can detect the "tang" of nickel!"
"Look!( Noticing an orange code) You can even smell the sulfur in this
303, and in this 17-4 (Grey/white) the aluminum in it makes it smell
just like 6061!!!"
We walked away, and had a good laugh. A couple of days later, the guy
who ran the place, a good mettlaurgist in his own right, walked by,
and saw this guy smelling the stock, one piece after another. He
walked up and asked him what he was doing. From a distance, we could
see the rocket scientist trying to explain, gesticulatiing and
thrusting pieces under the boss's nose.
The boss just stared at him silently, and walked away.
We got to the other end of the shop ASAP, collapsing with laughter.