About a year ago, I bought about 1,500 lbs of "tool" steel rounds ranging
from 1.5" to 6" dia. in 4' average lengths. The guy that bought them
originally is dead. We all assumed that the steel was 0-1 and D-2 since he
bought them for making dies. Notice the key word in the "Assumed"? One
of the techs made a simple die insert assuming the piece was 0-1, torched it
to red and quenched it...do it all the time with 0-1 and have few problems.
This die was to punch a 1" arbor hole with a 3/8" keyway. It lasted for 20
pieces than broke from the corners of the keyway. He also said it cut a
little funny for 0-1. I suggested to remake the die and radius the sharp
corners and send it to the heat treater. I also suggested that it was D-2
and sparked it with known samples of 0-1 and D-2...it looked like D-2 to me
so the heat treater was told it was D-2. He calls back and says: "This
ain't D-2! I ran it twice and it won't harden, I think it's 0-1" He did
harden and draw it to 60R as 0-1 but he's still not sure of what it really
is. He mentioned it might be 60115??? He also suggested they could send
out samples of the different rounds and have them analyzed for about $75
each. I thought I was pretty good at sparking but I'm obviously out of my
box. Does this sound like a good price? Is this my best or only option?
Mystery steel does me no good, and I have a boat-load of it, it'll last
years!

At several dollars per pound for tool steel, you have multiple thousands
dollars of material there. Why not just spend the $75 for a couple of
reprsentative samples and get the REAL info?

Tom Gardner wrote:
About a year ago, I bought about 1,500 lbs of "tool" steel rounds ranging
from 1.5" to 6" dia. in 4' average lengths. The guy that bought them
originally is dead. We all assumed that the steel was 0-1 and D-2 since he
bought them for making dies. Notice the key word in the "Assumed"? One
of the techs made a simple die insert assuming the piece was 0-1, torched it
to red and quenched it...do it all the time with 0-1 and have few problems.
This die was to punch a 1" arbor hole with a 3/8" keyway. It lasted for 20
pieces than broke from the corners of the keyway. He also said it cut a
little funny for 0-1. I suggested to remake the die and radius the sharp
corners and send it to the heat treater. I also suggested that it was D-2
and sparked it with known samples of 0-1 and D-2...it looked like D-2 to me
so the heat treater was told it was D-2. He calls back and says: "This
ain't D-2! I ran it twice and it won't harden, I think it's 0-1" He did
harden and draw it to 60R as 0-1 but he's still not sure of what it really
is. He mentioned it might be 60115??? He also suggested they could send
out samples of the different rounds and have them analyzed for about $75
each. I thought I was pretty good at sparking but I'm obviously out of my
box. Does this sound like a good price? Is this my best or only option?
Mystery steel does me no good, and I have a boat-load of it, it'll last
years!

Or sell a few pounds for the cost of the test and afte rthe test tell
the buyer what it was

50 lbs of tool steel should just about do it

On Thu, 18 May 2006 21:47:58 GMT, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

About a year ago, I bought about 1,500 lbs of "tool" steel rounds ranging
from 1.5" to 6" dia. in 4' average lengths. The guy that bought them
originally is dead. We all assumed that the steel was 0-1 and D-2 since he
bought them for making dies. Notice the key word in the "Assumed"? One
of the techs made a simple die insert assuming the piece was 0-1, torched it
to red and quenched it...do it all the time with 0-1 and have few problems.
This die was to punch a 1" arbor hole with a 3/8" keyway. It lasted for 20
pieces than broke from the corners of the keyway. He also said it cut a
little funny for 0-1. I suggested to remake the die and radius the sharp
corners and send it to the heat treater. I also suggested that it was D-2
and sparked it with known samples of 0-1 and D-2...it looked like D-2 to me
so the heat treater was told it was D-2. He calls back and says: "This
ain't D-2! I ran it twice and it won't harden, I think it's 0-1" He did
harden and draw it to 60R as 0-1 but he's still not sure of what it really
is. He mentioned it might be 60115??? He also suggested they could send
out samples of the different rounds and have them analyzed for about $75
each. I thought I was pretty good at sparking but I'm obviously out of my
box. Does this sound like a good price? Is this my best or only option?
Mystery steel does me no good, and I have a boat-load of it, it'll last
years!

If I had that much - I'd spend the $75 without a blink. Also -
the rounds might be pre-hardened ? My Armor steel is that way - pre-hardened.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member
http://lufkinced.com/



Tom Gardner wrote:
About a year ago, I bought about 1,500 lbs of "tool" steel rounds ranging
from 1.5" to 6" dia. in 4' average lengths. The guy that bought them
originally is dead. We all assumed that the steel was 0-1 and D-2 since he
bought them for making dies. Notice the key word in the "Assumed"? One
of the techs made a simple die insert assuming the piece was 0-1, torched it
to red and quenched it...do it all the time with 0-1 and have few problems.
This die was to punch a 1" arbor hole with a 3/8" keyway. It lasted for 20
pieces than broke from the corners of the keyway. He also said it cut a
little funny for 0-1. I suggested to remake the die and radius the sharp
corners and send it to the heat treater. I also suggested that it was D-2
and sparked it with known samples of 0-1 and D-2...it looked like D-2 to me
so the heat treater was told it was D-2. He calls back and says: "This
ain't D-2! I ran it twice and it won't harden, I think it's 0-1" He did
harden and draw it to 60R as 0-1 but he's still not sure of what it really
is. He mentioned it might be 60115??? He also suggested they could send
out samples of the different rounds and have them analyzed for about $75
each. I thought I was pretty good at sparking but I'm obviously out of my
box. Does this sound like a good price? Is this my best or only option?
Mystery steel does me no good, and I have a boat-load of it, it'll last
years!



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