I paid $85 for a "metals test" of one sample a few years ago.

Hul

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!

On Thu, 18 May 2006 23:34:16 +0000 (UTC), Hul Tytus
wrote:

I paid $85 for a "metals test" of one sample a few years ago.

Hey Tom:

Do they have that little "magic gun" portable metal analyzers like
the SpectroSort http://www.spectro.com/pages/e/p010101.htm
[Google says they are "energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence" (EDXRF)
spectrometers or "arc/spark optical emission spectrometers" (OES)] at
any local scrapyards near you? From how I heard it described here a
few months ago, it can identify exact alloys.

Find someone who has one and arrange to borrow the gizmachi
overnight (when they won't need it), grab a few cans of spray paint,
and establish your own color-coding system for what type of steel each
chunk is - or get a copy of the color-coding scheme used by your usual
steel supplier so the new stuff matches the old. With a few hours of
hard work and an assistant or two to shuffle through the metal piles
and sort it, you can ID and mark a whole lot of metal.

And when the tool is returned it's sitting on a case of good beer.
Or they get one of your "Grinder Owner's Brush Assortments". Or the
broken (whatever) on their forklift gets magically fixed. Or you
clean out a lot of scrap metal from the shop that they can use.
Figure out a way to make it mutually beneficial.

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

Thanks for the tip, I will follow through!


"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 18 May 2006 23:34:16 +0000 (UTC), Hul Tytus
wrote:

I paid $85 for a "metals test" of one sample a few years ago.

Hey Tom:

Do they have that little "magic gun" portable metal analyzers like
the SpectroSort http://www.spectro.com/pages/e/p010101.htm
[Google says they are "energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence" (EDXRF)
spectrometers or "arc/spark optical emission spectrometers" (OES)] at
any local scrapyards near you? From how I heard it described here a
few months ago, it can identify exact alloys.

Find someone who has one and arrange to borrow the gizmachi
overnight (when they won't need it), grab a few cans of spray paint,
and establish your own color-coding system for what type of steel each
chunk is - or get a copy of the color-coding scheme used by your usual
steel supplier so the new stuff matches the old. With a few hours of
hard work and an assistant or two to shuffle through the metal piles
and sort it, you can ID and mark a whole lot of metal.

And when the tool is returned it's sitting on a case of good beer.
Or they get one of your "Grinder Owner's Brush Assortments". Or the
broken (whatever) on their forklift gets magically fixed. Or you
clean out a lot of scrap metal from the shop that they can use.
Figure out a way to make it mutually beneficial.

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.