WORKSHOP PRACTICE SERIES trom Argus 800ks 1. Hardening, Tempering and 8. Sheet Metal Work 15. Workholding in the Lathe Heat Treatment R.E, Wakeford Tubal Cain Tubal Cain 9. Soldering and Brazing _—_—‘16. Electric Motors 2. Vertical Milling in the Home Tubal Cain VJ. Cox Works! i E, 17. Gears and Gear Cutti oe . Si id Si MG: Art eo pean ee 3. Screweutting in the Lathe * . 18. Basic Benchwork Martin Cleeve ug eee Les Oldridge 4. Foundrywork for the Amateur on : 19, Spring Design and Manufacture Bi Aspin 12. Drills, Taps and Dies Tubal Cain 5. Milling Operations in the Lathe eee 20. Metalwork and Machining Tubal Cain 13. Workshop Drawing Hints and Tips 6. Measuring and Marking Metals Tubal Cain lan Bradley Ivan Law 14. Making Small Workshop 7. The Art of Welding Tools WA. Vause S. Bray 1. Hardening, Tempering and Heat Treatment In this Valuable book Tubal Cain takes the reader beyond the superficial or the simply practical with explanations of the composition of steel, its additives, and the effects of different temperatures on its constituents. With a grasp of what changes are actually taking place in the metal the care needed in following the practical processes described becomes under- standable and will lead to better and more consistent results. Flame, salt bath and furnace heating are detailed, with information on accurate i measurement. or recognition of temperature levels. For the average small workshop operative or model engineer the discourses on tool material, hardening and tempering will be of most use, and in this connection this book replaces the earlier “ ‘Hardening and Tempering Engineers’ Tools”, providing a broader-based, more detailed and up to date examination. of the subject. - ISBN 0-g5242-837-5HARDENING, TEMPERING AND HEAT TREATMENT for model engineers Tubal Cain ARGUS BOOKS‘Argus Books ‘agus Meuse ounday Woy ral Horton Herordehiee HP2 7ST © Arous Books Les 1984 Second impression 1985 Reprinted 1087, 1988, 1900 [Al rigs rosowod No par of she publication ay be ‘eoreduced i any fer by bt. protonrapiy, eof uber, Ian 0 95282 6375 Protoryposating by Performance Typesating. Miton Keynes Printed and bound in Grest Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ld. Exeter Contents Chapter 1 ron & Steel Chapter 2 Pricipis of the Hardening Process Chapter 3 Heating anc Quenching in Practice Chapter 4 Tempering Chapter 5 Heating Eauipment Chapter 8 Casehardening Chapter 7 (that Haat Troatmont Processes Chapter 8 The Moasuroment of Hardness Chapter 9 Home Construction of Furnaces Chapter 10 Safety Precautions Appendix 1 Trermacouples and Pyrometers ‘Appendix 2 Carbon Stee Cuting Tools Appendix 3 British Standard Stee! Specification Numbers Appendix 4 Hardness Conversions 3 7 51 64 a4 90 102 107 13 15 WwCHAPTER 1 Iron & Steel IU°Know your Enemy" i prudont counsel for tho solsir, than equally so must be "Know your Materials" for the engineer — made! oF otherwise. Important enough when tho materiaie are to be cut oF formed, but even mare %0 whan. we Bropore to alter their characteristics. Ang here can be fow such alterations so fxveme as when we convert a relatively Soft anc ductie material nto one which i hard enough o act a8 8 cutting tool So, ‘ako no excuse for ths intial oxoloration the nature of fin and steel. You can kip" the chaptor i you wish ~ it may be that it tll you nothing new. and could ‘well seem t0 be Iralevant all you want to do isto harden 9 seriber point But to Dgin at te beginning is always 2 sound Boley, ord |hape you will boar with ma: it ‘won take lang’ Pure iron, known 9s FERRITE to the metals specialist, isa relatively soft ‘material, with a tonsllo srongth of about 24 tons/sain and quite duct. It can be ‘dean into fine wives and rolled into thn plates — about the only uses for it in Dractice these days. tls chemically very active", combining ready with many ther substances, 30 that metalic ron ‘seldom found in nature daspita the fa that itis the most abundant of earthly Materials. [The Earth's core is almost wholly fon) The common ores are in the orm of oxides, some, notably Haematite, simost 80% ferre oxide whilst ethers may Contain ae litle. 2 25%, the remainder being time or silica based stone. Other ‘types of ore contain on carbonates, anda ery abundant souree ts Iron Pyrites — basically rom sulphide and seKdom used in the manufacture of ron ceocty Tron is extracted from the oe in a Blast Furnace ~ Fig. Even in early times these wore large structures, but today they are ge. Th hart atthe boom i 45 t across — and the stack 100 est oF more is height, with another 100 feet of “top hamper” above. A medium sized fumace: wil contain 60,000 eb. feo" of material and wil “make” 9000. tons! Week: Fig 2. The largest furnace in this ounty 1s designed for 10,000 tons por ‘oy, et Keeping it fed with rave materials faa major par of the pleat operators concern! “Thase rew materials are ion ore, coke (the ful) and limestone to act 98 fue 0 that the stony matter in the ore may be futiienty uid when melted. These materials, blended and sintered iaxo Lnifrm size and composition, are fe in at the top. Praheated ai Blown in at the boteam, through the “tuyeres and this air form by far the largest mast of materia 7ALLE foo tes LRrot V A wove WZ 4 vase sed. Though nominally “fro” it has 10 be Compressed to from 30 048 eq. an heated to around 750°C, using. turbo: Compressors of 10,000 HP or more, and Grormout. “stoves” tO achieve. the ‘Combuition of the coke atthe hearth results ina high temperature and. the production of carbon dioxide, This late educa! to carbon monoxide, This, tur, acts with the iron oxide in the aro (0 fFemove the oxygon content. When the (92505 reach the top of the furnace they ‘wil contain about 27% carbon monoxide 8 litle hydrogen, and the rst Te carbon Sloxide and nitrogen: it is'8 very useful 8 fuel gas. By the time the "burden reaches the lower part ofthe furnace the ix and ‘stone will begin to combine te form a slag ‘which melts and runs down through the ‘coke. Slightly lower down the Iron also molts. Bath slag and ion collect in the hearth, withthe slag floating on top. At periodic intervals the slag i topped off though ona hole andthe iron. from nother. Being collected in raitway ladies, the former being used for road metal ot ‘cement’making and the kon either cast into. pigs” for the foundry or token, melten the steelworks ‘During the fil part of this process the molten ron isin close contact with very hot coke and wil absors up to 4% of carbon. (This may net soune much unt | fall you that 2 chunk ef iron of 22 inch ‘cube will contain 28 much oarbon 22 3 fick of cokell The important thing. te Ssporeciate at this stage ie thatthe iron fd carbon form a solution, just like the Sar in your tea After passing through a pasty stage whilst cooling. the Iron oldies at about 110°C, and we now have 2 iid solution of iron Irene) and farbon, but with some of the carbon nw combining to form an iron carbide. However, a8 tho metal cools further i Capacity 0 cssolve carbon diminishes fand some "ree" carbon appears at the Grain boundaries. graphite. Tho final State does depend somewhat on how fast ‘the meta has cooled, but the “grey” cast Ton which we uso will sppear under the ‘Gteroscope as smal agglomerations (reine) or iron carbide "and. Forte surrounded by flakes of graphite {830 the cooling is rapid thon more of {the arbon il remain ag carbide and the (metal wll be whiter and harder. Hence the Seeasional “hard spot" atthe comer of 9 “hin casting: the metal has cowie too fast. Tron Io this form fs very useful: it can bo cast Into complex shapos ard 1s vary Song in compression. But it isles srong, intansion end rathor brite: t cannot bet Dont or forged It is useless fo edged tools fad for many machine paris. Ver early in the history af metas means ware sought A GRAPHITE to render “ion” more ductile. These led 10 the. manufacture of WROUGHT IRON, Using a process which removed most of the carbon tom tho ion mace in the blast-furnace, Pigitom was melted ins Coal or coke-fired fumace (Fig) lined ‘with materia containing a large amount of iton oxide. A corsin amount of oxide was ‘also charged with the pigion. About 4 few. was melted at each heat and when ‘molten wa, of cours, in intimate contact swith the odes. The rosult wea that the fcmban in the iron combined. with the ‘oxygen in the oxides to. form. carbon ‘done ~ the reaction was quite vant at times, with the metal appearing Yo "bo The process was. accolrated by theSe en fomacaan, ho "ae or tired te Sater ea suerte oh a pints ncaa eg Pian TOE tal pn ton co GONE how cater Con fom: pny ene oat oe ce est Cagis of a tin When iba Pre Ges tara he ern 1m Bo Nose anton st Sas haan cman noes ieee tact eo Gee evar an wee ms tne eres nacre Soh! Se eae ener oe ‘ea fn te tate ofr wth Sento al nt ed tah Se as ty ne coro oat Sale wots ht cs “Tho bars fom the hammer were cut langthe and bound ‘welding. tompereture and. reforged inte billets This procoas could. bo repeated saveral times: each expelled more of the emaining slag and winat wos Tet was io the form of thin staaks “The quality known a8 ‘Best™ was moto which had been faggoted Twice. "Best Best” was made from faggoted "Best bars, snd “Troble Bost” trom fsggoted "est Best’. "Best" bors would have 5 tensile strength along the rain ofthe sig ff about 23 tonelegin whilst “Treble Best™ might reach 28 tondsain. The strength cross the bres would be abou: 15% Ins ~ the procass carat complete eliminate all the slag and this forms ¢ fibrous structure within. the. material Under the microscope the main body of the met! i almost pure Ferrite, intereper ‘sed with bande of slag as 22m in Fig. 5. ‘Wrought iron was too soft for use as 2 cutting to, en for tho earliest times © new material, having a carbon conten Inidway between wrought iron and cas: frons, was made from best quality fangcnd bars Ts wan cated STEEL an) any reference to. metal of this nome Brevious to about 1858 must be assumed to apply to this, and not tothe il soe (3 in. wide x Bi. thick) wore heats Ma box containing charcoal for peiods of 0 days at 8 temperate of about $000". During. this time the. iron carbon and as. tho bars were fbtivey thin this obsorption penetrated “hough. Means wore provided for {eitdrawing a fst-ber from time time, us giving a rude form of quality comol [Upto 18 tons ats ime could be treatea) {he carbon ‘content couls be roughly pred bythe length the heat, bt {eo short the penetration would be Incomplete, Carbon content could never bebelow about 0%, but could easly be feised t0 1.5% for (og) tha making of rotors. The process called. the “cameniation Process” and though twas fective the ificlty was thatthe carbon Eantent varies trom ber to bar ond sven Bong. the length of single bar To |. Qygteome this, Benjamin. Huntsman in 4748 found meas of meting the ars ter comentation. (it wil be appreciates thatto moke a crucible which would stand Wp fo the temperatures need was very Gimeuitttrat time! Further, he uso SAW Blton smelted using charcoal es = ls thus eliminating. the. impurities '8-and_ sulphur ising. fom ake fuel After “cementing” the wrought Hm in the usual way he melted broken up te Know todoy. The apectally soloctes BATE about 50 tb, at a ime = in special ay crucibies, This took about 5 hours ‘he contents of the crucible were then 2st into pre-heated. spit, cast-iron ‘moulds to form bars. Stoel made by this brecess wea — and ie — known as “Crucible “Stee!” or “Cast Steel” By ily seleing te int comerted fang, 85 8 rule, using pieces from ; ee ety uniform quality could be achieved ar Superior to tho old so-called "ister sel”. The cast bars could be forged - alded (with some care) to make larger pieces, of for very large objects, several Eracblas east into one (sand) moulé, The Stee! cou, of course, be hardened in the fashion later to be devcrbed ~ that's what this Book Is about!) but it tas frequently Used simply #88 Tt may soem odd that we fist mab ‘material high i carbon, then remove mast OF it and finaly, sad carbon to produce ‘material of the requiced analysis, but @ Tite rfection wil show hat at each step flso fined the inn, to some. extent Femoving impurities. and the final step intoduced the carbon inthe form it wes ‘needed. the proves isnot as iogial 3 it Seems. The Huntsman crucible process ‘ae in use unti quite recently, and there may be a few small plats sill opersting But the “east steel” (or. to bo more efinte, high-carbon steel) of today Is made mainly in electric fornaces, and the Carbon added directly inte the mot. with Very sophisticated. methods of analysis Used to contol the final quality The MILD STEEL we use today was ‘originally regarded a8 a form of wrought iron made by direct removal of e3rb00, 20 avoiding the troublesome slag inclusions, and the inal patants of Horry Bessemer wore for a “new way of making wrought Iron. This he di by lowing air through 2 esse! charged with molten iron, and se buming out the carbon. Later. the open- hearth process, introduced by Thomas ane Gilenest about. 1878, etfected the Conversion by the reaction between the ‘alten bath andthe furnace ning. Today, however, almost all mild er low carbon Steel's: made by blowing oxygen through 8 reaction vessal containing perhaps 300 tons of molten fon, Brought cast from ‘loving elomants are 3 carbon) 36 ‘equired, bu drety into the malten bath, ‘rather than ae in tha camentatlon process, "® SPEOAL STEELS No yng, orn te so hw pers seme eet ho Se ‘steel in an electric are furnace a ‘cast iron”. A general distinction may also. CHAPTER 2 Sei Sosa cena setecetanereectnns, Sumeatesanew ieee Wetman at irene: Sarwan etree ot Sonar ov che wee of ote aya se) Sen, exer: Principles of the Hardening a Situ Teciteted Be neg Tee wessesaibsercae. Inne sree raat SCORE Sterns one a SBT e ceed Tee caer Sear eee Ta eee OE See's Waring neyo sa en ety a tc ih Sent up to'pemaps 0.6%. Those leat con the “high spocd” tool steels alloys of _BRBDIC NEVE Been doing it for thousands ot atomic theory, just with hardening sted Te tLimaans by nest weatmene, but not ron, tungstan, cobalt and carbon "Htc sas JUKE Heat the metal to cherty-red This arrangement is typical of newly Pestana sattclenty for outing touts thw preeace of earbon which provides gd.quench in cold water and there tis ~ salted kon. and tharo wil always bo arbon Tool Steel” wit contain from many of their properties. Ite a sehtary Rat! However, ke the horse (which is nine atoms. one at each comer ofa cube 0.75% up to a0. much a2 1.5% carbon, fellaton that our anjoymont of mode! r= noble arial but does not sways and one in the centre, at tis temperature. {Nowedays almost al steel wil contin engineering depends entirely on the Go0-,) ths does not alnays work apd It igealed a "Body canted cubic eta slloving slemorte, manganese especially, material found m the. coma ct your Jeac tle knowledgo of what goos on inside Such crystals appear here and there in but it is the carbon cantont which pone! ‘he metal will bom make fale easlkely, the melt, nd a8 new anes form hey rom ‘and also give some ideo of whet to do on those already there, the ltUe groupe Solan Sine Works ‘won the occasional awkward ob growing lager unl thoy moot their nog - ‘Sppears. Those who fine that horses never Bouring grup. Where this meeting ectrs Pap 40" are ainnys surprised how easy it there wil be a ciscontinuiy of the growt ‘seems when someone who knows about Sohal when all sala look tough he Torco takos ovor! Thora ls, they will say. microscope will show grey areas with fine Fathing difiutt about you just need tones round them — Pig. (The crystals Understend the animal. iti the seme with themselves are. too small to be seen ‘tool. Nothing itficult unless you are ale are actually making tho stand that partis 2 for us. You may have a sight ef Droblem with some of the "new words ® These | will explain as we go slong, but {you will also ind ist at the and of the {BOOK to which you can refer ne be. g CRYSTALS AND GRAINS. When pure iron starts to solidity the ‘toms arrange themselves in a precise of $A conamay ao it Geomatics! portern, es showin in Fig 6. | = © SS Repeat tet nso avo shown the atoms 23 lite balls for ig ex uercmse ean mere tonat “atc eats we know that they dom't look ike icone sneer ae re 13eS through an ordinary microscope). These fateas are the “grins As 9 rule, the Smaller the grains (within reason) the Dotter, and part of tho job of heat tre rent ia to “rfine” the metal to reduce ‘rain sce, Pure iron (Ferrite) tends to form Tater large grains. TeMperarute —e TIME TAKEN FOR & CHANGE Sot Eugene Siaremscecee 4 ‘The matal now cools sil further, and ‘when we reach 1392°C an od8 thing happens. The fall in i arrested for a short wil, almost 36 if ‘thor is @ source of heat within tho otal (Fig.8) This is, fact, the ease, for there ig a change taking place in the crystal Sirieturo which actually releases (Metalurgists call his an “arest pot "in the cooling of the metal. I you has Fin, 9 Face conse a ott sah sultable oguipment you would see the Ceystals re-arranging themsolves. actually sintegrating and. reforming ina new pattern. It is stil “cubic, but this time ‘with an atom in each commer and one In the contre of each face, 14 In all Fig, ‘This is called 9 "FACE-conved euble™ crystal. “Again, these crystals form ‘aygrogatos which mi ‘rain boun- ‘aries. That such a chango is possible may Seem surprising for though the metal is prety hot cs 3 sol, and you would have to iti fay smarty with @ hammer to change its shape. Things would seem very Siferent i you were one of the stoms! Evon at workshop temperature there Would be some distance betwoon you and the next one and at this high temperature ‘you would find you had plenty of room: What appoars to us 25 "sols, ntact Wy empty space, even within the 7" the foroes which act between {atoms which give us the sensation of ny. 3 only that The atoms themselves stand stl. True, they cannot chase as thoy do in a liquid or a gas, but ‘fo vibrate about their mean positon. act, tis this vibration whien generates “the coloured ight we associate with hot “etal In such elcumstences itis not 90 Surprising that sors of ene atoms ean dit tite, They do tis all he time at omporatures, and at this "erial” Mperature they carry out 8 complote mngement (Nos the metal cooks further we mast yet “another areest point thi time at 910°C “This heralds a change back 10 the original “Bodh-contred cubic shape of Fig. This is “bright red” and about the “temperature we should normally use for ng. Coating down sil further thore is fan arrest point again, at 770°C IS no change of crystal structure but this is the point at which the “Ipetal can become magnetic, (tis some- callod the. "Curio" point. This “thange in magnetic properties can be 3 Indicator of temperature for some Bia of twexe changes ocour in reverse “order wien the matal is heatad, but at the _arest points the metal seems to “hong “back” and not get any hotter fora short while, Again. this can be 2 usoful Tamporature indication. It is important, however, 19 observe that we have bean talking of a gradual temperature change jah the atoms are relatively mobile lahon hot thay “eri or "ituss” rather than "travel. The changos all aka time to ‘Somplete. The presence of athe almmants = impurities, or aloying material — ean “Sometimes ‘make the metamorphosis Sil Finally, the actual temperatura at which the arrest poms oecur is very flighty siferent whan heating from that found when cooing, EFFECT OF CARBON The presence of carbon has a marked fltect on the behovour of the. metal ‘Whan molten, the carson is dissolved In ‘he iron, as we saw inthe lat chapter —t Ig the same for molton steel a5 for cast ‘fon. One Immediate attect is 0 lower the point at avhichsolifeation starts end, in Bidiion,” to spread the. saliiication process over a: tomparature range. The magnitude of this depression and. the ange of solidification temperatures depends on the amount of carbon prasent but in the case of (say) @ 0.5% carbon fel the inal solidification point (the “Tiguidus") Is lewered to about 500°C — pout 50°C below that of pure ion — and 2 solidus", when all te sob, ig not reached until'1290°C. In between these {wo Tomporatures. the metal ls pasty, ‘matal crystals and malten meta! baing present together. (YOU wil have found the ame thing with some grades of solder). ‘Now, the earbon and iron ate in solution whan liquid, and tis state prevails when {old's well! have mentioned this Ct “in passing” and Tt does need some explanation It the ion and carbon were =. mixture wo should have measurable parties of the two substances uniformly dstibutd. They might, however, separate out, 25 ground. these particles thousands of millions of stoma “solution is quite diferent Here we have, the individual atoms forming the sper Sion. The seal fs quite efron. I Qu feosble — indeed. quite normal ~ to find such an atomic lapesion ("solution ina 15solid — 9 well-made ice-olly is an example “The carbon atoms are found actualy within the Ferite crystals they are much Smaller then the Ferrve atoms) as shown inFig 10. Tha number of eesolves atoms tatich ean Be accommodoted io this way ‘00s dapend onthe tamperature (asin the fase of any lquie solution) but i also ‘Sepencs on the type of erystal, too. (Tis has an important bearing on the herden= ing process, os we shall se ater). Furthor, ‘although they are situated within the ‘ryeallatice the carbon atoms can ditt fr aftuse just a8 can he atoms of iron, but this drift can cour at any time, not Ist at the sresttomperstur. We shall bee later tht the iron and carbon atoms fa also be present io the form of Compound” an carbid — but this need not concer us tthe moment ‘To tum to our newly solidified metal, the fist afct of tho carbon has been to ‘depress the melting point and to cause & pesty stage during solidiicaton. Once £01, the carbon fs found in solid solution. In addition. owever, the presence of Carbon inhibits the fist eystal form found in pure iron. The metal solidifies deectly Jo the Face-cantro cube form of Fig 9, ‘aut with many ofthe crystal toms con” 16 taining earbon atoms, a8 shown in Fig 10. ‘There is NO arrest point at 1392°C. This ‘Solid. Solutien”. with foce-centred crystals, ie called “AUSTENITE™, ator the ‘matallrgiet Sir Wiliam Austen, who first ie it. Grains of eryatals are found, asin the case of pure iron, Stl folowing our 0.8% carbon it cools we find an arrest point 780°C, ‘where the crystal structure ‘Ghanges to Body-centred cubic ~ you wil See that thie occurs about 120°C lower then in the case of pure lon. The ‘magnetic change, or "Curie Point” rakes place a few dograes low "Thus. the immediate effect of no more than OS% carbon has Been. frst 10 ttopress the melting point and ro introduce 2 pasty stage in the solidification, 10 Sliminate ‘altogether one of tho arest points and ite associated crystal and to reduce ‘which the others occur This may not, at frst, seem tobe of gre Importance, but i is the implications of ZON-CARBON TRANSFOR- iS f cools, but with move attention to ig happening to the carbon and the ie thie’ time At solidiestion the ite is 2 homogeneous solution of substances However 2 soon 35 the gl pascot tho avrost point at about °C and cooks further. the composition ie Austoriteslowiy changes, until at 38°C it contains O.83% carbon — maximum it can hold at this perature. It can only acheve this iment of carbon by olecting Ferite ms, and ins it docs progressivaly as Hempereture fls (The steel only con "0.5% carbon to start with). This 19 forms grains oF bands surrounding gtaine of Austenite, which now form Sart ofthe whle. The overal analysis he steel wil sll show 0.5% of carbon, Tes all concentrated in the Austente is mgt ‘Sea chonos ich aoa y ss sempeane 01790" SRT Reet en gene eee pment tert 790°C mont. You eannot harden pute iron, but coat core sae fe t0 a change in the relationship ofthe fon and Ferrite inthe Austente. Above TASC the corbon isin solution, but at °C It actualy combines with some of Iron to form Iron Carbide Thies FES contains about 6.7% carbon Itis very hid indeed and is given. the name CEMENTITE™, because it was frst made by the Cementa- thon the Avstenite from 1 uae formed, 39 that there wil be Ferre lat over. In the event, the tite (or leon carbide) crystalises very thin plats, with similar tin Of Ferrite. sandwiched between thie assombly of platos forming a ‘corresponding with tha grain of Fe. 11Aetlbfe mane tone ‘Austonite from which it came, Under the ‘microscope these grains have. a vary Beautiful sheen, resembling that of Mother-of-Pearl. For this reason It is called “PEARLITE", {| am sony abou all ‘these names, but there is 2 glossary atthe ‘dof the book you find them efcut to temember The overall composttion of Pearite 12 0.83% carbon stil, 20 that 28 the stee! contains only 0.5% we should ‘expect the Pearite graine to be suroUn- ‘Se by grains of Fort, and thie en fact the case. See Fig 12. “This recombination of Austente into Pearite occuts in aff carbon steal whan ‘cooled slowly. Natualy, the amount of Peerite wil dopencion the carbon content iy. But its always therein greater or propenion. Boing a combination of Soft an ductile iron (Fert) and very hard Cement, is vary tough. THE IRON-CARBON DIAGRAM It we wore 10 look at steel witha diferent ‘carbon contont wo should fied similar thanges taking place, but at alforant temperatures. For convenience, engineets and metallurgists aesemblo the data on @ chart ealed the “Iron-Carbon Egulviam 7i 4 e f | i enn yam", wich shows the acts of aon and temperature have 1 sivoied varsonoftisin Fi 19 ean oly wth ee” he fl icles cst ron as wl) an | “howe ot Bothered with tne temperatures pints moting range. Toso uftsenty wil sd compat gran Emon voots on the Matlury of Ste Bur there ie. very ‘lear one. in clopeia Brtsnicn, the eoton Mileles "ron end Stee Th can be Jooked at inmost pubic tvaen ‘have shown the 08% sel we have Jun considered ss a sera ne. The poor anest pont or iio temperature Aethow by te line ABE andthe lowe! You wince that these “Swe ml ave a lock a I orn at baie coy co tos aa typical tole wth carbon “toment of (oy) 1250 | ove srown es ih line here also. We start with rite a6 Boon but ste te. sre mre tran the OSS wiih Gravina ean De hell seme ical aromas ‘cool below the upper criti, which TH about $00°C, the Austente finds f 0 rch in carom thi ime, whores previous example wat rich in Fert 3. 95 the temperature falls carbon Is _PrOgressvely rejected, but it ic rejected in orm of ron carbide (Corman) foe “unlike the case of cast ion. free carbon “eannot exist under these conditions, We find therefore, that he grains of Austoite “srenow being surrounded by fat, steaks, and then grains, of Comontte: tere Is 90 non Ferrite availabe. By the time the steel hres reached tho loworcrtical temperature ‘Whe tine BE) tho Austanite has. again SOtled down with 0.83% dissolved “Sutbon, as Defore. And, a6 betore, this ‘Manstorms to Peorlte as the metal cools ‘through the critical. We now find grains of Pearilte surrounded by areas of cementite, (Fig. 14) in contrast t0 the Poorite aod Fernte of the lower carbon the two lines repre senting the upper and. lower cael Tomporatures (tho "arrest points”) now coincide. Iti, afer a fashion, a "Eutectic Solution, similar te that found in solders 4nd brading sioys, Boi the crystal tans formation an the metamorphosis of the Auustenite oeaut at the tame time, ond the Austenite changes to Peatite directly ‘hie. "all Poarite” stool is about tho toughest that can ba had with a plain carbon tel. You will note that as 8 eon sequence of thie "Eutectoid” at O83 ‘carbon the upper extical temparatures fr the various stels vary considerably, along the. ling ABE. This hae an important bearing on the temperatures needed to affect the annealing of the stool The lower entical temperature, DBE, does vary 4 lite, but in many published versions of tho diagram it fs shovn asa straight tw. ‘The diferance is only afew degracs. have shown on the diagram @ number ‘of litle skatchos indicating the grain for- mation — actual ‘micrographs. would be 19ig 18m reo en oF rather confusing and are iffiult to Feproduce, However, by examining & Specimen through the microscope an weed matallurgit can aally feeogrise the vatlous constituents of ‘and by ‘ting the proportions ofeach can maki jimate ofthe overall carbon content cof the specimen. To aum up: we would expect 10 find very lite Pearite and a lot of Feit ina tow carbon (mild! stool, with the propor tion of Pearite inerevsing as we approach (089% carbon. Beyond tis the Cementio ‘would begin to "appear, inereasing In proportion 96 the carbon sontent rose to {he maxmum sasoeiatad with 3 ste! {about 1.7% carbon). We would expect the “toughnoss” and strength to increase bs the Pearle proportion ereased, up to (0.83% carbon. Thereafter the steel! could bbe expected to get harder, with some loss fof ductity, This i, in fact the case. Fig 1S. But | must emphasioo that these cor- siderations all apply ony to staal which hhas been both heated and cooled SLOWLY, s0 that tho litle atoms have time to find thelr right placos. ad. the ‘chemical changes at the lower ential line hhave time to eomplate. It Is typicat of @ 20 oa oe oa a st CARBON, hot rolled bar” which has (or should have) been normalised when you receive ittrom the merchant. Cold drawing (eg. ‘Bright Drawn Mild Stee") will not alter the type of structure (Pesrita-Forito, of Puatite-Camentit) though it may altor ‘the mechanical stength. and especially the ductility, bacsuse tho forming process has distorted the grains. The stuctures found wien the ste! cooled too quickly for the changes 10 occur are quite dife- ent. So, let us now have @ look at the tect of other han slow cooling EFFECT OF COOLING RATE Let us again consider our piece of 1.2% carbon steel at (say) 800°C, which Temperatura has been reached either by slow cooling or slow heating. The ‘Austonite will have partly transformed ‘anc thare wil be Austenite grains sur ‘founded by some Cement. Within the ‘Austanite moat ofthe crystals wall contain ‘one or more carbon atoms — the "aol Solution” condition, Now let ue reduce the ‘omparature vet guicly. There willbe no time for the atoms 0 rearange thom- ‘sete, no ine for crystal wansformation spped inside the crystals with nade te space for them. In addition. the rites compelled 19 rain far more bon that It can normally hold tthe temperature. The Austenite crystals ‘But under enormous intornal tres, this fs just the condition which is ciated with hardness, In action, the jentte which is present is unable to lise mormaliy. but Instead Ts con- into. '3 needle-tike. structure ‘a8 an "Acicular” formation) which wary hard indoed. In fact it those adlos" which help in tha formation of 2 cutting edge. This new structure — seeated cryeals associated wth ‘esculor crystals of Comontite ~ is given nome MARTENSITE. and isthe Basis all harconed carbon stee! I have already referred to the need 10 ‘the metal slowly. partly to ensure the various transformations have ime occur, but this is also necessary sa that ‘ean be eure thatthe metal ie hot right Te does take tine forthe heat to terior. Asia In the mica of tho workpiece? ‘Outside has cooled fast, i rue, but Hts clear that (with large apecimens pecially the core may not have kept up effect on the metal? We can best wor this question with another ror, Fig, 18. Tis shows temperature ‘the vertical scale, and time on the wl Because metallurgists and neers need to examine ceoting rates eh may last hours or days 9s well 35 ‘which take only the oud second oF ‘the ima scala i compressed — i, in ogertnmic’ The diagram shown relates to no particular stool, but itis typleal of most: every eto specification es its own “S-curve" ke this Iti impor. tant to realise that, so far as we are cor- cerned, it must be used only to ustate the affects of timeltomperature changes. Detail interpretation of the slagram i 0 matter for experts Looking at Fig, 16 you will soe that there are two 5” shaped curves. On the [ett of the line ABC we have a zone where the stel is Austenitic (n a state of said Solution) but fis “unstable” ~ ft has not Yet transformed but is ready to do 49. On {he right ofthe line DEF we have the ste! in ite final, totally wancformed state. In thie area, H we were taling about the 1.2% eatbon stee! there would be grains of Peatite surrounded by Camonta: iit ‘wore tha 0.8% steal we looked at earlier there would be gains of Pearle surtour- ed by Faris. In between the two "3" Curves. the structure Is undergoing the transformation process and wil consist of ‘| mixture of Cement (carbides), Pearite tnd Ferrite and, of course, some of the original Austonite — carbon in. solid Solution. The nearer to the Ine ABC, the ‘mote Austenite, whilst close to the line [DEF mote ofthe othor constituents 'A the bettom of the "S's two herlzon- lines are shown dotted. At one, marked "Ms" the bard Martnsie starts to form, and below the line "MI this change 1 Complete: the meta is all in the hare con ‘ition. For silver stee!” Ms bes at about 380°C However, Martasite cannot exist {othe right ofthe ina at F" Now, consider 8 piece of high-carbon steel at the point “Or. It is ot about "780°C. It ic cools slowly it wil flow the line QP, taking perhaps 24 hours to cool ‘down to.18°C. The line patees through both of the °S" curves, indicating that {otal ‘ransformation to Poarlite and CCementte has taken place. The material is 2“annealed” — the stee| has had tne to 90 through allthe changes we talked about fair. Now look atthe line QR. Tho moral as cooled through an identical You will 60 on the diagram a line temperature range, but this time in no “QS”, which JUST touches the nose of feecond. Ato point dossit the leftchand "S” curve. This is. the {ross the "S" curv, s0 that no wansfor- slowest rate ~ the “Criteal” rate — of ‘mation to Pearlte 8 possible Butt HAS cooling which will achieve a fully Crossed both the Me and Mf tines, indical- hardened. Martensitic condition. (The ing that total transformation to Martensite locaton of the point "S” will depend on ‘aNSFORMATIGN STARTS. ° u = i a E ot _ wig =| 3 ren aL I. Ne = 4 Ala eT Tt LL St Ee oR IE a ‘end "W" some of the rite, but 3 Between "Vv | ustorite will eanstorm to Pe “the cooling curva only lot to the fight of ‘the line ABC momentary the remainder "ill earry on down QU to form Martensite. ‘The final stato wil, therafor, bo mainly Martonsive but with a litle Pearite 3 wll It wil not_be. as hard, BUT, the | presence ofthe Pearle will make Wi less brite and abit rougher. This ciagram helps us to understand “what can happon inthe contr of piece of stee! during the quench. ifit has a small | gross-section, and is cooled along som “ine such as "GR", then the cent of the spetion may follow a lng batwoen "OR" fang "QS", end wil bo hilly transformed, “ght through: it will be "through ‘hardoned I however, it was a very thick ‘ieee the cent might very well be cooled flong "OU" evon though the outside followed “OR”. The centre of the specimen would not be ae hard as the Outside though it may well be tougher. ‘One of the purposes for which some of ‘the alloying elements ore added to modern “carbon” steels is the improve | ment of the “through hardening | Gharacterstic; the alloy mods the "5" | saive Aplin, unaloyed carbon sas SS | Reet secon haan Recres \ po cccrme Secczs” + not 00 good in this respect. But NO thick hetion of stool can be hardened sight through, even when aloys are added. For “Silver Steel”, which containe sie Chromium to help matiors tho lint Is 8/16 inch thick, though the loss of hardness at the cente of a piece 4 inch thick is very smal indeed This “Limit to ough Hardening” explains the Aiteutias sometimes met with when 9 large section carbon stee! tool is ground down at the point to bring it 16 conta hoight in a small atho, 35 in Fig. 17. The point of the tool is now located in the entre of the section and will not be as hard as the original. The loss of hardness wil be quite netiesable i @ hat-neh toot Is ground down 108/16 inch point-height. Tho cure is to anneal and reharden, See p37 DISTORTION DURING THE QUENCH [As well as hardness we ore frequently 4 with the shape of the workpiece, especially when makin ‘gouges form tools. tie thought wi Suagest that there i likely tobe a dimen ‘ional change with al she wansformations within the metal and that, In adtion, tha highly stressed crystals will “fleet just 4s any stressed member will undor (oad, Not only that ~ the vary 2er of coating ‘enises contraction and in a "quench’ this contraction is sudden in the extreme, IW the workpiacs is not exactly symm ‘mairical ther i isk of uneven shrinkage. rier gugnenea~ oom manana 23“The higher the cooling rate the greater the vise Tn cases where “shape” is important sve must use a slower cooing rate, even ‘hough this may mean that the quench line forthe centre of the work may crose the nose of the "S” curve momentary Fortunately this not so imporant io aniclas not intonded for motal-cuting and in some casas can bean advantage, ‘expecially for tools subject to. shock loading, The risk of cracking is not great ‘when dealing with (sy) 9 simple “D"-bi. but can be acute in the case ofa miling fetter, with charp corners at the 1000) foots. In such a case It is prudent to Sserfice a ile hardness in order 10 Be ‘ure of geting our tool in one oie ‘lowor ‘method of quanching sought. In Industry special methods sre use. ‘not necessaly beyond the capabilites of the model engineer, but thoy do need proper temperature contol. The simplest Trethod for uss to quench i oinstead of ‘water. The Fisk of eracking and distortion Is considerably reduced yet the loss of hardness is not great. If, however. cstor- tion is of the fist importance, a5 wien making 2 gap gauge, then itis wiser 19 Use the special oll Nordening too-staol — “Ground Gauge Stock”. (ough i can alo be obtained in black ber as well. This material is alloyed s0 that oi- quenching ‘sways misses the knee ofthe "S" cune, Gnd full transformation is obtained. It is ot a8 hatd as a water-‘hatdened straight carbon steel. but 1s adequate for the purpose. TEMPERING Just 8 the “Good Shepherd tempers the ‘wind to the shorn lamb, s0 the prudent {oolmaker tempers his har ste! against shock loads. A high-carbon tool steel, 26 broperly Nest treated, will have reached the maximum available hardness, but it will be vory britla. As havo ied 10 ‘explain. the exystals are under consider ‘ble intemal strain ard fracture. This may spplyovcssionaly even, ‘with oltquenched steel, In edition, the fain size may not be 3s fevourable to loan cutting action as wo would tke, especialy if the inal tersperate (point ‘G" of Fig, 16) was not exactly vight however, we now reheat the steel to 3 relatively low temperature these crystals ‘Son be, Yo s0rne extent, stress colived! ‘and if the temperature is held for a tite ‘while seme. dogres of grain retinamant tay be hed 98 wall For plain. cutting teats, where shock loading is minimal, « very iow tomporing temperature wil rv whe usual recommended ie. about 230°C, though this did refer to turing tools one or two inches square ~ I shal hhave more to say about this ater! Is ir addition, prudent to temper the took shank ven more, 80 that it does not crack under the clamping forces ofthe rook-post. “Tempering can serve anothor purpose though We have seen that the quench produces Martensite — highly stressed ‘Austonite. crystas. intereporsed with needie-like Cementite. For some purposes, however, we need high strength fnd resilience rather than hardness. 25 Such the classic caso being the spring ‘There is no reason at al why 2pring should be HARD: the engineer expects thom to havo a high yield etoss and high resiinea. industrially it 18 possible to achieve this elrectly but this does need Specisl equipment. (And, i any. ca commercial springs are seldom made from straight earbon tool-steal). The only way open to most of us isto harden right fut (preferably in oll and then "tempor Beck to th dosived condition. We reheat 00% = erature the needles of Mertensite wo litle. “nodules” and, of the crystals are completely stress “The stoe! wil be "hard relative “blue”. AL this red steel to suit the purpose in mind by a sucondary heat yt at comparatively” low 1 hall be covering the aleve the “tight crystals and so the isk of cracking’ to improve the ‘so that you ean got a keen Martensite to 2 nodular cond- improve resiionce. | shal, in 3 ‘eal with this in mare etal, in relation tothe specie needs Turner's tools. whieh must bo Pup toa vary Tine polish and sharp STEELS Had yeas ago. when thi Practices of modal enginr ‘boing estoblshed,eabon steel that ~ an alloy of carbon and True, it would contain a few for tho days of chareoa ron were over (though was stil using Huntsman @ tool-stel made trom imported jrta charcoal iron) and typeally Of sulphur and. phosphorus was Today, however, almost all stzels cther elements as wll. We have iy seen how drastically the ies of pure ron are altered by on of quite small amounts of ‘and the tamo. applies to those alloying elements. The diagram (Fig. 13 on ppege 18) is. drawn for "plain earbon Steel, but each alloy will have a clforent charactorctie equllbrum diagram, some very compioxinoed. ‘Almost ll carbon tool steels those days contain about 0.36% of Manganese, te ‘main purpose being ta counteract the ftfects of the imputty Sulphur. At this level the effect on fig-18 ang hence an the heat weatment is negligible. Whe present in higher omounts 185 or more the steel noeds special treatment. A few tol-stecls ("Siver" Stal is ono — it contains no svar, by the way: the name fefees 10 is appeerance') include about (5% of Chromium, party to. help. in rofining the grain size but also to improve ‘through hardening’. At this level there is some slight effect on the shape of the lagrams, including the "S” curve, but no Special teatment is needed, The: quenching temperature is sighiy lite rent, that is al, These. steels 3 sontilly “carbon” stosis with aderives 1 improve performance. AS the alloy content rises, however. ‘and, more especially, when a combination Of alloying elaments is used, then the ‘equivalent diagrams to Figs. 13 and 15 become. very complicated. indeed, (Chromium, for example, forms 3. very thar earbidoon its own) When Faced with 2 stee! containing more than about 0.5% ‘of any of those elomonts (and thay can be ole, ‘Chromium, cabal. Vanadium, TTunesten, Molyedenum, Titanium. and others! the anower to the heat trea problem is. for the model engineer "DON'T"! A nice piece of 3% nickel 0.3% carbon steel will if you are sure itis ENZ1) make ‘excellent connecting rod bls, but unless you have the exact heat ttesiment dota Wt is best lat inthe "36 spplied” state Even more 9 if you come Aacrost any of the higher alloyed steels ~ 25of such, without proper data and equi iment, is Healy to be deppointing W not atastrophic. (However, | shall ina later thpter deal with the heat tceatmont of ‘ome ofthe medium earban stele, wish Ean, with core, be treated quite fective). Finally, dont forget that braving, and to" an even greater extant, welding, is form ot heat eatment! SURFACE HARDENING ‘There are many situations, both in ful sie ‘and. modal onginsering, whera”& hart ‘wring surface is eae but the corpo- ent also must resist shock loads — oF emhape repeated reversal of load, almost 's bad. Cross-head and gucigson pins are ‘examples. The usual suggestion made by ‘urters of ences In Made! Engineer and lsewhere is to use Silver Steel, harden, tnd then temper back. This not a very {900d solution to the problem. Fist. the tempering reduces tho hardness of the ‘waaring surface and. socond. temporod Martensie is not the best material for & lood-bearing component. Horses. for coursest A Bugatl ype 37 does not make the best of town caroges, nd you would bbe hard put to to meke an "0" gauge 28 loco on sn 16-inch tool-ta0m tathe, no matter hove accurate it was “The answor ie to use a mild or madiun carbon ‘tea, of specication appropriate te the leading conditions, and’ then 1% ‘modify the surface layer ofthe metal that it can be. hardened. You w: Temember het the eotiest_ method cj ‘manutacture of high carbon ste! involve iis heating inthe presence of eatbon. Th took a long time, but if we carry out the sme process Tor 8 short time then the Earbon will penewate only a. short Gistance. For modsis ws only pood 3 thn layer perhaps as small es 0,008in.wou's serve — and this is what is achieved by ‘CASEHARDENING'. There fe vero. waysin which tcan be done, some whicr Son t involved anything more than a blow: lamp and some special compound, but =i 316 quite practical for tho modo enginosr Once ths. surface layer has been ‘cor bused the part con be ested ans ‘quenched and, in most cases, dovs not ‘eed any tempering. The result i 2 core ‘rnin Ie strong and tough, and @ aurface ‘whieh is almost glass-nard. Further. the process is very laibla, and itis possible {o harden selectively, and even 10 cay ‘ut machining operations on ane parte! ® omponent after another part has bee Surface hardened. 1 gla more dotalls of ‘the procecire on page 6 APTER 3 ctice chapter I shall deal with the 3} aspects of Heat Treatment but ving deal diecussion ofthe acta 9 devices til ater. For the purpose ‘chapter, thoatore, | shal assume fyour source of heats ike the engine ur Rols-Royee, “sdequste for its “Tam going t9 leave the c00: ef Tempering 10. the next f 109, 88 this ie realy quite & lateral. Tho fst and imperative — ity Isto decide what material you ardening. i you are not sure about if iis just 8 place of good stu” plcked up ftom Evans the Serep my sdviee is “Dent I have by me write ths the SAE ist of steels hich be found In a sorap motor-car aye typed out on paper 7 inches ‘the list would be sever} fest long, than one fifth are. "pln" carbon = all the ost are more oF loss highly red — anc even i you knew that your "was carbon steel it Red probably heat treated already and would ite proper annoaing bofora reharde Tho chances of finding any steel sate ° heap these days Me lim. Far beitr to stat with 2 now fof stock: afer all f you are going to ating and Quenching in heat teat it it must be for some fatly important purpose. Honover, there are cases where metal ‘of more or less known provenance can be ‘recycled, and if you ae in 2 ight soot and {cannot get new steal, than the following ‘table may help in suggesting the probable ‘carbon content of old tools ete. 1 ‘omphase the word “oe, for those days ‘von the humble cod ehisel may be made from a non-tempering nickel aloy Catton Type of Fools 07” Crowbars; Pickaxes: Screwdrivers 08 Large Masonry chisel Quarry rook -fils: Wood-epiting Wedges 09 Cold Chisels: Shear blades: Bisckamitn shot sets; 1.0 Smaller Cold Chisels; Old wood- ‘working machine cutters: Hendasws, 11-12 Engineers cutting tots Oils Reamers ote. Flor Razers: Engraver's tools: Sawfiles. Ub Wire-drawing des: Cold Saws Many of these could be made trom high-speed steel, but this can easily be Gistinguished by using the "Spark Test” — the Mode! Engineer's Handbook. in ‘ny ease, hawever, the material should 21first bo annealed (See page 71.) and 2 small test piocs thon sawn off and test hardened. with. the estimated carbon contentas a guide Heating We have aleady seen the need for slow heating, and | cannot emphi is eed suficlenly. The question is How slow?" If put into @ cold mute fumaco and heatsd up with tho mutfo, this il sufice. With the average mutt in fact, the work will heat-up slowly enough Hf put imo the furnace when its fad atthe Nardaning temperate. (I fame books you wil find this called the “Austonising Temperature”, by the way) Ifyou ave using a molto toad or salt bath an tis necessary ta proheat the work 3 Bitie anyway, 06 | explain later But with 2 ordinary blow: lamp oF gas torch some ‘cara IS naoded. It is all 100 easy 10 ‘overheat thin part locally. | find I take bout five or six minutes to bring a smal fool ~ about § inch x 3 Inch tong ~ up to the errest point, and it takes aie longer to climb the femeining 60°C oF so. Ths ‘ives good results, and can be taken as 2 ‘ulde. Berior to be {00 sow than too fast. Atte arrest point there i 8 tempration 16 turn up the gas, a8 the metal seems to be making no progress. This ust the wrong thing #0 dot The lite atoms ae in process ff moving house, and won't welcome being hurried over the job! Keep heating ‘ata steady rate and when the metal stars 1 colour up further you are very neary at the ight temperature. Overs, the short ‘newer is that you must use your judge ‘ant, and try 10 get ae much experionco {35 you can. if you rely on torch oF kitchen fire heating. For the odd D-bit that wil Be used once and then serapoed the heating ‘ate may not be al that ertca, but you MUST pay attention if the tool ian lmportant one, ikely to be used for years. ‘Once up to tamperature you must hoid ‘tho hoae for some time. Agaie "How 28 long"? You have both to make sure thar ‘tho motal i hot right 10 the contre. ANS five those atoms time to atta thee nes, Sp0t. Fortunately inthis ease the ans ‘saquite definite; metalurgists and genera. tons of blacksmiths over 2 cantury ce more have establisied the rue: heat fcr ONE HOUR PER. INCH. OF THICKNESS, once the tool Is up to the hardening temperature. This means that» inch thick too! should be heated for about 20 minutes. Yes, | Know! You hav ‘never held the heat for as long as this! | frm sorry, but thet means thet you have fever achieved the maximum posse hardness, either! Just to persuade you | have set up specially and hardened four places of carbon ste! trom the same bor holding the temperature for on, five, ter and tee minutes, th let eng ight {or the Jrineh stock used. The hardness, measured on my “vintage” Shore Sclarassope came out at 74, 78, 78, ar) B81. respectively. Those who know ther hardness umbers wil realise that thest Figures are all low — but equally. they wi realise tht the "Shore fe nt alte for Such small specimens. A ‘subsequent tes: Gn the last speciment showed a hardoess Ot above 900 Vickers, and this i about Fight. The reduetion in hardess for Shorter heating times is quite evident the. "one. minute piece” is softer as hardened” than the toot should be wh tampered. TH quite true that our tools ve felatively small compared with thost formerly used in industry ~ or today, ‘or that_matter. They don't contain mus tnd. the RATE of heat transmission Needed to got even a finch too! to fl temporature at the centre in 15 minutes very high. Clealy fr tho odd seriber-oint itiert all that Import. but for cuties tools it does matter. shal later, be tla pout the use of 2 molten sal-bath ating. and one of the great advan ‘of this typo of furnace fa that the time can be reduced: the rate of ivansler i= much better, Setting the ina cold mute tarace and ltting it #.up withthe furnace 's good {for the muffle heating rate ‘= about as that for the metal. You can ng time in tha way. he Right Temperature. At fst sigh t tbe assumed that we need to Take Metal up to above the upper etal ture — tha line ABC of Fig 13, — Ms is not the case. Fiat (fr high on to0l-steels, that ia) we do need "Free Comentite” when we quench, ‘this does not appear unt the metal fallen below the upper critical persue. Second. experience shows atthe grain sie Is more favourable i the is quenched trom 3. lower hed fram below the upper eres! those below 0.9% fom above i. This “general” rule ons Tor departing from it — and one WRequence is that the quences perature dows not vary much over the range of carbon conta 5 treating OTHER na this may not apply — see Ch VIL following table ie drawn up from 2 ‘of authorities’ fr stone all of gh contained stout 0.35% manganese 9 today is regarded as e ‘stool, The exception isthe "Siver conning also about 0.45% there may be speciat Note t 3 for pure har right Temperature, °C 790-800 770-780 770-780 760-770 770-780, es are for quenching in water or brine. For oikquenching the ‘otal ig best heated perhaps. 10-20°C Higher, but | do not advise going sbove 800°C, FILE STEEL, usually 1.25% carbon with 0.5% chromium, give ‘maximum hardness ftom 800", but ‘ust not be hosted much above this figure. In al cass itis much better to obtain the coneer quenching temperature fem the manufacturers or the stockists Hf the best results are to be obtained. You wil ‘ot go far wrong withthe Figures giver in the ‘tabla, but as is. atwaye. the cas Perfection demands more care’. Ht the EN No,, oF the newer numbers from BS 8970/1872 (which, incidentally. incorporate the carbon content in. the specification number) is known, then ‘france to the Sritish Stee! Corporation ‘may produce the required information. (Loak'in the telephane directory. oF try BSC, Swinden House, Rotherham S60 BAR). If the SAE mimber (Society. of ‘Automotive Engineers of Americal. is Known, then data’ is given” in. their handbook, which should be avaiable in the local reference brary This gives almost ALL steels made to US. specfica- tions, and thoy der ifr much fem BS 970; many hava the game number Inthe ‘ase of the ol-hardening gauge steels the broper temperatures sre given on the ‘wrapper. AAS 2 final point of comfort, these temporstures are not cites! to. fow ‘degrees: most steeimakare give a range if ‘only bocause thore faa tolerance on the fetal corbon content. Ifyou are within 10°C you will not be far wrong, PROVIDED you held the stool tore fo! tha proparlangth of tim. ‘Judging the Temperature. This is what Separates the men from the boys! The lé- timers could eatmate almost 1 a dogree 28hardening carbon stoe! al daylong. Ifyou hhave a gas oF electric furnace which is fitted with & pyrometer you are inno dlfculty — provided that You check the ‘accuracy of the instrument now and ‘again. ft has no pyrometer | give some: hints on making one on page 107.) With {a8 oF fre heating we have to rely on the olour of the metal Now, make 10 ‘mistako: titi an EXACT moesure ofthe Temperature — in fact, one form of ppytometae makes use of tho colour. The frequency of vibration of the atomic stele ie a direct function of the absolute tomprature, and this froquoncy ‘eterminos the eolour of the ight which femitted. The. problem lies In how tO escribe the colour. The birds in my {arden probably would not recognisa your Cherries as being red at all! And, for that ‘matter, some readers. may have Sue Blood in thei veins! Only experience ean ‘ive you 8 proper judgement. For what it |S worth, generations of blacksmiths over ' thousand years or 0 have adopted the fallowing “names” for th colours as saan Ina relatvaly dim ight. (But NOT, on any Aaecount, under ight from a fluorescent tube, which makes & pig's ear of any ‘colour judgement 700% ull Res 750°C Blood Res 00°C Choc Red 825°C Bright Cherry Red 850°C Red 00°C Bright Re r000°¢ Yolow-red “The best thing todo sto find someone wo hss a mute furnace with pyrometer. or arrange ae visit to. tho. local Technical Collage, and have the furnace brought up to the various temperatures so that you can see what It really looks ike, 20 (Have a pieve of stan stool st in place don't rayon the. appearance. of the furnace chamber. There is no substitute for this type of experince. However, %6 help you have taken some colour uk oF sean movin ‘and the printer hos done his exes lent best to reproduce these on page 33. ‘As a further guide, | find that tho larger boing rng (one af the spiral type) on ou: eda 90R electric cooker reached and ‘Stablised at 7B0°C after running full ano" 48 mins. with no pan over it; and the firebec' of a Courier Type 8 closed stove, buming. "Phumacite” (the egg-shaped thing) lay between 1000 and 1100" shor about 15 minutes davting up the the fiebed being about 7 inches critical temperature isan “arest point” 3 ‘which the eolour wll weom to hang back ‘This is an indication that you are within about 50°C of the required temperature (in passing, provided you are above ths anest point you will get soma hardoning btect. but none if you are below it) Very heer to this arrest point ~ very slightly below ‘Cure Point” at which to be magnatic. You can ‘checking with @ magnet or, as | co small compass. Be carelul though either magnets nor compassos like hoot fand there Is a risk that the magnet may ick up a small workpiece and etuse tole! po! There ore some “Temperature Indica: Ing Crayons” available, of two types One changes colour when the temperature the packet i reached: the roked” over the work and Ht ‘melts within two seconds the temperature iS as indicated f longer its too low, and? shorter, to high. Both are pretty accurate Brovised they haven't been instock fo! veers, but they do need litle practice > Mine aro made by the “Maral oN yn American firm — but fare available from Bayer Chemicals lchmond, Surrey. or from TP ‘Bo. Lid, Rose. Kin Lano Berks For use in mute fuaces out pyrometers the well-known Seeger Cones” (Wongors Lid, Etruria, fon Trem) can be used. Thoss curl at the top when the right ture Ts reached, and are used in Kilns, where caraful temperature is equally important. They have the sage that they can be used only Ponce, s0 that you need thom by tho Tense of proportion must be main- dial this, asin all acpects of hi Urs will moot all your needs. And, for portant jobs, provided. the OC and €30°C) you will get SOME ‘fect, though not very good at pexternes. If you harden tools fay fre= ‘then you wil vory soon deveion ‘colour sanse which will sabi You ro by eve: in any case, you have 10 ‘tho ‘colour under your workshop ons, not those of an industrial heat ent shop. But, you make al your i usle-fumace (or even kat some of the other srangemants ina ator chapter ling. This Is of lite importance in a Tool, os it must be ground in any but if tie a form-tool which hae 3 which cannot be formed on the ig wheel, ean bea nuisance, Hot uty If using ® ule the scaling can be reduced by sting a Yow pleces of ‘ry chereasl atthe mouth of tho mu, inet the door. This will consume or most of metel. (Don't use coke Alternatively there are some "Anthacale Paints” avaiable. These are used. by ‘ceramic enamellers, but are equally eer tive in protecting steel. It is painted on the work ahd is effective up to around 800°C. get very sucessuly, but also use @ substitute, This is ordinary whitening (powdered chalk) mixad with water oF ‘methylated spit and paintad on. Soms- times | bind ron wire over the top, and Ciart that Up with the peste as well. (The wire mus, of course, be pulled off before ‘quenching! This ie effective also. Both prevents propor colour judgement. No ‘matt in’ mute. but fatal i using & {oreh, Tho answer to this ts to hove an ontcal piece of scrap ste! (t need not bbe carbon ste!) alongside and provided you ensure that oth the workpiece and the test specimen are equally heated the latter ean be used to judge the colour Horoiogiats coat thir mal parts with sot ‘ap when heating. This Issa to avoid Scaling too, but I must confess | have not ved it myaelt QUENCHING will srve almost all the model engineer's acd. Brine glves 2 comewhatbettor her- flaning affect and can give more even Cooling ~ the results are more uniform. Of Je ecsontal when quenching complex shapes — the shghe loss of hardness 1s aaccepted a5 a fair exchange for the Feclued risk of tstorion and cracking ‘Tho actual cooling process with the tree quenchants i diferent ~ it fs ot if the generation of steam all over the ‘workpiece. This causes. an intenee. and buidden coating effect. a the latent heat of Vanorisation of water ts. very high soam is 3 vary poor conductor of haat ‘The cooing rate would drop cramaticaly IN this insulating ‘coating were not removed. So, the work must be apitated inthe bath: if this ts done, then cooling tint the approach to 100°C. (As we shal S00 lata, once the temperature has fllan te sbout 300°C the rate of cooling I not takes place but the presance of tho sat in the water soem to rear! the formation of the steam blanket. For some reason the cooling appears to be more even but itis faoter~ about twice ee fst es water down ta” 300°C. or thereabouts, Brine. is inveriably used for water” quenching wots in industry, and the figures quoted for hardness in sommeris! speciieations 10% saltwater brine Gil. behaves quite _differontly (Assuming a proper “Cold Quenching Oh is used Motor Oil” will have suite Unpredictable results. Ite slower in the intiat cooling, beeauea oll hae 3 much Jowrr latent heat than water. Once’ the ‘vapour Blanket” starts to form, however, the cooling rate (with the same degree of agitation) is very litle diferent rom that fof water. Below 400°C. however the oi Cools the work very much slower. Using a test rig, wae found (ith sti unagitated 2 fluids) that water would take about 3 andacd probe from 800°C to. 420°C and of about 5 seconds ~ no grea dtference. But wheroae the water cooke fall to 200°C, oil took 25 seconds. Th means that oth fluids bring the ste through the lowar critical temperature about the same rate ~ ol sight slowe transformation to Pearle, Hawever, the much slower rate. of cooling in the lov rmaches ~ below 400°C with oi mean that the trensformation to. Marton fashion, an this duces the risk of dst tion and cracking considerably, The Mla tensite wil form anyway, even Hf we 3 200d trom (aay) 200°C. This test was, he metal would not be propery harden fven with the water — we need cool fats of thousands of “degreesimin. hough the erie! range for that ~ but {does give an indication of the sien bbehaviour of the two fits. Agitation wi reduce the time taken, but the characte For made engineers. therefore, we say that in general water wil erve for 0 needs, but brine is. preterable wh Ulumote hardness is needed Oi should bs Used for ming eutors and for gauges 0 hardened fon preforaby sing the iit formulated to avoid distortion. brine ia made rom Vacuum deed Sol ho coarse 0° used by farmers for but Aosiable for a quench-bath. An 8 to 10 soliton is general — 12-16e2/gallon 180-1 00grvitre. In use, some of the wets will evaporate ad this must be made up. An old test was theta freah potato wo Oe 75°