need to make a Hardened tool,,,,,

Edited by desertjoe - 15 Dec 2024 at 9:13pm

KMAG wrote: Make it red hot and drop into warm used motor oil? I believe that part is an aluminum alloy or galvanized coated pot metal- not likely to take surface hardening well.

The first step in making a hardened wrench is having steel that is hardenable! Low grade steels like cold rolled aren't going to do it. If you were in a toolroom setting A-2 or O-1 would work. Then you would need to follow the procedure. For the hobbiest, if you had a piece of W-1 it could be water quenched. Cold rolled and other low grade steels can be 'case-hardened' but that is a rather involved process.

A lot of router wrenches are 11/16”
If it were me I’d go to work on a piece of leaf spring with an angle grinder. Don’t get it too hot.
You could get that wrench hot and quench it as well. I’d remove all the chrome prior. Get it to non magnetic temp and quench in oil that heated to near 160

Thad in AR. wrote: A lot of router wrenches are 11/16” If it were me I’d go to work on a piece of leaf spring with an angle grinder. Don’t get it too hot. You could get that wrench hot and quench it as well. I’d remove all the chrome prior. Get it to non magnetic temp and quench in oil that heated to near 160

jaybmiller wrote: watched enough 'forged in fire' to wonder WHY guys 'cool with water'.... normally you get the metal orangy-yellowy  in colour, then quickly into oil. Also if you don't get it right the 1st time, you stand a 99/44% chance of destroying it doing a 2nd heat treat. you might try grinding an open end wrench. 1st get the proper sized one, I suspect METRIC, since gun came from HF....... then use hand file to 'thin' it down, spalshing cool water on it often. The wrench IS already heat treated so if you reduce with grinder, you'll destroy the heat treat. I've done this with 7/16" wrenched to hold the 1/4-20 nuts on B&S starter electrical studs.

Quenching with water is a different cooling curve than oil, which is a different coiling curve than air. All are valid, just depends on what material you’re working with and what end result you’re after. We use nitrogen at about 6 BAR and circulated quite rapidly and can reach nearly 70 HRc depending on the material. If you screw up the first time, you fully anneal it before trying again and this never ruins it for us. If it doesn’t make spec the second time we junk it because there’s likely something wrong with the composition. The one sure way to ruin it is to wait too long between quenching and tempering. Much over 12 hours and we have to scrap it.

Heat the steel with a molten salt bath, pull it out and submerge in brine! Ah what a pleasant environment!! Managers wonder why the trolleys and wiring over the vats are such high maintenance items. Great to service also, because you don’t turn the heat off, too long and costly to get it back up to temperature. Is surprising how prevalent this process is still used.

jaybmiller wrote: seems all the steel used  on Forged in Fire is 'oil hardening steel' caus eeverytime gut does 'quench in water' , the hosts have near heart attacks( they ARE pros...) as the blade shatters !

so someone makes a dramatic mistake on a reality show? Say it ain’t so!

Water/ brine cools the steel faster than oil, faster than THAT steel is meant to be cooled. Sure it’s very hard but then too brittle.

Do you suppose they had that all figured out in the ancient times when swords were produced like this?