Annealing 1144 toolsteel?

1144 is the ANSI spec for StressProof, and StressProof's heat treat will be ruined by a anneal cycle.

But then I've never seen someone supply 'hardened' 1144 - maybe as TGP linear bearing rod? That stuff cuts pretty nicely as-is.

1144 isn't tool steel. It's a freecutting high-tensile carbon steel and has about 125KSI tensile strength in the as-drawn condition. Shouldn't need annealing if it hasn't been heat-treated. I would anneal it by heating it slowly to dull cherry red and cooling it slowly in sand or ashes.

Dan

Steve:

AISI 1144 Steel, annealed at 790°C (1450°F), furnace cooled 11°C (20°F) per hour to 620°C, air cooled, 25 mm (1 in.) round

I believe it's a medium carbon steel. I haven't seen it referred to as tool steel.

George

In metallurgy class, we were taught that any 1xxx steel is "carbon steel".

A steel starting with other numbers (like the infamous 4140) would be an alloy steel (of course there are lots of different types of "alloy steel").

Traditional tool steels start with A (air-hardening), D (die), H (hot work), O (oil-hardening), S (shock resistant), M (Molybdenum), T (Tungsten), P (plastic moulds), W (water-hardening), etc. I'm sure I'm missing a few. And then there's the newer tool steels that have odd designations that don't mean anything to me right now... CVRxxxx or some such...

I could see 1144 being a "tooling steel" which is probably a wishy-washy term used by cheap toolmakers ;-)

I'm sure Ed (and others) can chime in and prove me wrong, however...

Regards,

Robin

BINGO!

This is why I lurk on this newsgroup. I have a whole bunch of stressproof, courtesy of an auction. So what is stressproof steel good for? I assume by your comment that I machine it as is (A file will cut it so its not too hard) Any recommended heat treatment options?

Karl

Stressproof is a fairly high strength steel intended to be machined and used without any heat treat. Dan

Good for making hardware that you don't want to bother heat-treating afterward. Years ago, working in an air brake remanufacturing shop, we ran into a new model of air compressor that had a goofy nut for retaining the drive coupling to the crankshaft. These had an unusually coarse metric thread, a hex in inches, and a flange to maximize coupling contact to try to prevent loosening due to reciprocating forces. These nuts were sold by the OEM for something like $50 each, simply because no one else had them. I made a big bunch from 1144, we sold them for about $8 and still made lots of money. I never heard of any failing. The 1144 machines beautifully and is plenty strong. "Stressproof," I think, would refer to its resistance to cold cracking, unlike so many other resulfurized freecutting steels. At .44% carbon it should be hardenable. Might made simple punches and so on for short-run applications, though W steels are better for that.

Dan