Hello all, wondering if anyone out there has some Kasenit they'd like to sell me? I guess I could just buy some but... some of us buy stuff that we never use, and it sits on the shelf for years n years. (No, no, of *course* I never do that! :-))
Anyway, if you've got some you'd like to get rid of, give me a holler. prfesser at hot mail dot com.
Oh, and if anyone has had experience with the stuff, a rundown would be appreciated.
Thanks! -- Terry
My procedure, heat part red hot, dump part in bed of kasenite, then cover with more kasenite. As soon as part has cooled to no color, re heat to red and dump in the kasenite again. I do this at least three times to get a deep layer. Then the last time you heat it red, dump the part in water to quench. You'll have a glass hard layer a few thou thick.
Karl
gee, it's just $10 a can from any number of sources
Maybe he was hoping to latch on to some of the old formula.
Wes
Don't know about your neck of the woods, but Kasenit look-alikes are available over here. Sodium ferrocyanide/barium carbonate/carbon mixtures. They give the required result.
Mark Rand RTFM
The older formula is powdered bone fragments, IIRC
Something I've wondered about, it HS welding class we learned about the oxidizing and carbonizing flame on the OA welding torch. Could a carbonizing flame be used to heat a case harden metal parts? I leaned the oxygen on my torch once and tried to run a melt bead. It bubbled up allot but the end product was awfully hard, difficult to grind. Maybe if I just held it to red/orange with the torch, it might have case hardened the metal?
RogerN
Inflation, now $12, Mcmaster Carr 3204K1
Karl
Yes. At least that is what I've read.
Wes
I'm not much of a welder, but I don't think you'd get a very heavy case in a few seconds or so with the torch. IIRC, in the heat treating plant where I worked, getting a 20 thou case took some period of time like a half hour or more. Pete Stanaitis
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Wes wrote:
Very valid point. Pack carburising seems like the way to go.
Wes
Yes. And for us blacksmiths, no amount of cooking the part in a open flame works for casehardening because the scale forms faster than the carbon, etc.. could penetrate. That's what the rolls of thin stainless steel at MSC are for; keeping the oxygen out while keeping the carbon source wher it can do some good.
Pete Stanaitis
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Wes wrote:
I've only experimented with a carbonizing flame on a torch once and Kasenite maybe 2 or 3 times. With the torch I adjusted a neutral flame and then turned down the oxygen a little. I heated the metal and melted the surface, it sort of foamed and messed up the surface of the scrap metal. But when I tried to grind it, it was very hard and resisted grinding. With Kasenite, I couldn't tell if the metal was more difficult to scratch with my pocket knife after treatment or not.
RogerN
If you follow the instructions on the can, you have to hold the part at heat for quite some time to get a decent thickness of hardenable steel. I've never done that. Heat to red, sprinkle on the Kasenit, repeat a few times and quench on the last heat. The steel is casehardened, but I can't say how thick the case is.
John Martin
For small parts, what I have planned for when I get around to actually using *my* small can of Kasenite is to pack a small part in an Altoids tin, with the Kasenite on all sides, then heat it to the desired temperature and hold for an appropriate time in my heat treating oven, then open the tin with long tongs and drop the workpiece into water to harden the case. This should minimize oxidation on the workpiece, as it minimizes its exposure to air. How reusable the remaining Kasenite in the tin will be remains to be seen.
Enjoy, DoN.
I always heard that you push it into a mound or bucket of Kasenite and let it cool. I think a small amount all around it provides a better source than putting a little on.
Mart>> I'm not much of a welder, but I don't think you'd get a very heavy case in
I recall reading how to case-harden years ago:
Get a quantity of ground bone sufficient to immerse the part. Put the bone powder in a tin can, drop the part in, then cover with additional bone powder. Crush the can around powder and part. Toss the can into the fireplace (with a good fire going) Retrieve the can next day after the coals have cooled.
No mention of quenching that I recall
If there's no quench, there's no hardening. It's no different from any other steel hardening process.
The whole purpose of the bone, or charcoal, or cyanide, or Kasenit is to add carbon to steel that lacks enough carbon to harden as you want it to. Since the carbon is absorbed into just a thin surface layer, that's the only part that becomes hardenable.
John Martin
Ground hooves and horns are even better according to my maternal grandfather who started shoeing horses in 1881 ( age 8 ).
Gerry :-)} London, Canada
----------- Some books that may be of help.
Lautard, Guy. "The Machinist's Third Bedside Reader" ISBN
0-969-0980-9-X pages 6-10Unka' George [George McDuffee]
------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).
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