Steel Mixtures

Hi, Adam. Thanks, but I swore off back in June because too much important work was going undone. I've really had to hustle to get where I wanted to be, and staying offline as much as I can has been a big help. I'm ashamed to say I'm even 'way behind on my e-mail responses.

It's a lot of fun here on r.c.m., and I really got off because of the tone of voice on alt.machines.cnc, rather that because of anything going on here.

Things are going well. I've been writing and editing. I'm taking my

17-year-old kid on college visits, helping my wife with her master's degree research, and generally being more productive than I've been for a while.

However, I do miss a lot of you guys. How are things going with you?

Reply to
Ed Huntress
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Thanks, glad you dropped by. I've gotten some very good leads, almost all directing me to key-to-steel. I think I've got it now. My hardest problem became finding a mix for a good basic steel, so I could determine what the changes were.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Swears

I forget the period you're writing about, but I seem to recall it was something from perhaps a century ago. Alloys were simpler in those days. Most steels were plain-carbon (as they are today, actually), and the multi-component alloys were just getting started. Stainless steel hadn't been discovered yet.

There probably is some historical account available somewhere that tells us

*when* it was recognized that adding nickel, and then manganese, made steel more resistant to brittle fracture at low temperatures. But as a non-fiction writer myself, my feeling is that anyone who might know about that, when most of the fairly knowledgeable ones here don't, is a reader so rare that you really don't have to worry about him.

Good luck in your quest.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

I'm writing a fantasy, set in a culture that has voluntarily ended technological life, but is discovering some of the shortfalls to that stance. What I wanted to avoid was suggesting sulphur would increase resistance to brittle fracture.

Or, in my case, my 'expert' character had suggesting using *less* manganese, when he should have suggested using more. And I had no idea at all that nickel had such a profound impact on low temp brittle fracture.

At any rate, I think I can now safely have him utter a one sentence mixing instruction without going diametrically off target.

Reply to
Bill Swears

Manganese, nickel and carbon are good starting points as mentioned above. Sulfur is by far the most sensitive impurity, however; steel gets pretty crappy about 0.1% S! In contrast, a typical mild steel has around 0.5 to 1% manganese and 0.2% carbon (1020 alloy).

Note that sulfur is always quoted as an impurity -- no alloy specification has it within a range; it's always less than X. Likewise, you would never add sulfur except to intentionally spoil a batch. Normally, pains are taken to reduce it, e.g. good ore selection, basic (alkaline) refractory and slags, etc. (Dolomite and magnesia are used today in the manufacture of steel, hence the term "basic oxygen process" for example.)

To reduce carbon, add oxide -- rust, ore, etc. Alternately, introduce air through a clay pipe as Bessemer did it originally (google "Henry Bessemer Autobiograpy", neat stuff).

For specs,

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has a rich database, and you can probably find information on brittle-ductile transition temperatures for some alloys, too.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk. Website:

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Reply to
Tim Williams

No, sulfur is intentionally added in specific percentages to many steels to improve machinability.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

According to Tim Williams :

Earle M. Jorgensen Co. Steel book #71:

1141 Hot Rolled Bars:

Carbon 0.37/0.45 Manganese: 1.35/1.65 Phosphorous: 0.04 Max Sulphur: 0.08/0.13

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Reply to
Tim Williams

It's mostly for free-machining production-type steels, used in conjunction with phosphorus and/or calcium. Those alloys are not of much interest for small-shop work, except for the ones that are also leaded.

The non-leaded free-machining alloys have been common in production since, roughly, the mid-'70s.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Hi Ed! It's great to see you posting if only as a once-in-a-while.

Good luck on the college thing, I happen to be exactly in the same boat. So far it's been SUNY Geneseo and Cornell, next up will be some schools in the Boston area.

This is the easy part, just consider what happens when the bills come due!!

Best to you - Jim

Reply to
jim rozen

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