Steel recomendations for bandsaw axle

Very interesting webpage. I assume that the "Georgia Agrirama" is a museum.

Joe Gwinn

John

The sparks are an indication of carbon content in the steel. If the sparks were more numerous than the steel pipe but of the same general color and shape, you probably had a shaft of 1045 steel. Alloy steel usually sparks less than mild steel. Try grinding the end of an old file and see the sparks. The file is usually 1090 steel, the xx90 indicating 90 points of carbon.

John

Huh. It's interesting that a strict alloy like 4140 would allow enough difference in sulfur to have much effect on machineability. It's not something I have a lot of experience with, and most that I've turned probably all came from the same batch.

I think I'm going to turn it into bolts for my RGG gatling gun. I turned some

Not sure how this thread got brought back to life.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Now, what in the HELL are you going to do with a Gatling gun? Are you doing Civil War re-enactments, or are you joining the Michigan Militia?

Somebody just checks in every once in a while, probably.

I learned about the sulfur from hard experience. I was running a job making pins from 4140 and the job was going good. I would make about 500 at a run. Well one run was giving me a lot of grief. busting inserts, not holding size, and a bunch of other problems. I tested the hardness and checked the certs. I had the metal assayed and it agreed with the certs papers. The only thing different in this batch of material was that it had absolutely no sulfur content in it. ( it came from Romania) I guess the sulfur gives the necessary lubrication to make cutting it easy.

John

It was me not paying attention to the dates of the last post. The bandsaw axle sort of got my attention. I bought a DoAll model C-80 out of the scrap yard for 400 bucks a while ago and had to make new spindles for it. The bearings had spun on the axles and they had to be replaced as well as the bearings. The metal I used was from some of the scrap of the pins I made of the 4140. I still have a barrel full of the out of tol. pins accumulated over the years. I just used another piece today to make up a lathe chuck wrench. By the way to get a good finish on the metal you have to take at least ten thou. per side and turn at least 300 ft/min.

John

John

Is that the 4140 without sulfur? It's been so long since I've turned that alloy that I can hardly remember it.

According to my copy of the Jorgensen steels catalog:

steel In Percent

------------------------------

With the following note:

The analyses of the leaded grades are the same as above with the addition 0f 0.15/0.35 Lead (Pb)

For welding they say in part:

"Difficult to weld, but can be welded by any of the common welding processeds providing section is preheated, and stress relieved after welding."

along with some other comments.

Machinability (for 41L42) is about 75% of 1212, and 66% for

Personally, assuming that the bandsaw axle runs in ball bearings, I would use whatever steel you can easily machine. No need to go for 4140 for that.

Enjoy, DoN.

I switched suppliers after that bad batch and had no more problems with cutting the metal. We had to supply certifications so I kept an eye on the sulfur content and made sure it was always on the high end of the limits. It ran on the high end of the permitted amounts, I only machined it and didn't weld on it. I think the percentage ran about .18 At that percentage it would run well at those speeds. The part we ran required holding +/- .0005 in. on 6 inch turn and once the machine stabilized it ran all day with almost no scrap. The only problem was the air chuck would sometimes not hold the piece properly and it would slip if we had the feed or rpm running too high. I made thousands of those parts.

Machining a lot of metal in batch- or continuous production really gives one a feel for subtleties that we don't usually pick up in ordinary hobby machining. If you made thousands, you must really know the material.

Note what Don reported about the standard for sulfur content in 4140 --

But, like most technical things about materials, I haven't spoken to metallurgical engineers for decades. It used to be a major part of my job.

It is only a .22 . Maybe mount motors and a search/acquisition radar and it could be a Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS) for Michigan Mosquitoes. Caliber might be a bit small though. ;)

Wes

I'll bet you're going to be hell on rabbits. They'll be pre-tenderized.

The sad thing is, rabbits are not very plentiful where I live. We have too many coyotes now. I wish I had the patience for hunting coyote.

Wes