What does heat treatment cost?

[SNIP]

Ok, why is your QCTP better, cheaper? Piston? Wedge? Compatable? Will you have tool holders?

Reply to
Tom Gardner
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Thanks a bunch, Ed. Very, very clear and useful information. I sure do appreciate it. With one post, you've cleared up more things in my head than I suspect you realize. Of course, there's still a lot of clutter up there, but every little bit helps. :-)

Man, there's a tremendous wealth of knowledge in this group.

Thanks, tg.

Ed Huntress wrote:

Reply to
The other Thomas Gardner

'Glad to help, Thomas. You may be interested in one other point about case-hardening versus through-hardening: Quenching low-carbon steel that has a thin high-carbon case causes less warpage than quenching high-carbon steel that hardens all the way through -- all else being equal. You can still warp the heck out of a case-hardened part but you have to work harder at it.

Warping that results from quenching steel can be a complex thing. Part of it is due to thermal expansion and contraction of the steel, and uneven cooling that leads to uneven stresses and strains; and part of it is due to the fact that the hard phase of steel (martensite) is less dense than the soft phase (ferrite), which leads to differential expansion upon quench-hardening, unless the quenching is perfectly uniform.

So a thin case of martensite imparts less stress than thick layers of martensite. More important for many applications, the soft steel underneath winds up with fewer internal stresses because it doesn't convert to martensite upon quenching. The case-hardened piece may be tougher and is sure to be less brittle overall. That's an important property that makes case-hardening a useful technique. It's used in the highest-quality, high-speed gears, for example, while through-hardening is used in somewhat cheaper gears. In between is flame- or induction-hardening, a surface-hardening method that's used in many large industrial gears.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

I'm sure that's only because you haven't gotten a round tuit yet.

Reply to
Artemia Salina

Any help, you have. And it just keeps comin, too!

Thanks again. Some great stuff in here. Already saved it off.

L8r, tg.

Reply to
The other Thomas Gardner

Reply to
The other Thomas Gardner

Yeah, yeah. I know. Likely to just go on the heap with a bunch of other brain turds I've had over the years. It's gettin' to be quite a pile. I keep trying though. You'd think I'd have learned by now...

On this one, my goal is ``As good as the really good ones, but as cheap as the cheapest of cheap ones.'' I *THINK* I know how to do that (or at least come close).

Wedge.

Do you think I'm a moron? (Please, don't answer that.)

Yes, compatible is the plan.

Indeed. Won't make no real $$ on those, I suspect, but I'm sure I have to include them or nobody's gonna want the QCTP. Offer more as extras, too, of course.

My short term goal is to make at least one cutter of the variety of which I believe I'll need a bunch, and give it a go RSN. At least use it to make some holder blanks (I could use some myself anyway). Been through catalogs like crazy, and I ain't findin' exactly what I want for the job. Not sure it matters, though: I don't think it will be that terribly tough to make, and even if I did find it, I doubt I'd want to pay what they'd be asking for it.

L8r, tg.

Reply to
The other Thomas Gardner

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