wtb: special tap

It sparked like it had some carbon in it but, I inherited a large amount of "mystery metal". Sorry to not be a lot of help.

On that topic, anyone have a rundown of paint color codes for steel? I don't know the vendor and last time I looked, I found about 4 different standards referenced by various sites I found on google. So it's racks of mystery metal, I'm afraid. For stuff with a spec, I buy to that spec, of course.

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As you've already discovered -- each vendor has its own color code standards. I could look up the standards for Jorgensen Steel (because I have one of their older catalogs), but that would be useless for any other vendor's steel, let alone those from an unknown vendor.

And there is a *lot* of codes to type in, so I won't do it while I know that it would not do any good.

If you can find out who the original vendor likely was, you want to get a copy of *their* steel catalog.

And -- if you get steel from another source, but know what the steel is, *paint it yourself* to match the catalog you have, so you will know later what it is.

If you can't find out -- just get a catalog from your own vendor, and keep all newly-bought steel in a separated area.

Good Luck, DoN.

It's a damn same too, I've got a ton or more of nicely marked mystery metal.

TO go with the ton of mystery metal, is a ton of paperwork, some of which might be a catalog. If they're all from the same vendor (a reasonable assumption for starters), I'm wondering if spark-testing by someone who can read sparks would be able to narrow down which vendor's "red with a brown stripe" this stuff is.

Seems like a sharpie and actual numbers wouldn't be a bad approach?

That's what I've been doing for important projects. Mystery-metal is fine for some things, though, and I can't bear to just toss it...

If you keep the lot all together, and find something that you /really/ want to ID (I.E. the assay costs are far less than going out and buying the metal new) find a junkyard with one of those nifty X-ray Spectrometer (IIRC) metal ID guns.

You just put a 12-pack of chilled (or a fifth at room temp) potent potables in the back seat of the gun owner's car as "payment", place a small sample in the jaws, and press the button. You might not be able to ID it to a precise compound if it was true mystery metal, but you DO have a clue what it most likely is.

The gun gives you the component mix of carbon, manganese, lead, etc. A hardness tester tells whether it's tool steel or spaghetti. Spark testing would be another confirmation of carbon content. That, and the old paperwork and vendor color chart would confirm what you have.

Hell NO!!! Die stamps and a ball-peen hammer would be best, as long as you don't plan to use every mm of it... Or paint marker. And if it's hardened metal that would ding your die stamps, you can use paint marker and a vibratory etcher as backup.

Sharpie fades and weathers off way too easily - when I want to mark a power panel "permanently" I use a LaCo-Markal paint marker like the junkyards use - the LaCo looks like a regular marker with a valve tip, the junkyards buy the little squeeze bottle with a big ball-point tip.

Real paint that will hold up outdoors in the sun for 20 years and still be readable (like the address a roof air conditioner belongs to, or the unit number in large installs) - and if some bozo paints over it you can still read the bump in the paint and reapply on top.

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Ahhh...I have a cousin who runs a scrapyard. I should see what toys he has.

I use liquid barter regularly. Every couple of weeks I drop off sodas for the computer site support guys in the building where I work, because they've helped me out more than a couple of times, and because I used to do that and nobody appreciated our group until they needed us.

And once I've got a couple of them ID'd, I'll know which vendor's code it is. Again this relies on it all being from the same vendor, but knowing where they came from, (cutoffs from a hydraulic controls manufacturer), it's likely that they stuck with one vendor.

Makes sense. Woudn't have thought of the die stamps.

Yup, got a yellow and a white. Learned that one from an old-fart I used to work for (no disrespect involved, that was his title as he told me).

Ah, my racks are inside but, never know when they'll get wet I suppose. Paint pen it is then.

replying to _, fyiman wrote: According to this page:

The external threaded part of a Schrader valve is 0.302" x 32 Threads-per-inch.

19/64" is about 0.297" (0.296875") which is a little smaller than 0.302". 5/16" is 0.3125" which is a little bigger than 0.302". 0.302 inch is about: 7.67mm (7.6708mm). 7.7mm is about: 0.303 inch (0.30314 inch)

For a tap, 5/16-32 (if that is standard) would probably fit close enough.

replying to _, fyiman wrote: According to this page:

The external threaded part of a Schrader valve is 0.302" x 32 Threads-per-inch.

19/64" is about 0.297" (0.296875") which is a little smaller than 0.302". 5/16" is 0.3125" which is a little bigger than 0.302". 0.302 inch is about: 7.67mm (7.6708mm). 7.7mm is about: 0.303 inch (0.30314 inch)

For a tap, 5/16-32 (if that is standard) would probably fit close enough.