CAN HARD SURFACE ROD BE ANNEALED?

[epanzella]

Can hard surface rod be welded, annealed, machined and hardened? I use a lot of tool steel Inch and a half O1 is getting pricey at $100 for 3 feet delivered. Looking for a reasonable alternative. It's getting to the point where the materials are worth more than the finished product.

 

[benmychree]

Do you mean induction hardened hydraulic piston rod? If so, the answer would likely be yes, heat to low red and cool slowly in something like wood ashes.

 

[epanzella]

Do you mean induction hardened hydraulic piston rod? If so, the answer would likely be yes, heat to low red and cool slowly in something like wood ashes.

No, I mean hard surfacing welding rods like you would use to build up a dozer blade. Can you runs beads, anneal it, machine it and then harden it again. I'm looking for an alternative to tool steels like O1.

 

[benmychree]

I suppose that you would have to try it; what are you using it for?

 

[epanzella]

Lathe tools, gears, gear cutters, ect, ect. A gear cutter or boring bar only needs to be hard at the business end. I don't have any hard surfacing rod so to try it I'll have to spring for at least $40. It would be nice if I could find out if it would work before throwing money at this. Failing that, I'll have to go in blind. Thanks.

 

[twraska]

I don’t think so, at least the Stoody rods and wire we use.

 

[GL]

Interesting question. Even ER70 weld wire is a pain to machine. Hard surface rod is 60+ Rockwell C, grind only hard. Welding doesn’t leave a homogeneous material chemistry so the heat treat process would be specific to the base and weld rod mix. As a repair, we usually don’t know what we are working with. Doesn’t sound easy, or that plausible, but maybe others have a better materials background Or experience.

 

[benmychree]

I think that it is a poor idea and not at all likely to give acceptable results, especially so far as cutting tools are concerned.

 

[Weldingrod1]

You can get 4140 and 4130 type rods. You will have cracking issues if you don't control the post weld cooling rate. The deposit should be much more hardenable than cold rolled.
It's not tooool steel, but it will make a decent cutter for non-industrial use.
Tool steel it kinda weird to anneal, as far as I've heard.

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[Nutfarmer]

For specialty cutters for short runs I have tig welded high speed steel to mild steel to make a cutting edge. Use broken drill bits or other broken or dull high speed tooling. Use the high speed steel as a filler rod. Don’t laugh it works. Not my idea. It came from the owner of S and S machine when he was teaching junior college night class.