Mystery metal?

willthedancer said:
XRF probably not accurate enough to differentiate alloys. It will tell if elements are there, and an idea of percentages, but guidelines only.

I have a fair amount of testing done, and worked in a metallurgical lab.

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It'll get you enough information to get you in the ball part!

I've dealt with lots of metallurgical evaluations over the years and can tell you that it's accurate enough to make material determinations on the fly and also what your competitor uses in their product that your copying! I didn't say that!

Ken
 
Been thinking on this a bit. I've only seen the chip colors you describe when cutting H13 and S7 tool steels with carbide. Those colors also show up when using ceramic on stainless steels.

Can you post a pic showing the chip colors? I really think it's a good tell.

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1965fb said:
I have been going to an auction in my area an buying some odd an end pcs of steel for little to nothing..well I bid an one on 4 12ft 3 8ft pcs of 2.125 round solid it has a semi sanded finish. machines good with carbide. makes hot gold blue to purple stringers chips no matter what feed or speed or cutter. I gave 50 for the lot but like to know what I have.?
Thanks DK

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One of the down sides of purchasing metal and not knowing the alloy leaves us with the question; What can I use this for? Without MTR's (Mill Certification) or chemical analysis we get in trouble unless we are willing to play around and the parts are for nothing critical.

From the suggestions already given, along with the spark test, I would make an attempt to determine if the material is low carbon or medium to high carbon steel. You could do this by heating it up to cherry and quenching it. The possibility of getting a result of brittle material from low carbon is slim. My fabrication expericence says that low carbon comes in hot rolled or cold rolled and when you get into materials that are ground, polished to a specific size the material is usually a special allow. Of course this doesn't mean someone didn't order a low carbon to a specific size to minimum production time. In regard to magnetic vs non-magnetic stainless steel, the 400 series is magnetic and allows for heat treating. e.g. eating utensils, flatware.

Russ

PS. From the photos, there's no rust and anything with carbon would have a light rust on it if exposed for any length of time unless it's coated with a rust preventative.
 
With the quantity you have, and the possibility of selling some off on ebay or wherever, it may be worth sending a test coupon off to a lab to get it analyzed. I have done that on large auction lots and don't recall it being that expensive. That way there is no guessing what you have. You'll get a certified chemistry report.
 
Rustrp said:
One of the down sides of purchasing metal and not knowing the alloy leaves us with the question; What can I use this for? Without MTR's (Mill Certification) or chemical analysis we get in trouble unless we are willing to play around and the parts are for nothing critical.

From the suggestions already given, along with the spark test, I would make an attempt to determine if the material is low carbon or medium to high carbon steel. You could do this by heating it up to cherry and quenching it. The possibility of getting a result of brittle material from low carbon is slim. My fabrication expericence says that low carbon comes in hot rolled or cold rolled and when you get into materials that are ground, polished to a specific size the material is usually a special allow. Of course this doesn't mean someone didn't order a low carbon to a specific size to minimum production time. In regard to magnetic vs non-magnetic stainless steel, the 400 series is magnetic and allows for heat treating. e.g. eating utensils, flatware.

Russ

PS. From the photos, there's no rust and anything with carbon would have a light rust on it if exposed for any length of time unless it's coated with a rust preventative.
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Actually there is some rusting on half the length of the 12 foot pcs.
 
1965fb said:
Actually there is some rusting on half the length of the 12 foot pcs.
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It was difficult to see in the photos. If you plan on selling any it would be good to know the chemical composition. There's a lot of low carbon material coming out of the mills with additional alloys added for machining, case hardening, etc. I'm the novice when it comes to machining but when welding I like to know what I'm working with.
 
several of the scrap yards here in Houston have a gun for identifying metals and alloys. They will analyze stuff for free. I don't know how accurate they are.
 
Do a file test. Run a mill file over the edge of a piece in its current state. Does the file hog out the cut, sort of like a warm knife through butter? If you get significant resistance, it may be something like 4140. Proceed to the magnet test test. With rust in place, it's likely not stainless although 400 series SS will rust in the proper environment. If all that's inconclusive, heat an edge up to dull cherry red with a torch, quench in oil and if the file rings or sings without cutting, you've probably got a tool steel of some sort. Still vague, but these tests should put you in the general neighborhood.
 
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