Mystery Steel Really Blue Chips!

[G-ManBart]

I just thought this was interesting enough to share for a couple of reasons. A year ago I bought a large pile of steel from a local auction. It was a machine shop that was closing so they had all kinds of different stuff on hand. It was ridiculous how much I got and I paid $65 for the whole pile...had to be literally a ton of steel. The pile is pretty varied with some stuff marked, and a lot that's a total mystery. The other day I needed something 1.5" round to turn on the lathe with a final OD around 1.3" give or take. I grabbed a piece of mystery steel that looks like some kind of cold-rolled product as it doesn't have any mill scale and chucked it up in the Logan 14" lathe.

The previous operation on the lathe was drilling so I had it slowed down to 350rpm. I decided to leave it at that speed and see what would happen. I was using a CCMT 431 insert (.016" nose radius) with the "blue nano" coating. These inserts are ones I get on eBay shipped direct from China and they're literally amazing how nicely they work, and how long they last. I dialed in a .035" deep cut (.070" off total), set the feed rate at .0087" per rev and let her fly....talk about BLUE chips! I'll also add a picture of the surface finish which was really quite nice...felt smooth and looks a lot better in person than the picture. The chips were a bit long (3-6" or so). If I was doing more of this I'd play around with the feed and DoC to see if I could get them shorter.

I sure wish I knew what this stuff was!

 

[Shotgun]

I've got some chunks of hydraulic ram material that comes out looking the exact same way.

 

[G-ManBart]

I've got some chunks of hydraulic ram material that comes out looking the exact same way.

That's one high on my list of possibilities. There are a couple of other pieces of what I suspect to be hydraulic rod...nothing protecting them and still like a mirror. There's one long section still in a cardboard tube that I need to check for paperwork.

 

[Smithdoor]

I just thought this was interesting enough to share for a couple of reasons. A year ago I bought a large pile of steel from a local auction. It was a machine shop that was closing so they had all kinds of different stuff on hand. It was ridiculous how much I got and I paid $65 for the whole pile...had to be literally a ton of steel. The pile is pretty varied with some stuff marked, and a lot that's a total mystery. The other day I needed something 1.5" round to turn on the lathe with a final OD around 1.3" give or take. I grabbed a piece of mystery steel that looks like some kind of cold-rolled product as it doesn't have any mill scale and chucked it up in the Logan 14" lathe.

The previous operation on the lathe was drilling so I had it slowed down to 350rpm. I decided to leave it at that speed and see what would happen. I was using a CCMT 432 insert (.031" nose radius) with the "blue nano" coating. These inserts are ones I get on eBay shipped direct from China and they're literally amazing how nicely they work, and how long they last. I dialed in a .035" deep cut (.070" off total), set the feed rate at .0087" per rev and let her fly....talk about BLUE chips! I'll also add a picture of the surface finish which was really quite nice...felt smooth and looks a lot better in person than the picture. The chips were a bit long (3-6" or so). If I was doing more of this I'd play around with the feed and DoC to see if I could get them shorter.

I sure wish I knew what this stuff was!

View attachment 477150View attachment 477151

It looks like a chip from ED 150 steel. It is per heat treated steel very hard but can machine.
I used for clutch pins on motor operators on aircraft hangar doors.

Dave

 

[mattthemuppet2]

if you want shorter curls, try increasing the feed at the same rpm and DOC or increasing the DOC at the same rpm and feed

 

[G-ManBart]

if you want shorter curls, try increasing the feed at the same rpm and DOC or increasing the DOC at the same rpm and feed

I was thinking along those lines, but only had a couple of passes to make so I left it alone. I've got more of this material so I'm going to make a note of the settings and go up on the feed or DOC next time.

I had the insert wrong above...it was a 431 not a 432....so .016" nose radius (I did edit the original post).

 

[Shotgun]

Could I ask why you'd want to change the chip?
The point of "nice chips" is to make them easy to manage. I my humble, home-shop, opinion, these are PERFECT chips. You'll never carry one in the house stuck in the bottom of your shoe, and they sweep up so nicely. But, they're not long enough to cause a rat's nest at your chuck. I don't know of any chip that I like more than what you show.

 

[G-ManBart]

Could I ask why you'd want to change the chip?
The point of "nice chips" is to make them easy to manage. I my humble, home-shop, opinion, these are PERFECT chips. You'll never carry one in the house stuck in the bottom of your shoe, and they sweep up so nicely. But, they're not long enough to cause a rat's nest at your chuck. I don't know of any chip that I like more than what you show.

Fair point. I was thinking that the ones getting into the 6+" range were a bit too long and I was thinking 3-4" max might be better. Maybe that's being overly cautious as it wasn't causing a problem. It certainly was easy to pick them up!