How do you like that little dividing head? There's one at a local machining store for not a huge amount of money. How versatile do you find them? I ask cause they seem small and limited... doesn't really look like you could do a whole range of gears or something like that.
It's called a spindexer, yeah, not the best for gears but great for basic dividing in 1 degree increments, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, 180 & 360 divisions. I like it especially since I only paid $40 for it.
That's not cast, it's hardenable steel from China, where they seldom bother to draw the temper after hardening a tool. You'll find that the broken end is not fileable and is too hard to machine. You could grind a new square lug onto the end of it, if that doesn't result in it being too short. Once ground to size, it will be bare metal bright. Draw the temper yourself by heating about halfway up the shank and watching the color change at the square lug as the heat soaks down to it. It will start straw colored, then brownish and then blue. Don't let the blue reach the lug, quench the key in water the moment the brownish color reaches the lug. Try the file test again. It should be fileable now, but if not, apply more hear the same way 'til the lug is just a bit darker and quench again. When it just becomes fileable you've reached the ideal compromise between hard and strong. Many Chinese junk tools are as brittle as glass, but they don't care because they're being sold in the US.
