Does 1215 steel need hardening ?

[o0norton0o]

My friend has a pair of pocket doors where the screws from the rolling "cars" which the doors hang from are only engaged by a few threads and somehow they have been unwinding when he slides the door and dropping out of the "car" that rides in the overhead track. As is typical with pocket doors, it's a huge job to do anything involving the track once the sheetrock is up and the trim is on and everything is finished or painted.

He complained to me that if he had a little bit longer hanger screws to get more engagement that he could locktite them and maybe that would fix it... I volunteered to make him the longer hanger screws. I chose 1215 steel to make the new hanger screws and I'm wondering if they will do the job of each pair holding an estimated 60 - 70lb door.

I looked up the hardening process and I don't have the means to harden these parts, so I'm wondering 2 things.

1) Is the part made of the 1215 steel strong enough to do the job

2) Is the hardening actually only a surface treatment which makes a part more abrasion resistant, or does it increase the material strength??

Here's my parts along side the 1215 hex stock and the original short part... what do you think?

thanks in advance

 

[matthewsx]

It will probably be fine, are the originals hardened? You can take a file and figure it out.

John

 

[Ischgl99]

You didn't mention what size the screws are, but 1215 is equivalent to grade 2 material for screws, so I think you will be fine. Unless the screws are really small, 60-70 lbs is not that much weight for a screw to handle.

Case hardening will increase the strength somewhat, but not as much as a through hardening grade will. The main advantage of case hardening is wear resistance, I don't think that will make that big a difference in this application.