Hardware bought steel

Hardware store stuff could be most anything. I don't think I've ever even seen it graded. I generally think of it as "whatever random junk we managed to melt together". :) It's usually not horrible for the sort of thing general DIY types use it for. But machining just calls for a little better material. Even cold rolled 1018 from known sources is generally decent, though certainly not my first choice. If you can, get some 12L14, that stuff is great to work with.

I've got some magnetic unknownium here that I picked up cheap. It's okay, but annealing it helped a lot. It's still tough, but not nearly as hard on tooling.
 
I risked using an end mill, a scrappy one, and tried undercutting past the hard spot and was successful. After that, it was fine and I got a great finish. Must have just been some junk that didn't mix well.

Thank you all for your help. Leaned a bit.

Mike.

Ps:
I go to online metals for everything I need unless I'm in a jam and need it today. They seem reasonable with low shipping costs, quick delivery and offer discounts. Never had any issues with their products.
 
I remember a piece of 1" steel plate that was supplied to the shop I worked for that still had the tail end from being hot rolled. It had not been trimmed square. In that area, you could see the bearing ball that had not melted. It was obviously recycled steel!

This story is to explain how hard spots occur in some steels.
 
How fast are you running your fly cutter? Sloit way down and it will probably cut just fine.
 
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