Heat Treating info for 1144 Stress Proof

[rgray]

Those look nice. Should be good for plenty of things.
One thing your gonna miss is the way 1144 machines. Much nicer than most tool steels.
4140 prehard machines better than most. O-1 is great for it's easy heat treat, but machines more like 1018....gummy.

 

[Jay-z]

Those look nice. Should be good for plenty of things.
One thing your gonna miss is the way 1144 machines. Much nicer than most tool steels.
4140 prehard machines better than most. O-1 is great for it's easy heat treat, but machines more like 1018....gummy.

I do love how 1144 machines, like butter. Have turned a lot of 4140 and don’t have problems there. 1018 is probably my least favorite for reasons you’ve already explained.

 

[benmychree]

1144 (stressproof) is best for items that have a lot of metal removed in a non concentric way, it is especially good for such as long acme screws, since it does not go crooked when there is lots of cutting done.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

At most the parts are 2in long and 1.5in dia. I have made many punches out of 1144 for my swaging hobby with great success. Been using them for years without issue.

If it works for you, keep at it. Look into carburizing. You can get compounds like Cherry Red (mentioned above) at McMaster, MSC, Travers - look for "surface-hardening compound".

 

[Jay-z]

Brownells has their own version of surface hardening compound. Many of their other chemicals have been great in the past plus I get deep discounts from them. Might have to give it a go.

 

[GL]

Don't know about heat treating 1144 in the traditional sense (heat and quench), but we induction harden it for pins (done outside, not by us). 58-62 RwC, 0.60-0120 case harden. Do not let the hardened area get close to threads. Also, don't weld on it without a bunch of pre-heat - the relatively high carbon will heat treat itself to a crack.

 

[Jericho]

Wish I'd seen this earlier. Aargh.

 

[Provincial]

I make bucket pins for my mini excavator from 1-3/4" diameter Stressproof. This is the sort of thing that it was intended for. 4140 should have more impact resistance, but it has not been necessary for me.