HSS vs O1

S7 today.
S7 tomorrow.
S7 yesterday.
S7 Forever.

We would also accept a reasonably priced 400 series.

Are you making a torquey tool? S7
Cutting of not-metal? O1.
Lots of cutting of not-metal? A2
Cutting of metal in a pushy/spinny? M2
Cutting of metal in a slicey-slicey? A2
Smashy-smashy? D2
Lots of smashy-smashy? CPM

Wet and salty? 300 series.
Springy? 5000 series.
Holdy-Uppy? A36


Spark-and-sticky? Scrapbinium.

The properties of the steel that you have, or can afford, are infinitely superior to everything in the McMaster-Carr catalog. :laughing:
 
With respect to the hollow ground. I used an 1/8" endmill and milled the flat blade with radius into the shaft. Used the same set up of 1/8" 5C collet in square block. Works great. It worked on the regular screws but on the stuck one the tip twisted off. Bear in mind the tip thickness is only .015. I will use that in making the gunsmith screwdrivers. It is really fast and perfect.

The tapered blade seems to be a little stronger. That is what the high dollar ($21) professional version is. That is what got me into trouble on a stuck screw. Finally ended up twisting the blade tip. The supplier is out of stock so with $15K in a machine shop I thought "I can make it!". The one's made work but I'm trying to see what works best/toughest. Ordered a single piece of A1 and carbide and 2 sticks of O1 for experimenting.
 
MERLincman Looking into 1/8" S7 drill rod. Not at all familiar with it.
 
Chewy said:
With respect to the hollow ground. I used an 1/8" endmill and milled the flat blade with radius into the shaft. Used the same set up of 1/8" 5C collet in square block. Works great. It worked on the regular screws but on the stuck one the tip twisted off. Bear in mind the tip thickness is only .015. I will use that in making the gunsmith screwdrivers. It is really fast and perfect.

The tapered blade seems to be a little stronger. That is what the high dollar ($21) professional version is. That is what got me into trouble on a stuck screw. Finally ended up twisting the blade tip. The supplier is out of stock so with $15K in a machine shop I thought "I can make it!". The one's made work but I'm trying to see what works best/toughest. Ordered a single piece of A1 and carbide and 2 sticks of O1 for experimenting.
Click to expand...
You know, O1 in an annealed state may be just the mix of tough and soft for the application. It's curious - the sweet spot of hard enough not to goober, but not-hard enough to snap.

Methinks that carbide is ill suited to the application, but this is a mere methinks. I've never used/seen A1 that I know of, but A2 is my go-to for many things.

As I said, the steel you've got (or can get) is far superior to what you've'nt.
 
Bigger than what you're making, but Hand Tool Rescue uses 1144 steel for their screwdrivers, which doesn't need to be tempered as it only reaches ~52 RC when hardened. 1144 stress-proof is readily available and machines very well.
 
For the tough ones...

Start with the extended impact rated bits for Milwaukee.

They have a long slender area for impact cushion.

Careful use of grinder to remove end then with rotary grinder bit or carbide in your mill the bit can be placed in vice and the tip ground to size to custom snug fit the screw.

Now can be CAREFULLY used with battery powered impact, use with dead battery or vary carefully speed control.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
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