Request Reading Resources for Heat Treating...

[Ray C]

Hi All,

Does anyone know of reasonably priced reading materials covering heat treating and annealing metal in an electric furnace? I found some books in print but they were hundreds of dollars. There's a good bit of information about blacksmith work but those guys tend to use various coals, gasses or oils which present different concerns than electric heat. ...Looking for a resource guide covering the "how and why" for basic steels and alloys like the 10xx and 41xx types. I'm able to get by with OA heating on really small parts but that's just case hardening. The shop could benefit from a small oven that can do sustained heat soaking for thorough hardening.

Thanks in advance.

Ray

 

[ranch23]

Ray, I always look on EBAY after I find a book that I want. Many times having bought a $35 or $45 book for $8 or so.

 

[Ray C]

Good idea and thanks... Found a $480 book for 35 bucks. It's one Rev out of date by 4 years but, since I only use manual machines it will probably be just fine :LOL:.

Ray, I always look on EBAY after I find a book that I want. Many times having bought a $35 or $45 book for $8 or so.

 

[pdentrem]

In Machinery's Handbook there is a large section on heat treatment with temps and soak times. Also in the Workshop Practice Series has a book on the same topic. It is Vol 1 called Hardening, tempering and heat treatment by Tubal Cain.
Pierre

 

[Ray C]

Pierre,

Thank you. I've already absorbed the section in the Machinery's Handbook and that's what makes me think this is worth pursing; however, it falls just short of giving some direct tips and instructions. For example, they mention that some methods require a low oxygen environment and there are techniques to accomplish that. This leads me to wonder, what are those techniques? I happen to know from incidental knowledge, that various foil wraps are used and bits of wood are placed inside to burn and consume the oxygen but, the details and techniques are missing. The book I found mentioned it has specific techniques that I'm searching for. It should be here in a few days and I'll let everyone know if it's helpful...

BTW: I know that some fairly good work in this regard can be done in a home-shop environment as, my Uncle was a metallurgist and much of his lab area consisted of fairly basic equipment. Sadly though, he's long passed away.

Ray

In Machinery's Handbook there is a large section on heat treatment with temps and soak times. Also in the Workshop Practice Series has a book on the same topic. It is Vol 1 called Hardening, tempering and heat treatment by Tubal Cain.
Pierre

 

[Tony Wells]

You'll find that small toolrooms that do their own heat treating will use stainless steel foil to wrap their parts, and just a little paper in the package, old timers tossed in a cigarette paper. The big boys use controlled atmosphere furnaces/ovens that can either pull a vacuum, or flood with an inert gas. That kind of furnace or oven can be used for some specialized heat treating such as carburizing or gas nitriding. Some of those processes are hazardous, and probably of limited use in a home shop.

 

[7HC]

Also in the Workshop Practice Series has a book on the same topic. It is Vol 1 called Hardening, tempering and heat treatment by Tubal Cain. Pierre

x2 on that, the cover looks like this:






M

 

[DMS]

I have done some heat treating, mostly small things. Most of my resources have been youtube, and manufacturers documentation, which is actually fairly good. For plain carbon steel (W2/O1) you you can harden in a torch flame, and quench in water or oil, and temper in a kitchen oven; IE, a controlled environment is not required. For air hardening steels, you tend to need an inert environment, and austenizing temperatures and times become much more critical. I have done some knife blades out of D2 steel using a small Paragon kiln (An SC2). I used stainless foil bags to protect the metal, and slipped a sliver of paper in. The idea is that the paper combusts, using up any remaining oxygen. I have also heard of people using a welding setup to fill the bags with argon, and others that double bag, filling both bags with argon. That seems excessive though.

The foil bags are nice, because 3 sides are already sealed; you just drop your item in, squeeze out as much air as possible, and then seal the top by folding over twice, and crimping as hard as you can. The foil bags are nice, especially if you are not going to be doing a ton of heat treating because you can buy a few in various sizes, rather than buying a large quantity of foil sheet.

 

[Ray C]

All,

A quick follow-up about Heat Treating resource books...

My copy of "Heat Treatment, Selection and Application of Tool Steels" [William E. Bryson. Hanser publ] arrived a couple days ago.

WOW, can't put it down. It hits the nail on the head. The chapters are short, easy reads; the first of which provide basic information about metal composition, types of heat ovens and general treating techniqes. After that, individual chapters are devoted to a specific kind of metal, giving procedures with graphs of times and temperatures etc. to achieve specific results. The last chapters cover a variety of topics related to heat treated metals such as grinding, welding, design considerations etc...

The book is written with machinists and T&D makers in-mind and does not get into the details of chemical/atomic structure. This is exactly what I was hoping for, was a one-pass read and, is very easy to refer to.

Ray

 

[7HC]

All,

A quick follow-up about Heat Treating resource books...

My copy of "Heat Treatment, Selection and Application of Tool Steels" [William E. Bryson. Hanser publ] arrived a couple days ago.

WOW, can't put it down. It hits the nail on the head. The chapters are short, easy reads; the first of which provide basic information about metal composition, types of heat ovens and general treating techniqes. After that, individual chapters are devoted to a specific kind of metal, giving procedures with graphs of times and temperatures etc. to achieve specific results. The last chapters cover a variety of topics related to heat treated metals such as grinding, welding, design considerations etc...

The book is written with machinists and T&D makers in-mind and does not get into the details of chemical/atomic structure. This is exactly what I was hoping for, was a one-pass read and, is very easy to refer to.

Ray

For anyone interested in geting a copy it's available on Amazon for $36: http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Treatmen...nt,+Selection,+and+Application+of+Tool+Steels






M