CPM Rex 76

R

ritzblitz

Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
293
Hi guys,

I've been going through tooling at work and we have lots of this steel. I'm sure we will be throwing some of it away as it is all special ground lathe tooling. The pieces are about 5" long and 1/2" square. I'm wondering if this stuff is even close to being forgeable, and does it even function as a knife? How about chisels and such? Is it worth getting if I can?

http://www.crucibleservice.com/eselector/prodbyapp/highspeed/cpm76.html

There is the link.

Thanks,

Alex
 
Do you like challenge ??? Get big muscles if you want to forge it. Grinding and polishing would be fun too !! LOL As for a knife it has great wear resistance but not much else.
 
wild forgign temps and way to high for me to even thingk about heat treating but i bet it would hold an edge till jsut about the end of the earth in knife form


have fun if you try and let us know
 
Rex 76 was a material that was used quite often by a company I worked for. We made dovetailed form tools for screw machines out of the stuff, hence the wear resistance mete spoke of (screw machines = millions of parts). And yes, it was very very tough stuff to machine. The size would be about right for some little integral neckers via stock removal. I have often wondered about its blade worthiness too. I remember it being pretty darn expensive material, at least that's what the boss said when I made scrap one day :D
 
I bought a 3' chunk of Rex 76 for around $150. It machined very easy in the annealed state but I will have to have someone else temper it since it requires 1000 deg (F).

I got it for lathe bits and had a 12" piece left over so I ground a knife out of it. It will be interesting to see what type of edge I can get and how well it stands up.
 
I think it would be better to use 10V or CPM-M4.
 
David Wesner said:
wow, you're obviously a very, very talented machinist,
Click to expand...

I don't make any claims as to my machining talent, I am still learning new techniques every day like the rest of you. The lathe bits I made involved drilling, milling and indent and grinding. I anticipated a nasty challenge from the stuff and was quite surprised to find it was no different then 01,W2 or any other alloy steel I have worked with.

I posted my experience with it so if anyone else was hesitant to use it they may give it shot. If it was very difficult to use in my opinion I would have stated that also. It's all perspective and I have never used a lead alloy steel so I cannot compare it to anything.
 
David Wesner said:
wow, you're obviously a very, very talented machinist, it always gave me a bad time. 12L14 machines very easy. 416 Stainless machines very easy. Rex 76 does not machine very easy. ;)
Click to expand...

David,

Easy and hard most often relates to ones environment and what the norm for them in everyday.
A good example is machining titanium every day makes the person machining it used to its quirks.
I personally think it machines somewhere between aluminum and 303 stainless property wise.
Some say that it is the worst material they have ever machined!
 
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