D2 is hard!!

[rocketmann]

I stopped by a local machine shop today looking to pick up some tool steel, and the guy gives me a piece of D2 1/4" x 1 3/4" x 5' for free!! Well I felt pretty good about it untill I tried to profile out a blade .I've allready gone thru 2 port a band blades and I'm only about 1/6 done..I thought that this stuff should allready be annealed if I'm not mistaken. Should I anneal it again?? Any good tips on working with this steel?? I plan to send the blade out for heat treating since I don't have an oven. Any tips would help alot!! Thanks as always

 

[Macchina]

I would recomend not using a portaband on that piece of steel. Use a 1" wide very fine tooth blade on a large bandsaw and go slow. It would of course be best to us a mill, but not everybody has access to one. it should come annealed, unless that is the reason it was free!

 

[RJ Martin]

Cut it to length and then grind the profile.

 

[flatgrinder]

Try an angle grinder with a cut off wheel.

 

[McAhron]

You could drop by a fabrication shop and have it plasma cut.Shouldn't cost more than 5 bucks.

 

[Greg Obach]

Hi

it takes a longtime to anneal that stuff.. .... here's crucibles spec's
http://www.crucibleservice.com/datash/ACFC3C.pdf?CFID=797550&CFTOKEN=61888417


i'd use the angle grinder ... .. cut it off and rough out most of it with that....

Greg

 

[jhiggins]

Chances are you are hardening it enough to strip or round-over the teeth on your bandsaw blade. D2, A1, and most of the fancy air-quenching stainless steels should all be sawn with a coolant flow, and slow speed. Oh sure, they can always be friction-cut, or torched, but you will always have a hardened side where that was cut. Like RJ said, grinding the profile will get you down the road a lot quicker.

 

[rocketmann]

Thanks for the tips! ANYONE WANT TO TRADE FOR SOME O1 ??

 

[jhiggins]

Thanks for the tips! ANYONE WANT TO TRADE FOR SOME O1 ??

Keep it dude, you will want it someday.