Minibear's WIP/I NEED HELP!

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Minibear464

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Jul 14, 2011
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Alright. Just got everything. Got the pattern... tried to cut the steel, and failed. Will a normal hacksaw work? The blade's just skimming off of the metal. The steel is 1080 from Sheffields. Alright. Here's the pattern. Input? And I really need help cutting the steel.

P1060052.jpg
 
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Make a copy of the design in cardboard and hold it. does it feel good? if so, then keep it. if not, rework until it does. my only comment would be to get rid of the finger guard because it will be a pain to sand unless you have power tools. as far as cutting the steel goes, what tools do you have? are you the owner of an industrial machine shop, or are you a 13 year old student with a postage stamp for your back yard?
 
15. But close. I'm using a hacksaw on the steel. It's hotrolled... does that mean I need to anneal? And if I anneal... would it be enough to just anneal that certain area? I'm thinking of heating it until non-magnetic, and bury it in sand... would that work?

And yes, the design does feel pretty good. I'm just looking for advice from you guys so I don't end up making a bomb.
 
if it feels good, you really can't bomb. it doesn't matter how much anyone else hates it, if you like it, and you aren't planning on selling it, you are the only judge that matters.

The fact that it i hot rolled does not mean that it was not annealed. how are you capable of taking the steel to nonmagnetic? just out of curiosity.

as far as using the hacksaw, you have to use bimetal blades. any normal blade from home depot will dull in a hurry.
 
OK. Take a file and, without putting on pressure, push it across the edge of the bar. if it bites, it is soft. if it skates, go to home depot or lowes and look in the garden section for vermiculite. fill up a bucket with it and then heat the blade to nonmagnetic. put it into the vermiculite when the magnet no longer sticks (a plastic bucket would not be a good choice), and then leave it for 8-12 hours.

as far as the cutting goes, bimetal blades are much tougher than normal blades and will handle steel without dulling really quickly. they are made of a different material.
 
it might, but it isn't optimal. besides, if it melts or at least burns on, you are going to have a heck of a time getting it off.
 
I'm just going to try annealing it using sand and a fire tomorrow. I have 5 ft of this stuff, so it isn't that great a lost. Thanks for the help geek! :P
 
If the sand doesn't work my Home Depot keeps the vermiculite in the wood stove section not the garden area.
 
Minibear464 said:
Okay. So sand would not work?
Click to expand...

After trying that sand method about ten times, I used the advice on the file knife thread and it works way better. Heat to non-magnetic, remove from fire and watch until the last faint glow goes away to black, then quench in canola oil. MUCH easier to sand and file without finding hard spots etc...
 
Update: Okay, not so sure I did it right, but right now, everything's buried under the sand. I dug a hole, lit a fire, heated the steel, and buried it all, with the fire. Figured it would keep the temperature more consistent. On the more negative side, I think I over heated it. The fire wasn't getting hot enough, so after 30 minutes, I found a piece of cardboard and just kept waving it. After another few minutes, I brought out the steel, and it was a pretty bright red. I think closer to orange. Overheating won't matter right now, will it? And how would I normalize?
 
going by color will get you in trouble until you are very experienced. it is a better idea to get a telescoping magnet from harbor freight and just check with that. it is the only way to do it accurately.
 
Oh woops. I did use a magnet. And it was non-magnetic. But I'm afraid i went over because the color looks too bright to my oh-so-very experienced eyes.

EDIT: I took it out, around 2 hours later, and it was just slightly warm. I'm straightening it right now using two clamps and a flat surface, because the steel got bent during the burying in the sand part. The problem is, I'm not sure if I did the annealing right. The file feels like it's skating, but then again, I can't really tell. The hacksaw still won't cut, but the hacksaw is just a normal wooden one. The steel is easily bent though, compared with the other pieces I've received.

Edit Edit: It cuts. Very very slowly and painfully. I tried to drill holes for a connect-the-dots, and this is where something odd happened. The steel would drill fine in certain places, and in others, was almost as though it was hardened. Also, these places were usually halfway into drilling, or right next to another hole. Is it that the heat from the drill is causing something weird? Or is it something else? I really don't see how this is going to be cut out. I'm going to head out to Home Depot for a better saw though. That's for sure.
 
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What kind of bits, ti bits seem to work okay for me but the cold fire ones from home depot are even better.
 
Titanium ones from DeWalt. They were around $4 for 2. It feels to me as if the steel is hardening... is that even possible for 1080? And how fast should the drill go?
 
drill should be at a slow rpm, if its too fast will get hot and work harden the steel, and burn your bit useless
 
I've had the same problems with 1080 from one of the forum's favorite suppliers. It was discussed in this thread.

Sunshadow suggested,
"What it sounds like to me is that you have lamelar pearlite (no not the expanded mica that you get at the garden store that you are using to slow cool your steel, but little flat carbides that have precipitated out of your steel because you are cooling it too slowly that will ruin hacksaw blades and drill bits)

I think the key to fixing your problem is that you need to do a speroidize anneal. Instead of heating up to Austentizing temp and then cooling extremely slowly which will precipitate large sheets of impenetrable carbides, you need to heat your steel up to just subcritical, cool it quickly, heat it a little less, cool it quickly, and cycle it a few more times, each time heating it to a lower temperature. That will break up the carbides and ball up the remnants so that they move out of the way of cutting tools instead of just destroying them."

I haven't done this yet but I seem to have had some luck by placing the steel on the burner of my stove on high. also, use cutting tool lubricant when drilling it to help prolong the life of your drills.

- Paul Meske
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. Lonepine, so I need to heat it up, then essentially quench, reheat, requench? I'm not so sure about my ability to hit the correct temperature though. Although I did try hacksawing... and the hacksaw has lost all teeth. It was a bi-metal blade from buck bros.... should I re-anneal? Or is there another way to do it. Also... would there be another way to cut the steel?
 
buck bros is absolute crap. I bought 2 of them and used one up cutting a piece of 1/8x1x27" annealed 1084 into three equal pieces with 2 small cuts. don't even bother with them. do you have a hand drill, dremel, or angle grinder?
 
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