Press Die Steel

J

JasonSCarter

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Dec 20, 2008
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Hey all. I'm in the process of building a forging press, and will post a WIP later when it's finished. :D:thumbup: anyway I'm wondering what kinds of steel you guys make your dies out of?:confused: do you think 4140 would work ok? or should it be made of something better?

Jason
 
There was just a thread about press dies a week or so ago...Really, 1018 will do just about as well as anything else. More to the point I guess is that other steels do do THAT much better that they're worth the difference in price. Ed Caffery says he just tacks the dies onto the plates to that when they get gnarled up he can grind off the welds and replace them with another piece of 1018 quickly.

-d
 
A-36 steel is your best choice. Nothing more than what you can buy at any steel place. This will last just as long as any tool steel in this use and trust me it is a heck of a lot cheaper to boot. Anything more is just a waste of money.
 
BTW, for clarification, A36 is pretty much the same thing as 1018. They're talking about plain old mild steel. So, I guess if mild steel works, 4140 would be fine.

I like 4140, good tough strong stuff. P20 is a very popular steel for making injection molds, and it is pretty much the same thing as 4140. Tough, durable and easy to machine. You can buy it prehardened and tempered to the mid 40s

I have some 4150 drops left over from making Tai's hammers. If 2 1/4" round 4150 is useful to you, let me know, I'll get some in a flat rate box for you.

When I was making dies for cold work I liked D2. Wears forever, resists rust and stays hard up over 800F.
 
Thanks Guy's I missed that earlier die question I guess! 1018 is good 4140 is good. I was wondering how I'd keep a good temper on a set of dies if there touching red hot steel alot. guess I know now! I wonder if superquenched 1018 would wear a little longer...

Jason
 
Jason, any temper you have on the steel used for dies will soon be destroyed after welding a few billets, or any exercise of reducing large steel.
That's the reason for using as inexpensive a steel as you can find.
It will all do about the same thing, and is easily replaced with little consideration to cost.
You may find some exotic alloys that will resist deformation for a long time, due to heat, but their cost just doesn't balance out.
 
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