Question about heating a stainless bolt (no knife content)

[Big Dave]

I need some input from you guys who know steel.

I replaced some stainless bolts and nuts on my Sunfish rudder. They were too long and I asked my friend to grind them off. He did and I noticed they turned red hot.

Will that heat make them brittle or more likely to fail?


Thanks,

Dave

 

[mikeS]

NO

 

[Spade]

If anything, they will probably be softer--Unless you dipped them in cold water to cool them down. If you did this while they were red hot, you have some pretty brittle bolts now.

 

[Lynn]

It's my understanding that most stainless bolts are 300 series stainless. If they are you can't harden. What happened to the wood or fiberglass under the bolts?
Lynn

 

[Big Dave]

Thanks for the input.

Been sailing a few times since then and no problems. But, it's nice to have more confidence in the rudder holding. There are a few other parts that I wonder about since the boat is 30 years old.

The extra heat didn't damage anything else. It has the original mohogany rudder...it's beautiful.

Now I just need a good sailing knife.

Thanks

Dave

 

[seaplane]

One thing I have noticed about stainless bolts when they get hot, They tend to gall (spelling?) or lock down when you try to remove them. If you ever need to remove them in the future, you might want to spray them down with a good penetrant like Kroil or WD40 first. If it starts pulling the threads as you loosen it, tighten it and then loosen it back and forth a few times and don't force it or it will strip out on you. (I hate it when that happens!)