Sorry another ???????

S

spaz815

Joined
Apr 16, 2007
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14
I hope I'm not being a pain in the ass but I was wondering the best way to anneal steel. Is there any links for this? Thanks!!!:thumbup:

Oh one more thing. Do you have to do this every time you buy new steel?
 
the steel im sending you comes already annealed. the way i was told to anneal is to heat it up just past non magnetic and then stick it in vermiculite for a few hours. when you pull it out hours later it will still be sizzling. vermiculite can be found at most gardening shops. the guys here can better explain it. but you wont have to worry about annealing the steel i give you.
 
A few hours,Jacob? Try about 12 hours.
It has to cool very slowly, about 50 degrees per hour until it is below 1000F. That works out to at least 10 hours.
Stacy
 
from what i have seen, some one with more knowlage than me please corect me if i am wrong, some steels ca be done is hours while others you might have to take over a day to get it to be fully annealed (from just looking at numbers air hardening steels should take over a day to cool to get to full anneal while some of the tool steels and oil/water quenching can be annealed much quicker). i tried to anneal some steel i had because it didnt seem fully annealed to me (not like i really know what im doing though) i left it in the ashes in my gheto forge as it burned out (not a good idea but i got lucky and it didnt harm it at lesat that i have seen) but it cooled off in about 6- 8 hours i guess and it seemed softer than before.

when you buy bar stock it will pretty much always tell you if it is annealed or not, usually they are annealed because it is to hard to machine hardened steels.

-matt
 
PimpinSquee said:
the steel im sending you comes already annealed. the way i was told to anneal is to heat it up just past non magnetic and then stick it in vermiculite for a few hours. when you pull it out hours later it will still be sizzling. vermiculite can be found at most gardening shops. the guys here can better explain it. but you wont have to worry about annealing the steel i give you.
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Oh Ok cool I thought you had to do that with all steel.
 
Allan Molstad said:
What is it actually sold for?
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It's used in gardening. It's a very light material that allows soil to drain really well. I mix it with my soil when planting in my garden to allow my new plants to be able to develop strong root systems without having to fight through our rocky soil that we have.

I just bought two more bags of it yesterday. I haven't been able to find it in large bags, but just in small bags. It's not very expensive.

Oh, and I use it to anneal my steel too.

Scott (Ickie) Ickes
 
you can also get it in shipping supply places, its used for hazmat (they pack it around the containers if they are shipped in boxes).

ULINE has "grade 2" for haz mat liquids, and "grade 4" for bottled liquids, just to prevent any leakage out of the box. grade 2 is finer than grade4. grade 2 and 4 sell in 4 cu. ft. bags for 21 per bag with a minimum order of 2 bags, and grade 4 also sells in a 1.75 cu ft bag for 16 ea with minimium of 2.

at 4 cu ft grade 2 weights 26 lbs and grade 4 wights 19 lbs.

-matt
 
Annealing depends on what you bought [condition] , what steel and what you want to do with it. There's full anneal , there's subcritical anneal .A subcritical anneal if often all you need. No simple answer !!
 
spaz815 said:
Thanks guys.:thumbdn:
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spaz815, I think your "thumbs down" is unwarranted. Perhaps if you read the link below you may realize that there are several types of "annealing":
http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/softening/annealing.cfm

I got that link off of Google in about 30 seconds.

You asked a very generalized question and people can't tell what you seek to know with the minimal information you provided. Do you just want to drill holes easily or cut the steel? Do you want to prepare the steel for a certain crystal structure? Is the steel you have already annealed as purchased? Have you overheated it and are seeking to recover it? Is it a simple carbon steel or a complex air hardening alloy? Do you have a temperature controlled environment with downramping capabilites or just a forge or only a torch?

There is no reason to chide people who tried to help because they're not mind readers. The quality of the responses was in line with the quality of the question.
 
I'd say the thumbs down os more likely to be a slip of the mouse next to the thumbs up, I'd give the guy the benefit of the doubt, he did say thanks :P
 
The thanks, combined with the thumbs down could as well be sarcasm, Kiwi.

I did, however, attempt to be polite in what I said, in case there is a misunderstanding. I attempted to explain why the rather general question couldn't be answered specifically.

Should you choose to read my response differently, feel free to interpret it as you wish. :)
 
fitzo said:
spaz815, I think your "thumbs down" is unwarranted. Perhaps if you read the link below you may realize that there are several types of "annealing":
http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/softening/annealing.cfm

I got that link off of Google in about 30 seconds.

You asked a very generalized question and people can't tell what you seek to know with the minimal information you provided. Do you just want to drill holes easily or cut the steel? Do you want to prepare the steel for a certain crystal structure? Is the steel you have already annealed as purchased? Have you overheated it and are seeking to recover it? Is it a simple carbon steel or a complex air hardening alloy? Do you have a temperature controlled environment with downramping capabilites or just a forge or only a torch?

There is no reason to chide people who tried to help because they're not mind readers. The quality of the responses was in line with the quality of the question.
Click to expand...

LOL!!!! So sorry guys I didn't mean that!!!!!!!! I really didn't mean that it was suppose to be a tumb up!!!! Sorry and thanks again! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Also wanted to let you know there was NO sarcasm in that. I truly am thankfull you guys are teaching me alot. I wouldn't put any advice down even if I thought it was wrong! I wouldn't screw something up to not be able to ask more guestions. You guys are the teacher and Im the student.
 
If I offended you, then I hope you will accept my apology, spaz. I hope you would also consider that, if you were being sarcastic, my response wouldn't have been out of line.
 
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