Source for 5160 round bars?

hathegkla

hathegkla

Joined
Feb 3, 2010
Messages
201
I've been working with rectangular bar stock lately but I want to try forging some rounds to see what its like. I just can't seem to find them in 5160, admiral and mcmaster-carr don't have em and google isn't helping.

I'm looking for anything between 5/8ths and 1inch (1" is kinda pushing it though). Preferably somewhere I could order 6 feet or less but I'll take what I can get ;)
 
And the stuff that Ray has is really high quality steel which is not always the case when you are scrounging around for 5160. And you are right. If you are forging my hand, my experience has been that you are starting to push it a bit when you get to 1" + unless you are built like Paul Bunyan. I hurt myself early on trying to forge out some 1" O1 drill rod.
 
jdm61 said:
And the stuff that Ray has is really high quality steel which is not always the case when you are scrounging around for 5160. And you are right. If you are forging my hand, my experience has been that you are starting to push it a bit when you get to 1" + unless you are built like Paul Bunyan. I hurt myself early on trying to forge out some 1" O1 drill rod.
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yeah, the first piece of tool steel I ordered was a 1"x1" square bar of 01. after my first go at it with my puny 30 kilo anvil I've basically given up on it. I'm waiting until I can visit a friend of a friend who has 4 or 5 power hammers I can draw it out with :grumpy:
 
hathegkla said:
yeah, the first piece of tool steel I ordered was a 1"x1" square bar of 01. after my first go at it with my puny 30 kilo anvil I've basically given up on it. I'm waiting until I can visit a friend of a friend who has 4 or 5 power hammers I can draw it out with :grumpy:
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I ended up with a rather troublesome case of tennis elbow.
 
I'll second Ray Kirk. Good guy and has good prices on his steel. Cheap shipping too. If you don't mind him cutting the bars in 1 ft. Lengths he can fit 21 ft in a flat rate shipping box for like $11. He's got good prices on 52100 too. If you've never tried any of that you ought to get a bar.
 
JasonByers said:
I'll second Ray Kirk. Good guy and has good prices on his steel. Cheap shipping too. If you don't mind him cutting the bars in 1 ft. Lengths he can fit 21 ft in a flat rate shipping box for like $11. He's got good prices on 52100 too. If you've never tried any of that you ought to get a bar.
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lol, yeah, shipping on the 1ft bars is great but I wanted at least some of it longer so I'm getting it in 3' bars. I'm ordering 12' of 5160 and 6' of 52100. I just got a heat treating furnace so I'm sure I'll blow through some steel messing with it.
 
Forgive me if you are already aware of this but be careful about overheating the 52100. It's not very forgiving of heats above critical. Forge close to that at first and then lower temps as you get closer to the end. I'm not too good at judging temp by color so I use a thermocouple and forging outside at the highest temp the steel is a high orange. Again forgive me if you have experience with this already. Happy forging.
 
JasonByers said:
Forgive me if you are already aware of this but be careful about overheating the 52100. It's not very forgiving of heats above critical. Forge close to that at first and then lower temps as you get closer to the end. I'm not too good at judging temp by color so I use a thermocouple and forging outside at the highest temp the steel is a high orange. Again forgive me if you have experience with this already. Happy forging.
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Nope, the only steel I have any real experience with is 1075/1080 and high carbon file steel. but I have been reading about 52100 and 5160. I saw that you aren't supposed to forge 52100 above 2100 (or something around that). I have a gas forge so I can always keep it low enough not to over heat it. I should invest in a thermocouple though but my forge doesn't usually get to the light orange/yellow range if I keep it under 3-4 psi so I'm probably ok. I'd be more worried if I had a coal forge. But I'll definitely watch myself and make sure not to over heat it.
 
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