Using my Evenheat?

WalterDavis

WalterDavis

Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
1,841
Alright, I got my Evenheat in, I've tracked down my heat-treating info, and I have test programmed and worked with my controls so I (think) I know what I'm doing with it. However, I do have one question:

When I put a program into the controller, and it has multiple 'segments', such as annealing 5160:

"heat to 1380 F, cool rapidly to 1300 F, then cool to 1200 F at a rate not exceeding 10 F per hour"

Do I program that in basically just like it says and let it go, or when it says "cool rapidly to 1300" do I need to be present to open the door, remove the blanks, put 'em back and close it back up? I mean, other than quenching or air cooling, do I need to actually do anything, or do I just kick back, drink a margarita and enjoy the ease and usability of this spectacular machine:D

Sorry for such a noob question, I just want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything!
 
You realy dont have to anneal 5160 unless you just want to. You can normalize it and for the most part get the same result. But you can try it both ways and see.
 
Wouldn't annealing it make it easier to grind? I'm pretty sure the 5160 I've got came to me spring tempered, and it's fairly tough to grind.
 
Yes it would make it easier to grind. It is also easier to grind if you do normalizing cycle, and will not take as long to do. A full anneal takes about 40 hours. That's a good bit of Kilowatt hours. You can take it to 1450 and then turn off the kiln and let it sit inside until it cools off. or take it out and put it in vermiculite or hardwood ash to cool. This works just as well as a full anneal, your girnder wont know the differance.
 
He's not talking about a full anneal guys.
That's the spec for the SUBCRITICAL spherodizing anneal.
It works great for being able to drill and mill this steel, as well as helping to evenly distribute the carbides by balling them up in small spheres throughout the blade.
It also helps to set up the steel come time to harden, since the carbides are now evenly distributed.
This is REALLY important if you have forged your steel down from large stock because you now have the blade ALL WHACKED OUT!
I HIGHLY recommend it.
As far as the "quickly", when you program the segment, do this:
Set the "Seg" number at "3". This established how many segments will be in your program.
Ra 1 - "Full"
*F - 1380
hld 1 - 2.30. (I set the hold time this long to allow the entire oven to come up to the set temp, then place the blade in at about 1.30 minutes remaining.)
Then, for the ramp on the second segement set:
Ra 2 - "Full". even though it is going down, this just shuts the heating elements off so it quickly cools down. Wouldn't do much good to just open the door because the mass of the oven is still hot. Also, the cool air hitting the hot elements will burn them out cause them to break.
*F - 1300.
hld 2 - 0. You don't hold at this temp once you get there, you immediately start the 10* ramp to 1200, so:
Ra 3 - 10
*F - 1200
hld 3 - 0.
I do this at about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so that it is done in the morning.
When working with 5160, I have found this the single most important step in getting the most out of the steel.

Remember that "Ra" (ramp) is always in degrees/hour. I forget right now, but "FULL" simply means that the heating is on constantly until the set temp is achieved. That setting is done by holding the up/down arrows one way or the other. "FULL" is at one end of the spectrum. Know what I mean?
If you wanted to you could put "Ra" at 500 and it would take about 2.5 hours or so to ramp up to 1380, and you could just put the blade in and let it come up with the oven. I'm always around the shop so I run it up full and then let the oven soak for a while. You could ramp it up like I just said and not hold it at 1380, sicne it would have come up slowly and the oven would be pretty well evened out.
It's a great controller and you can do about whatever you want.
 
Last edited:
Thanks, Karl! I hadn't thought about overworking or shocking the heating coils, but I can see how it would be pretty easy to do.

I didn't realize that there was a difference between this and a full anneal, I just thought I'd read that this was the proper way to do it to ease grinding. I guess I better get back to the reading:D

So, if I understand this correctly,the best process for this would be to: normalize-grind & drill-do this annealing process-normalize x 3 (descending heats)-quench-temper?

Thanks,

Walter
 
WalterDavis said:
..........So, if I understand this correctly,the best process for this would be to: normalize-grind & drill-do this annealing process-normalize x 3 (descending heats)-quench-temper?

Thanks,

Walter
Click to expand...

No, you want to do this BEFORE you grind and drill.
This is what will pool/glob-up the carbides to facilitate the ease of grinding and drilling.
Then grind.
Then do a few thermal cycles to relieve grinding stresses, then harden and temper.
Are you just doing stock removal from bar stock, or forging your knives to shape?
Many times, bar stock comes in the spherodized condition. Even though sometimes it has been poorly done.
 
Thanks! I'm pretty sure when I bought this steel it was in need of annealing. My basic forge annealing did make it easier to work, but I figured this annealing process would help even more.

I'm doing mostly stock removal, a bit of forging to widen the stock sometimes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top