Nice work, bro.
They sell 416 stainless in flat stock, you know...
= )
3 flute for this kind of work, eh? Allow for faster cut? Been buying my end mills at Maritool. Might have to scope these guys out...
If Dad was REALLY well trained, there would be treats at every pass. : )
Damn it, why didn't anybody tell me?!?!?
I started buying round stock because the flat bar is getting so expensive. Of course the time needed to forge it down, the propane, the wear and tear on tooling (especially if you accidentally hit the drum switch in reverse when using the face mill with inserts that cost $10 a pop!!! :grumpy: :foot: not that I know anything about that!

) all comes at a cost.
But I bought 70# of 416 round for what a handful of flat bars would cost. Plus I can take it to any size I want, and having the round stock is nice if you turn a custom frog for a sheath.
But yea, it's a PITA. LOL
Matt- don't tell Bentley what you said... he will start demanding a treat as a toll. The stuff from Lakeshore is awesome... and something that I am very drawn to...
it's made in the good 'ol USA. :thumbup: And they price their stuff about the same as the supply houses charge for import tooling. I'm sure I would get better tool life with a flood coolant, but I'll wait to set that up on the bigger mill... plus I probably wouldn't have used it here anyway as it makes it hard to see what's going on.
Joe- thanks brother. I am kind of a big deal.

LMFAO

(for those that don't know, I'm just play'n!)
Michael- Dang, I must have missed some good smart ass comments! LOL

I have been too busy to be on the forum or email much lately. Unless you said something bad about my dogs, then we're good my friend.
Greg- Thanks my friend... I think you are really going to like'a da' Mango!
Ben- It was just supposed to be temporary, but it lasted about 4 or 5 years... so I can't complain too much. I know why it broke like that... one of the blades was a bit snug going into that slot, and I hammered the guard off anyway. Guarantee that started the split. Doh!
totallynotalex- Thank you for asking!!! I think something like this is in the future... but I better get this run of 12 done before I let my ADD brain wander too far off into the future.
Dudley- I miss ya buddy! I WILL get you on the phone one of these days!!!
Eric and David- I am but a simple caveman!
Brian- If you wanna see somebody that forges it, check out Lin Rhea's postings... he frigg'n forges it TO SHAPE!!! He's the man! I have done a couple that way, and it's a lot of work and really easy to screw things up royally.
Half the time I just face off the top/bottom of the stock and rough grind the sides well enough to seat in the mill vise. But I was trying to be proper since everybody is watching.

416 is finicky with heat... It needs to be forged fairly hot, and you can't take real big bites or you'll tear it apart. Without carefully monitoring the times/temps during forging, you can get it where it's really nasty and will
destroy cutting tools. You can do a full anneal on it in a kiln or salt, and it will come out as soft as mild steel. I have found if I just do some simple normalizing heats in the forge, it comes out soft enough to machine, but still hard enough to maintain good corrosion resistance. According to the books, to get the very most out of the corrosion resistance, it's recommended you harden it... but I haven't found that to be a necessary extra set of steps.
Dimensions can be whatever trips your trigger. I normally want something around 0.350-0.400 thick and 0.750 wide.
Whewe, that was a lot... hopefully I got everything squared away. Thanks fellas!!!
