Jerrod Miller

Got a new batch of RR rail in to melt today. In it there was the typical track sections as well as a smaller gauge (1.5" wide). This one is most certainly NOT 1060, it is 1030. C~0.30 | Mn~0.75 | Si~0.04 | P~0.09 | S~0.055 | Cr~0.02 | Ni~0.01 | Cu~0.08 | Mo,V,Al, all else<0.01

I have yet to find one I trust for what I would call a reasonable amount of money. Two big things that a lot of people do not realize with IR thermometers is the size of the cone for the reader (close to the gun reads a small area, farther away a bigger area) and emissivity constants (a material dependent value). When we get to the temperatures we care about in smithing, emissivity constants become important and you will need to calibrate and adjust it for the material. The cone for the one you linked has a 12:1 ratio, so at 12 inches your diameter being measured is 1 inch. So unless you c

Entirely possible. I haven't tried one for many years, so it is even possible that the lower grades now are better than anything on the market then, let alone the higher end ones available now.

No, just "Ove Glove", as in Oven Glove. They can be found in kitchen supply sections of stores. The thought is that it is easier to just wear a glove than deal with pot holders. Personally I don't like them for the forge. Mainly because the blue grippy stripes melt below 1000F and the open weave lets in radiant heat (which isn't a problem at cooking temps, but is at forging temps) and molten flux (and other small hot pieces). I'm sure there are plenty of people that will find them quite likeable though. They certainly breathe better than leather. Edited to add this link to

The day I have to correct Alan on something will be a day we should all fear. I agree that it sounds like it could just be too long at temp. There are always things to be learned from breaking blades. Even if it is just that you did indeed nail the process. In this case you would be looking for nasty grain growth. The biggest thing to worry about here is whether or not you are going to harden at all, or at least through harden for a given thickness. With a secondary concern of warping. It should not give you a "splotchy" hardening.

Decarb is soft. It is from carbon being removed, so it doesn't harden (at least not as well). What temp and for how long did you soak in your heat treat oven?

Back when that video was made in 2016, the price for the 50W version was $53,000. They are still quite expensive.

For anyone else feeling bad about using canola oil: I am a professional metallurgist and heat treat industrial parts as part of my job. I keep a jug of canola oil in my lab at work for quenching small things that need an oil quench out of the test oven in there.

Just don't call any steel "brass", please. And since I can throw it out there in this context: 440C is not a steel, it is a specialty cast iron. Even though it has a nominal 1.1%C. During solidification it forms carbides straight from the liquid. Feel free to keep calling it a steel though, because the lines are indeed blurry.

To add to Alan's response: In industry there are a few very common terms. Carbon steel is just as Alan described. Definitely an alloy, but generally considered very low alloy content and is its own class. Then there is the High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA). Medium Alloy, High Alloy, Stainless, and several others. The more niche you get in any circle of makers/users the more terms, and even shifting of boundaries of terms, you get. In my mind I generally lump the 86XX series in with the plain carbon, because from a manufacturing standpoint in the foundry the cost of adding the 0.5% Cr an

Only in that it is more likely to be repeatable over time and not go rancid. One could also potentially eliminate having canola oil in their shop and just use the one oil (#50), depending on the alloys they like to use. You always want to quench as slowly as possible and still meet your goals. If you can beat the nose of the TTT with a slower oil you should absolutely use that slower oil.

I can tell you that the price to cast them is incredibly high!

I didn't get into the industry until 2007. It is amazing to me how much WWII era equipment I have used. Furnaces, ladles, and mills. I have worked in plants that had stuff I was pretty sure was pre-WWII, and I was running a cluster computer doing casting simulations (pour/fill, shrink/feeding, segregation, distortion). I have worked on (and continue to work on) automation to improve employee effectiveness. I need a mech suit similar to Ripley's in Aliens, but more agile. About 12 years ago the foundry I work at bought a "new to us" muller for our green sand system. It was built in 1954.

My first: The final haul: Range finder from my front door says this spot is about 520 yards from home (as the Nazgul flies), but more like a 650-700 yard walk. We have a few more places we will be checking this weekend.

I took my son out for a walk yesterday, on a path we walk fairly often. Found what I thought was my first morel. Turns out is was indeed a morel. And we ended up with just over 3 pounds of them. It was a good day.