What is involved with heat treating steel

[PineRidge]

John the project is still in the works. A machinist friend of mine is fine tuning some of the final parts needed to get it up and running.

I decided to take your guys advice and step up from the smaller diameter hex rod to 6 foot of 3/4 solid rod. It took care of a great percentage of the flex that I was experiencing with the lighter material. I really don't think that I'll need to be concerned about heat treating at this point, but we'll see.

 

[Renze]

You can do heat treatment at home when hardness is required on low alloy steels. For higher alloy species, or when you also want strength, let it to the professionals.

I have ordered new pins for my front loader, made out of C45 steel which contains 0.45% carbon. this isnt the hardest type of steel but at least i have a very littel risk of making it too brittle when i try to harden it in my wood stove and a bucket of water... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif