05-04-2017, 01:28 AM
I walked past the little bonfire heap this morning and one of the test pieces was sitting on top of the ashes where the breeze had left it exposed, I couldn't resist the temptation of retrieving it and giving it a trial run.
It was still just a little warm to the touch, not much higher than body temperature. I put it in the drill press where the same 6.8mm twist drill that could barely scratch it the other day was still in the chuck. Drilled through it like butter! Followed it with an 8.5mm drill then power tapped it (thanks Tom!) with an M10 spiral-point tap that arrived from eBay a couple of days ago for my toolholders. First time I have used one of these taps and I don't know how I'll ever go back to my straight-flute hand taps now.
In the photo, just to the left of the tapped hole-about an inch from the tap at about 10 o'clock- you might be able to make out the little dent that was all I could manage with the drill before the annealing.
Looks like the shaper table extension project will be back on track after we burn the big pile. I might wait until it has burned down a bit before I put the steel on, although once it gets going it tends to be very difficult to get close- will see how we go.
I put the test piece back in the embers to finish cooling off, just to be on the safe side. I'll be very pleased if I can make this stuff useable by annealing like this, as well as the shaper extension I have in mind a couple of chuck mounting plates as well.
It was still just a little warm to the touch, not much higher than body temperature. I put it in the drill press where the same 6.8mm twist drill that could barely scratch it the other day was still in the chuck. Drilled through it like butter! Followed it with an 8.5mm drill then power tapped it (thanks Tom!) with an M10 spiral-point tap that arrived from eBay a couple of days ago for my toolholders. First time I have used one of these taps and I don't know how I'll ever go back to my straight-flute hand taps now.
In the photo, just to the left of the tapped hole-about an inch from the tap at about 10 o'clock- you might be able to make out the little dent that was all I could manage with the drill before the annealing.
Looks like the shaper table extension project will be back on track after we burn the big pile. I might wait until it has burned down a bit before I put the steel on, although once it gets going it tends to be very difficult to get close- will see how we go.
I put the test piece back in the embers to finish cooling off, just to be on the safe side. I'll be very pleased if I can make this stuff useable by annealing like this, as well as the shaper extension I have in mind a couple of chuck mounting plates as well.
Lathe (n); a machine tool used in the production of milling machine components.
Milling Machine (n); a machine tool used in the production of lathe components.
Milling Machine (n); a machine tool used in the production of lathe components.