[SEL] Heat Treating Metal

[Listerdiesel]

On 9/7/05, Judge Tommy Turner <lcjudge at scrtc.com> wrote:
> Some of you saw the Miami engine I had at Portland.  The governor is
> actuated by means of an angled catch that strikes the gas valve.  Since
> I had to make this, it was constructed out of cold rolled steel.
> However, it takes a beating and is showing wear after probably 40 hours
> of running.  I need to make this out of some type material that I can
> heat treat to make it really hard.  Do any of you know of a type of
> material that I can redily machine but then heat treat (on my own) to
> make it super tough?  I used to have some type material here that was
> about 1/8 by one inch.  You could bore it, mill it, etc. and then heat
> it cherry red, quench it in oil and you couldn't touch it with a file.
> I don't know what the composition was however.  Anyone have any tips for
> me as to what I could use?
> 
> Tommy Turner
> Magnolia, KY

There are many steels in the lists that would be suitable, but you
would need to lay your hands on them first.

As Rob & Reg have suggested, plain case hardening would be the
simplest and quickest, but there are also some heat-treatable alloys
that would be better, particularly for the cams, look at SAE 3415
which is equivalent to our EN36, or SAE 4615 equiv to EN34. Both are
case hardenable with further heat treatment possible after
carburising.

Both types are suggested for use on cams and gears, data from the
Macreadys handbook 1995 edition 7. Composition data here:-

http://www.macreadys.co.uk/products/index.html

Peter
-- 
Peter A Forbes
Email: listerdiesel at gmail.com
Web: www.oldengine.org/members/diesel