gerald

OK, I got it. Since "the community" wouldn't spoon feed it to me, I actually did some looking up on my own. Here's my (very) quick and dirty explanation of why the "A" in A36. To paraphrase what Steve Sells said earlier: there are component codes and construction terms....which still doesn't tell us what the "A" in A-36 stands for (A is for aardvark, etc). So, here's what I found out after sorting out what Steve tried to tell me: When it comes to steel (and other metalic products) there are generally two outfits that establish "standards": ASTM International and AISI. AISI is the outfit that gives us one set of number/letter codes for steel products: "S" for shock resisting, "A" for air hardening, "10XX for carbon steels, etc. ASTM gives us standards for all sorts of materials (rubber, plastic, iron and steel, copper, etc). It turns out that the section of their codes that deal with iron and steel products is the "A" section and all codes that fall under that section have an "A" prefix. A-36 is the spec for Carbon Structural Steel. Specs in the "B" section, for instance, apply to non-ferrous metals and alloys. SO - the bottom line to all this is that the "A" in A-36 just stands for the section of the ASTM standards that deals with Carbon Structural Steel. As Steve Sells alluded, we still can't mix apples and oranges when we talk about steel codes.

Jackson..................

Mess.................................

rock..................................

cut...................

So, what the heck DOES the "A" stand for in A-36????

Bond..............James Bond...............

I've always tjought it sort of amusing when I hear someone say "We'll quench one end of the piece to 'run the heat to the other end' of the piece." This goes against the Law of T'dynamics that says that "heat flows from a warmer to a colder area" (My appologies to Sir Isaac Newton). If you cool an area, the heat should want to run toward the cooler end rather than stay/run to the hotter end.

Agent Orange

So, here's another question............. If A36 isn't considered "Air Hardening Tool Steel" (like A-2 for instance), how come it has the "A" designation. Obviously the 36 refers to its 36,000 pound tensile strength, but why the "A" if it ain't air hardening?

Laws........................

Mary................quite contrary.............

bit.......................

Yep, brushing that scale like that could leave him picking his nose with a hook. Good use for an air hose w/blow gun.

You might also consider the safety implications of using a junk yard spring for your hammer. You don't know (without some hi-tech testing) what the stress history of the spring is and therefore how close this thing is to breaking under the kind of load that you are putting on the spring. This may be the one single part that you would want to spend a few bucks on to get a new, still flat spring from a spring shop. Consider that this spring is at the level that can cause a lot of damage to critical body parts (head, eyes, etc) if it breaks and goes to flopping around at/near the speed of light.

Mallard.....................

row..............................

smoke.............................

Have you been taking a lot of aspirin lately? I've found that when I have a "leak" problem, I can trace it back to recent aspirin use.

Sally Field

The leaf spring (assuming it is from a vehicle such as a truck) is probably some sort of alloy like 5160, etc. So, to answer your question, the leaf (vehicle) spring is NOT considered a "plain carbon steel".

breaker.......................

Good idea. I don't use my "mikes" very often, so I'm going to check them when I get back to the shop (barn). Thanks.

I'd guess that the red color comes from rust that was on the piece before you began forging and stayed on the areas that you didn;t get as hot as the heated and forged areas. For instance, if you are making an S-hook, the two ends are heated to a forging heat which burns the rust from the surface. The area toward the middle of the hook probably didn't get hot enough to burn the rust off and it got dirty/sooty from being near the fire. as you put the wax onto the surface, the dirty stuff is cleaned off and red (rust) shows thru. If you want to use parrafin , you can buy it at many grocery stores in blocks. This is usually a cheaper source of parrafin than a candle, votive or otherwise.

cheese....................