HammerDown Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 I have a railroad coil spring that I would like to make some punches. Does anyone know what steel the spring might be? Thank you in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccustomknives Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Well, the top three would be 5160, 6150, 9260 and 1095. The age of the spring will rule out the first two if they are older than like 40. 9260 would get ruled out if older than 50 or 60. Do a spark test and compair with steels you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerDown Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 Thanks for narrrowing down the likely steels. The spring is probably no more than 10 or 15 years old. Maybe someone that works for the railroad could lend a little information about rail car design Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Make a couple test punches and test them after heat treat. The test method we used in heavy metal shop class was to wrap the finished punch in a few layers of denim or other stout cloth with the edge/point only showing and give it a too hard smack with a 3lb. hammer wearing PPE of course. If it didn't mark the mild steel block it wasn't hard enough, if it bent is was a fail, if it shattered it was a fail. The first two failure modes were easily corrected anneal and heat treat again. Shattering was often the end. I have my eye on a couple LARGE coil springs a near neighbor has laying in his yard. I'm hoping to catch one outside so I can ask about them, they look like great hammer stock. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerDown Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Frosty, Thanks for your expertise! I did not think of testing ...duh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backwoods Blacksmith Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I recently made a top tool for my power hammer. It was a track tension spring off an old D8 dozer. Late 40's. Very tough stuff. Used a 10lb hammer and my swedge block to make a half round. Like I said very tough stuff. I don't think I want to do that again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Frosty, Thanks for your expertise! I did not think of testing ...duh Aw heck. You're welcome, I think I get as much pleasure out of providing the occasional bit of help as anything else I know. I think there's a thread here somewhere about shop testing found steel, if not I think it'd be a good one to start. after a while you can tell a lot by how it feels, sounds, moves under the hammer but there's nothing like a set of basic tests to tell you what you really need to know. You don't really need to know what the alloy is except in some specific instances. What you really need to know is what's this stuff good for and more importantly, what's it NOT good for? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 When you say RR springs are you referring to those squiggly shaped things. Heck don't know how to describe them. They are sort of a C shape but with big squiggly humps. Looks like they are made to spring onto something and hold at the points of the C. After straightening a few of these out It seems to me that they could be a nicely hardenable tool steel. I am thinking to use them for tooling anyway. I was poking around and saw some literature on these that suggested they might be about 0.60% Carbon. Can anyone confirm that or is it all over the map based on age. I did not look up the C content of the materials mentioned above. I'm thinking that is the main question here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 I have a railroad coil spring that I would like to make some punches. Does anyone know what steel the spring might be? Thank you in advance. Hay Butch it's Trez I have a bunch of them and it is great steel 5160 or better very easy to work with and heat treats excellent. the coil springs I have range from 1/2" to 1 1/2" inch in diameter. I have made hot punches tongs and hardie cut off's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerDown Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 Trez! Good to see on the forum. Have you been doing? The coil spring is 3/4" dia., so I thought it would make some punches. See you at the conference. Butch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerDown Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Borntoolate, The spring is a large coil spring, but I know what you are talking about. They are track clips, they clip to the bottom of the track to hold it in place. It is certainly hard to forge. But I do not know what tool steel they are. Butch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I am still trying to get up and help with tables it was my intention to get up there last month and help but got sick with a bug. will try to make it this next month. will bring my portable welder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crunch Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 When you say RR springs are you referring to those squiggly shaped things. Heck don't know how to describe them. They are sort of a C shape but with big squiggly humps. Looks like they are made to spring onto something and hold at the points of the C. After straightening a few of these out It seems to me that they could be a nicely hardenable tool steel. I believe that Kerry Stagmer (a member here) uses those clips to make knives or swords. See: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 The clips are in the 1045 range, they need to be springy and tough not hard. Good steel for lots of tools. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 crunch would like to see some pic of that hammer looks very interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Yup, those are it. NOtice the power hammer has a little trouble with the far end where the curl has a short radius. Metal was a bit cool... but. I have straightened a few by hand and it is a bit of a workout. Me and oldnrusty did a couple in his shop with him striking. That was better. But still tough. Interesting the difference between hot and tough and hot and hard... I think... But I haven't really hammered enough stuff yet to know if this makes sense. I did seem like this stuff was really tough to move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccustomknives Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Funny, I just got around to forging a little blade out of one of those. It did seem to have more carbon than .60 though. I'll have to compair that blade to known steels, my guess is 1080 or close there of. I'll may get around to heat treating it this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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