ibs740 Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Hi, I'm looking to make a 1" square hole through a block of steel (44-56 RC)about 2-3 " deep. I have several blocks to chose from. They were used as some form of die and I've verified the hardness. Don't know what kind of steel other than higher carbon. They vary in size from 2.5-4.5" L X W X H. My plan is to toss in my forge then let cool slowly to take the hardness out, drill a hole close to size then reheat and try to drive a 1" square piece of hardened drill rod to shape the hole. I used my hardie hole to try and form a hardie shank but noticed a bit of bluing on the edge so not going there. XXXX since lots of videos of people doing the same for longer than I exposed my anvil. I have since a pic of a hardie shank forming tools that was a block with a square hole formed in it and it was chained to the top of their anvil. So I'm wondering how likely is this to work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 It would likely be easier to use a cape chisel to chisel out the corners of your round hole... with such a thick and massive block of steel there is no easy place for a drift to move any displaced metal. Also the relative masses of the drift (mniscule) and the steel block (HUGE) would mean that keeping the drift cool and the block much hotter is quite difficult... even very unlikely! It might seem inefficient to chisel out the corners but hose who have done it have made pretty good progress in only a few hours. There are several threads on here in regard to this very type of project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesteryearforge Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 I have put a one inch square hole thru 2 inch thick hot roll before Drilled a 7/8 hole Heated the 2 x 4 x 10 inch long bar to a yellow heat Me and a striker the drove a pre forged 1 inch square drift with a long taper made from A36 thru it in two heats we were making a brian brazeal type anvil for making hammers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 You may wish to research little more about taking the hardness out of a HC piece of unknown steel. Heat in forge and letting it cool slowly leaves a lot of room for errors. You may already know this but if not there is a sticky on the site with more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 I have put a one inch square hole thru 2 inch thick hot roll before Drilled a 7/8 hole Heated the 2 x 4 x 10 inch long bar to a yellow heat Me and a striker the drove a pre forged 1 inch square drift with a long taper made from A36 thru it in two heats we were making a brian brazeal type anvil for making hammers I have done similar to make bolster blocks you will have some swelling around the hole that will need to be ground off or forged back in. Its not that hard but you need to make the proper drift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibs740 Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 So A36 is a low carbon steel so could't be hardened unless case hardened. Did you pick this because it is not going to fracture due to how hard and often you had to drive in through the plate or just because that's what you had? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec.S Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 HI! It is super easy!! Drill a 3/4 inch hole heat it up do as i do in this video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4bLHkpnKYE That was a 12x5x2 block... Please ask if you have further questions!! Alec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredW Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 This may be a silly question but here goes. Why not pre-drill with a 1" bit? Its diameter will be the same as the square then you would be drifting a lot less material. I have never done this so not at all sure. Maybe there is a reason for pre-drilling with a bit smaller than the hole will be. Of course, if you don't have a 1" bit you would have to make due.Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan P. Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Fred, if you drill the same size as the square hole you want, you will have little round bite marks on the sides of the square. If you imagine, the square edges of the drift are pushing the hole out in all directions, and will push the drilled sides out too. Hard to describe, sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 It would only take one time to witnes the messup. You actually must move metal around in all dimensions...so if you had a 1 in hole then theoretically there would be no metal moved from that position. And there could be a stress point there too...but not likely to be life threatening in this condition. As you drive the properly shaped drift through the hole...which can be as large as 7/8...metal will be upset in the form as a bulge upward and downward. With the 7/8 hole the amount of upset metal is not such a bad thing...and can be plannished down flat. Now this may seem strange. It was to me too until Brian, Lyle and myself put a 1 in square hole in 3 inch thick metal with a 7/8 in two heats! The whole project from cold start to cold finsh 2 hours complete. Remember to drive the drift back through when quite cool to plannish the inside of the hole and perfect the dimension. Your drift should be correctly made too..ie.. the top of the tool should be longer than the thickness of the project. Before starting the project be sure to "index" the hole from and back by "bruising" the round hole with the square drift. Here the square is aligned to be correct front and back. There is the possibility that you may have to drift from either end should something go wrong. If it does go awry then the square is correct front and back and the hole will not have a twist. good luck... and yeah...weld long heavy bars on each end to be used as tools to handle the hot material. When heating start slowly...or you will burn the outside. Well you will not be able to see it because the thick wide metal on top. It is very easy to burn the outside though. carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 double entry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNewman Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I just put some square holes 3/4" and 1" through some pieces of 4340 and 4140. The method I used was. Drop off at the wire edm shop. Pick up from the wire edm shop. Mail a cheque to the wire edm shop. I went with this method because the bolsters I was making were going to be used for 100s of tools and I wanted to make sure the hole was the right size and perfectly perpendicular to the faces. As well 2 of the tools needed machining after the hole was put in and I have never had great luck with annealing 4340 in vermiculite and machining setup was much easier without the distortion from forging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredW Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Thanks for the explanation and it makes complete sense. You learn something new everyday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYBOY Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Cant believe no one has posted this yet.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxTdbC5MLRQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlbaker Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 What if you bored an oversized hole,1 1/2, and sleeved it with a piece of 1 1/2 thick wall square tubing,1/4 wall, hammered in whatever sized rd stock fits into the corner gaps and welded the heck out of it then ground it all flat. Maybe us hard facing rod. I know it would be a slow go drilling the hole, but the rest would go fast. Just a thought. Bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will. K. Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I don't think I could drive a 1" drift through 2" plate by myself. I would give it a try if I had some one to help me. I've been considering having some 2" plate waterjet cut or a striking anvil with the hole cut slightly undersize & file finish to size to clean up the kerf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 when I did mine I drilled out the hole and when I reached 1" I then filed the hole square took me about 2 hours it was not hard at all the biggest challenge was holding the block while tighting the block in the vice I files the lower corner and rotated the block to get all corners square. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Not all communities have equal resources. For instance the local EDM shop id 50 miles away...and I forget the hourly rate and minimum setup fee but it is very expensive...and we have a local waterjet but it demands 285 bucks an hour! well the situation is that neither place want our little projects! Forging a square hole through a thick plate of steel is rather simple in description..and only slightly more complicated. A good striker at a good working height, with a good heat and a good tool...equals a good project. Carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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