serial and date on supposed 4140

[Ozzy WV]

I recently acquired chunk(6inch dia. x 12" ) cylinder shaped metal and is supposedly 4140.   It has what looks to be a serial and a date.  serial looking number is something like "J-107564"  and the date is like 10-03-2016.    

I've lurked and read alot in the last year quite abit here. Didn't I read somewhere on here that you can ID the metal with those numbers?  I've searched online off and on for a month or so and I can't find much about serials and metal. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I was going to attempt to construct a post anvil or similar with it. If I can find more solid info about it.

 

[Glenn]

It may be a heat number and purchase date.

If you have metal with heat numbers or documentation, put it on BOTH ends of the metal.  Be sure to replace the information when you cut the end off for a project.

[ThomasPowers]

Or it may be a part from a large machine and all you have to do is to determine which machine it came from and what company supplied the parts for it!

I assume you have already searched for J-107564 on the internet and went even into the "back pages".  Next might be to find a heavy equipment repair shop and ask if they recognize it.  (Think large earth moving equipment.)

[Patrick Nowak]

That first number looks like an ingot letter followed by a heat number. There are several steel mills that use a 6 digit heat number but it is only meaningful to the steel mill that made it. Their melt records will not be available on the internet. If you could track down the original steel mill they could use that number to confirm the grade, but I suggest you see if you local scrap yard has an X-ray based hand held metal analyzer they could use to get you a ball park composition. With that, it should be easy to confirm grade.

Patrick

 

[Ozzy WV]

thanks for the replies guys. I think ill try to do this and attempt to find someone with an xray machine. It will be hard to find where I live at in WV.