Gallery, Projects and General > Mod-Ups!
Case Hardening Experiments Mod-Up
vtsteam:
And as one more experiment today, I stripped the zinc coating off of a piece of 3/8" dia threaded rod, in hopes that it wasn't a hardenable material. I heated it to cherry red, plunged it and it would not scratch either A or S. Both those samples would cut into it. So not hard.
It did seem slightly harder than C, but not by much -- light scratches. The untreated end would not scratch C at all. So, let's call it very slightly hardenable.
I did the sugar procedure on it, and it reverted to the full soft state, not even scratching C. So again, using this sugar case hardening procedure is counterproductive.
vtsteam:
Might be true Dave. What is unexpected is that it actually seems to pull carbon out of the surface.
awemawson:
Well the POWS got through the wire - read Paul Brickhills book !
vtsteam:
Andrew I didn't conjecture about different procedures and materials used by other people. That's the point. Small alterations in details sometimes can make big differences in results. I pointed out the importance of individual method to start with, and still encourage others to try with sugar, including you if you want. A test only takes a few minurtes to do.
Also I'm sure my own sample S will cut wire if made into a tool. It just wasn't the sugar that caused it to harden. And a better cutter could be made of A. I'd guess Mr. Brickhill loses no credence as a result. But I won't be using this particular method with sugar to case harden anything.
I have thought of giving sugar one more try at least, this time in a tool wrap to exclude oxygen. If that fails then I give up on it.
vtsteam:
One other thing I just thought of re. The Great Escape. When you plunge the hot steel into the sugar you get a great volume of very strong smelling white smoke, very identifiably sugar -- like burning marshmallows, and flames. Then reheating it to red heat burns off all the remaining carbon producing even more fumes.
If I were trying to escape notice in using sugar, I'd use a sealed container method, not an open one. I doubt they'd have considered using an open method at all, under those circumstances. I haven't read the book, so I can't say what was reported there, though.
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