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sourse of 1/8" thick Hi spd SS

G

Gretch Flo

Joined
Jun 9, 2004
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Location
Haslett, Michigan
I was wanting a friend that works at the MSU machine shop make me some tear drop scrapers. (sorby's are about $17 ea.) I use them all the time and may go thru one per year. I had wanted 5-6+ made. Yesterday he went thru 2 of his catelogs plus a call to a local metal shop, and can't find hardened steel. Any one have any clues where I can find??? Gretch
 
Get a friend in Ann Arbor. 😛

A quick Google or Bing on specialty steel in Michigan turns up lots of potential sources. Rod stock of appropriate dimension could be cut then shaped. You're not into the latest carbide craze? If you're talking scrapers, got to be THE choice. Available through machine shop catalogs.
 
see:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-steel-sheets/=jchiqr

This explains the different kinds they sell and on the left side you can find what you need. For 1/8" stock by 1".

Hardened Oversize Flat Stock—Ground Finish (Decarb Free)

Hardness: Rockwell C30
Yield Strength: 93,000 psi
Normalized

Meet ASTM A322. Thickness and width tolerances are +0.015". Flatness tolerance is not rated. All lengths have a plus tolerance.

1 1/2 ft.

3 ft.
Width Each Each
1/8" Thick
1" 7939T121 $32.94 7939T122 $58.82

This page show different types of steel. The one shown above is copied from just one I picked by choosing from the left side of the page. You must review the specs and order what you need in both size and material.

Stu
 
planer blades

Steve Worcester said:
It would usually be annealed because it is too hard to work already hardened and tempered steel.
Look into planer blades
Click to expand...

I bought a couple of new 1/8 thick planer blades on the digital yard sale (ebay)for cheap and made teardrop scrapers. Roughed 'em out with and angle grinder, finished them with a bench grinder and belt sander. quick, cheap and easy
 
In order to austenitize the steel (assuming that you use M2 HSS), you will need to heat it up to nearly 2300° F in a very controlled manner including a presoak temperature at around 1550° F. It is then quenched in oil. After that, you will need to temper it at about 1020° F for about 65 minutes. Add to all this the cost of a piece of eighth inch thick piece of M2 HSS that is 3/4 inch wide and 18 inches long running close to a hundred dollars including shipping from McMaster-Carr and the Sorby price is starting to look pretty good. Don't forget to include your own expenses of tooling and labor to fabricate the parts. The cost of steel and iron has gone through the roof in the past few years.

If you can find some scrap as Steve suggested, it might be worth it, but planer blades, at least the ones for big stationary planers are usually a lamination of iron and steel.
 
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If your an AAW member look up my article on tool making. I make small scraper bits from old files. They are small enough not to be dangerous. You can cut them with abrasive bits on an angle grinder. Make a notch for the screw that holds them. This works better than drilling a hole and is a lot easier.
 
I've been using throw away planer blades for years. I've made allot of tear drop cutters for my boring bar.Like everyone said use angle grinder to cut and rough then bench grinder, remember to cut a slot for the screw with the angle grinder not a hole.
 
Bill Boehme said:
In order to austenitize the steel (assuming that you use M2 HSS), you will need to heat it up to nearly 2300° F in a very controlled manner including a presoak temperature at around 1550° F. It is then quenched in oil. After that, you will need to temper it at about 1020° F for about 65 minutes. Add to all this the cost of a piece of eighth inch thick piece of M2 HSS that is 3/4 inch wide and 18 inches long running close to a hundred dollars including shipping from McMaster-Carr and the Sorby price is starting to look pretty good. .
Click to expand...


Amen to that. I was looking at making my own hollowmaster disks after buying one from Sorby, so I looked at McMaster-Carr, started to do the math, minimum order size etc, cutting, tempering etc, found that the Sorby price while high for ONE, was way cheaper than me trying to making my own.
 
john lucas said:
If your an AAW member look up my article on tool making. I make small scraper bits from old files. They are small enough not to be dangerous. You can cut them with abrasive bits on an angle grinder. Make a notch for the screw that holds them. This works better than drilling a hole and is a lot easier.
Click to expand...

I just joined AAW, so I have a question, where are these articles found?
 
Gretch,
I don't know how committed you are to making your own tools but you can get the steel directly from Crucible.
CRUCIBLE REX M2
Carbon 0.85%
Chromium 4.15%
Vanadium 1.95%
Tungsten 6.40%
Molybdenum 5.00%

They have a $75.00 minimum order policy I have Bruce DiVita's number at Crucible if you want it. He is a Sales Engineer I deal with. I buy CPM 10V for some of my projects. It comes anealed and you have to do the tempering after you get the tool shaped. The information on tempering is available, but I agree that $17 per unit is not that bad a price. I like to play with metal, but most of the time I would rather spend my time on the lathe, than in front of the furnace and oil bath. I know I'm going to get yelled at for this but have you thought about using a carbide bit, just a thought.
 
Bill, you skipped a step. Before you can temper the steel it has to first be hardened. Not every woodturner has the facilities to heat the steel to the necessary temperature of 2300° F, not to mention the tempering at over 1000° F.
 
Think I'll just Pay for Sorby's. I can't do this stuff myself. Glad I enquired tho as I have been thinking about it many times. I'll lay it to rest, Thanks for all your input, Gretch
 
If I were back at the university, I would call the people over in the metallurgy lab. One thing about first-rank universities is that they have state-of-the-art materials and machinery to teach the state of the art. What you're after is just a bit of work with material they likely have. Find out what itches there and have a scratch ready when the work's done.
 
To find the articles or for that matter complete journals go to the main AAW home page and click on members area. You will have to know your member #. Once you sign in you can find all the Journals and can do a search for specific articles. Probably the easiest would be to simply type in making your own tools or simply put in John Lucas and it should bring up the article.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Bill, you skipped a step. Before you can temper the steel it has to first be hardened. Not every woodturner has the facilities to heat the steel to the necessary temperature of 2300° F, not to mention the tempering at over 1000° F.
Click to expand...

Whatever! The point was it is probably more cost effective to buy the tool than to make it. I'm going back to the shop and turn.
 
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