Nicel done Sean

George

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I would say not the idea material. There are steels better suited to that.

Depending on the grade my understanding is that stainless is not particularly 'hard' (although I would not want to chew on it lol ) I am not sure of the terminology but it's more tuff than hard. Others will no doubt know of some stainless grades that are 'harder' than the hobs of hell.

Nick

"the workability of the SS depends very much on the grade"

Work hardening SS? Never had a problem machining it so I must be lucky. A lot of the SS I use is handles from bathroom / kitchen cabinets bought from car boots over the years and shown in the photo – lovely stuff to turn AND mill leaving super finish. Even the 3" dia stuff shown machines very nicely without a suggestion of work hardening. I also have a couple of dustbins of various SS shafts from old food grade conveyor belt systems none of which work hardens.>>

If I want to remind myself of what work hardening materials are like I can always take a tool to some 4" dia. aluminium bronze billets I have in a draw somewhere – now that stuff really does fight back. But to beat even that a copper coloured thrust bearing from a bit of ancient machinery sits in another drawer somewhere reminding me that I could not even get the hacksaw through it before I gave up. They don't make 'em like that any more! (Thinking about it – they probably didn’t make it like that anyway, it got itself toughened / work hardened by bearing a heavy rotating shaft or some such during its working life.)>>

Rik>>

This hot cap for a Stirling Engine was carved out of a solid lump of 316 stainless, the open end is internally threaded 32 TPI. All done with HSS tools slowly with great streams of razor sharp swarfe.

Ian S C

9 meters?! Is this payment in kind for a bad debt?

Michael W

I'm not surprised! At this rate you'll need to build a new outbuilding called "Stores".

Michael W

Oddly enough i turned up a mandrel from a chrome plated stainless steel toilet roll holder and it machined beautifully. I think they chose a grade that bends without work hardening for handles etc.

I have met other SS that work hardens when you look at it.

Neil

Ths stuff our engineers throw in the scrap bin is unreal…blunt drill, get a new one, throw the old one, im off to see what is in there now!!

I rescued a McLaren baby buggy in the hope of acquiring some square and round alloy tubing. I might have to cut it up, as it is held together with tough rivets. Any ideas? How do I get the internal star washers off the axles?

Regards

Geoff