1141 HR - any advice on this stuff??

[Ewalk02]

So I decided to make a simple pulley the other day...easy enough right? No. I bought what I was told was 1141HR steel off of an eBay seller in the correct size. Received the steel and chucked it up on the lathe. Grabbed some carbide and went to face off the part but my usual speeds and feeds ended up stalling out my lathe, something that's not happened before. That's weird, doubled checked that all my levers were in the usual places and took a lighter cut. The lathe bogged down again and it ended up chipping my insert. I messed around for about an hour trying all different speeds/feeds and went through about 5 insert edges. I never found a good combination, either I'd cut too slow and rub or I'd make a decent chip but my lathe would stall out (its only 2 hp). Next up I tried HSS with a skim cut, this just ended up taking the edge off the HSS. Tried all kinds of different cuts but each time it was like taking my HSS to a grinding wheel. Does this stuff work harden something fierce or did I get sold kryptonite?

[Harold_V]

Unless the material has been heat treated, there's no reason for it to be hard to machine. There's enough carbon content that it would respond to heat treat, and that may be the problem, but without a hardness test, you have no means to make that determination. You do have the option of testing with a file, but all it will do is determine if the material is unreasonably hard.

A Rockwell hardness tester, in this instance, would be a good thing to have. I have one. Drop by with the material and I'll test the hardness. Please wear a face mask.

H

[Ewalk02]

Drop by with the material and I'll test the hardness.
H

No problem....Google says its merely a 35 hour drive. I guess if I leave right now I'll see you sometime on Sunday

[BadDog]

Or get a set of those hardness checking files?

[Harold_V]

Drop by with the material and I'll test the hardness.
H

No problem....Google says its merely a 35 hour drive. I guess if I leave right now I'll see you sometime on Sunday

We'll have coffee and a hot apple pie waiting. We can serve on the back porch, which should be safer than indoors.

Didn't realize you weren't local. Mystifies me, as the moderator of this board for the past 20 years, why readers don't provide their (approximate) location in their profile. The fallout from doing so tends to be quite beneficial, and there are no downsides that are apparent. Helps guys like me, who are willing to help, from making unreasonable offers like I did.

Just sayin'. Feel no obligation to include your location.

H

[liveaboard]

I have some car transmission parts that are hard like that; carbide bounces off.
Heating it up and letting it cool slowly makes it machinable.

Someone on the board said that normal mild steel would be unaffected by heating and quenching. One day I had a torch in my hand, a bucket of water under the bench, and a end cut of rod I'd bought was looking at me.
So I heated it orange and dropped it into the bucket.
Carbide bounces off.
It's not mild steel.
Good stuff, whatever is is.

[John Evans]

BadDog has it. I bought a set of those hardness checking files 5-6 years ago and I use then regularly. not tearably cheap as I recall a bit over a C note for the set. People are always showing up here with can you , mill -turn etc. They tell me a lot more than just trying to nick with as file corner.

[neanderman]

Just sayin'. Feel no obligation to include your location.

H

For real, but it sure is helpful. Even just a state (or country, non-Yanks), is good.

[SteveM]

You never know when the guy that has the solution to your problem lives in the next town over.

Steve

[neanderman]

You never know when the guy that has the solution to your problem lives in the next town over.

Exactly!