4140 Powerhammer die heat treat?

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Dec 4, 2001
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Just got done making a new set of dies for my tire hammer out of 4140, old dies have gotten pretty sway backed and out of flat. The person I bought the hammer from 10 years or so ago had ground them to half flat/half drawing and I reground them flat so there isn't a lot of room to re flatten them.

Anyway, I went by the plans and got them welded up and ran a normalizing cycle on them.

Just need to quench and temper and lightly dress them.

My question is, do I use water or Parks 50 quench oil, and what temperature to temper them at. The dies are 1 1/2"x2"x3 1/2"

Thanks
 
Austenitize at 1570F
Quench in regular oil (AAA or any medium speed oil, canola would work)
Temper at 600-700F. That would maximize toughness.
 
Thanks. I've done a few hammers and top tools from it and simply water quenched and color tempered, but hammer dies get a bit more use/abuse than hand hammers.

I did see one suggestion to hold at 1700 for an hour and then quench, thought that sounded a bit high.

Thanks again.
 
For hammer dies I would not water quench. The tempering range will be decided by the toughness desired. Since you will be hammering and drawing steel at 1600-2200F, the temper might as well be for toughness, as hardness will be gone soon anyway. The range of quench temperature for 4140 is between 1530F and 1600F. 1700F would be for normalizing before the quench. Since the dies are most likely stock removal, I see no need for it.
 
Thanks, how long should I soak at temp? I'm also assuming two two hour temper cycles.
 
Assuming the dies are a couple inches thick, I would soak about 30 minutes. Temper twice for two hours each.
 
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