A6 Tool Steel Heat Treat???

RyanW

RyanW

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I was given a .250" thick piece of Precision ground A6 to play with, I have never worked with it and am looking for details about Heat Treating it.

Through various searches I have found that it is an Air Cooling steel My plan is to heat it to the recommended 1575F - 1600F let soak for 30 minutes then remove from oven and place on my Anvil with a steel plate placed on top until it cools to room temp. I do not have any Stainless Foil.

then Temper at 450F which the charts say will get it to 58-59C Hardness range.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

PREHEAT PRIOR TO HARDENING
Preheating is often not necessary depending on the size and complexity of the part. If a preheat is desirable, a 1200°-1250°F temperature should be used. Heat slowly.

HARDENING
Parts at room temperature or as pre-heated should be placed in a hardening furnace operating at 1525°-1600°F. After parts have reached the furnace temperature, hold 20 minutes for small parts and up to 45 minutes for large parts

QUENCHING
A6 is a deep hardening tool steel and will reach full hardness by cooling in freely circulating air.

TEMPERING
A single temper (one hour at temperature for small pieces; proportionately longer time for larger sizes) is usually all that is required with tempering carried out in the range of 300°-1000°F. For most applications, the best combination of hardness and toughness is accomplished at 350°-400°F. Specimens 1 inch square by 3 inches long were air hardened from 1550°F and tempered at various temperatures for two hours. The resulting harnesses were as follows:

Tempering
300 62C
350 60C
500 58C
600 56C
Click to expand...
 
Thanks For posting iMarc... Read through some of that already but found some new info that was very interesting.
 
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