Heat Treating, What do you do?

R

Ruppe

I heat treat in a small electric heat treating oven that had rotary switches that I have bypassed with an Omron controller. Very accurate heating up to about 2200F. I remove scale with a bubble belt. The question is, can I benefit from either wrapping the blades in something or putting a media of somekind in the oven to heat the blades in to eliminate the scaling? I heat ATS-34 to 1975 air quench and freeze -70F in dry ice and acetone for 6 hours, then take to 950F for two hours twice. 440-C to 1900, air quench and then to -70F in dry ice and acetone for 2 hours and then 1 hour at 325F. I have found these methods give me an extremely durable and servicable blade.

What do you do?

As per Larry Chew's post, I got some stainless steel tool wrap and now am getting clean steel after the heat treat. Thanks Larry and the other posters! Ron

[This message has been edited by Ruppe (edited 10-16-98).]
 
Ruppe,

You have to protect your blades. What you are experiencing is decarb. You are actually burning carbon out of the steel. You can either wrap them in ss foil or paint them with turco or another protective coating. If you use any oil quench material you will need to use the coating method so you can go right from the oven to the quench. Everything else sounds good. If you bag those suckers they should come out with a little discoloration at thats all, no scale. Be sure to get them out of the bag as quick as possible when you take them out of the oven to get a good quench.

Larry
 
Larry's right on the mark . Bag um paint um
Protect um. If there air quench check the curve (ttt time) make sure you get um cool quick enough. Same with oil quench. Get um in the oil quick...
As for the heat treat procedures.. there are several books on the subject. I use The Heat Treaters Guide.. OR the paperwork furnished by the manufacture..

[This message has been edited by Darrel Ralph (edited 10-16-98).]
 
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