What steel is suitable for a bolt handle that will accept bluing and is not too difficult to machine? Thank you
dave

1020 or the like, plain, low carbon steel. Anything else is unnecessary,, and is harder to weld. I weld on one a week. TIG.

Talley makes theirs from 12L14. It machines better than 1018 but welds and blues wonderfully well.

Ok, good to know I didn't know they used leaded stock; Talleys are all I use.

As pointed out, any buzzard grade material like 1018 or 8620 is fine. In fact it's desirable, because it won't get hard and scale as bad during welding as high carbon tool steels. If you can afford it, the sulfured and leaded steels like 12L14 do machine nicer but that comes at a much higher cost, welding problems, and usually leaded or sulfured steels are special order so you will have to look for table scraps on EBay or be forced to buy an entire joint or more. I buy 416 for my stainless brakes, but the minimum order for the crap is 48 feet.

The big downside to resulurized and leaded free-machining steels is that they are a BITCH to weld. I don't need a welding ticket, even though I do have one, to tell most people who have played with the crap that it is notorious for cracking and pitting and even with TIG it can be an exorcise in futility if you don't weld very quickly. I NEVER, weld free machining steels unless it's on a double-dare-dog-ass-bet or if I have no other choice and I make no guaranty that it will hold.

Govern yourself accordingly:

http://www.lincolnelectric.com...grades-of-steel.aspx

To those who responded: Thank you for the explicit advice and the explanations.
dave

quote:

Originally posted by Clemson:
Talley makes theirs from 12L14. It machines better than 1018 but welds and blues wonderfully well.

Leaded steel seemed like an poor choice of material with the welding issues, so I emailed Talley and they very promptly replied.

1018 steel
Thanks
Talley Manufacturing, Inc.

So they probably use 12L14 for their rings, but not their bolt handles.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug W:

quote:

Originally posted by Clemson:
Talley makes theirs from 12L14. It machines better than 1018 but welds and blues wonderfully well.

Leaded steel seemed like an poor choice of material with the welding issues, so I emailed Talley and they very promptly replied.

1018 steel
Thanks
Talley Manufacturing, Inc.

So they probably use 12L14 for their rings, but not their bolt handles.

I sort of suspected they used 1018 for handles. It's always been my goto. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they used 1144 for their rings. It's been my goto for rings for years and while it's not as easy to machine as leaded or sulfurized steel, it is a stessproof steel and you can machine it into thin parts and it doesn't warp and twist all over like a pretzel as you're cutting, like regular steels do. I call it: "MAGIC STEEL". It's also very nice for jackshafts where you need to take a skim cut off a piece of material to run in pillow blocks and not have to worry about it warping over a length. In it's annealed state it's roughly the same strength as 4140HT but it's soft enough to machine well.

MAGIC STEEL LOL

Ok, back to my original answer. And welding leaded steel, and breathing the fumes, seems like a bad idea.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Ok, back to my original answer. And welding leaded steel, and breathing the fumes, seems like a bad idea.

Well, according to the government, most welders should already be dead from welding on steels with lead in them and from the chromium-hex-A-what-the-fuck in stainless. But of course the goverment people are a bunch of poopers! But yeah. Welding on stainless, leaded steals and anything with spelter in it is not a good idea! Welding on anything that looks like it could be plated or galvanized is a real killer. That's going to give you a full blast dose of atomized heavy metals. You might as well get out your belt sander and start grinding on a chunk of copperberyllium if you do that because you're a prime candidate for the: "Why is my hair falling out in clumps club?".

One of my gunsmith mentors was a machinist/tool and die maker and manufacturer of Mowrey black powder rifles.

He helped me make a couple of investment casting molds for bolt handles . We always took them to a local foundry and specified 1018 steel. Welds and blues very well.

Leaded steel will give you problems with blueing at some point. The lead smears on the surface and leaves splotches in the blueing. Re-sulphurized free machining steels won't do this and are fine.

Most plain old rod stock is 1018 or 1020 plain carbon. You can get it as hot roll or cold finish. Both will work, but cold finish will be more uniform and machine better.

Jeremy