RECOGNIZING STEEL ALLOYS, HOME TESTS & TRICKS how to determine carbon content, hardness & alloy type

[@marko99butter]

great info for the home shop. thanks

[@WXUZT]

Remarkable...He’s a teacher we wished but never had.

[@MrShobar]

Nice job, and very informative. Merci.

[@fishoil2158]

superb explanation. I spent years in tool and die and I learned things.

[@toolbox-gua]

Very helpful for us.

[@RockingJOffroad]

Marc , this is good information! A lot of the steel I get comes from the scrap yard, I call it mystery steel because you never know what you have to work with.

[@ckvasnic1]

Nice Show Marc! Thank you. Hope you are feeling better

[@dralexmclean]

Marc: Great video, useful info and very good and clear description. You are too modest!

[@robertoswalt319]

While I am not bothered by audio quality on your videos, it is probably due to my industrial related hearing loss being well above your voice. Having said that I can appreciate your effort to assist those with hearing issues that are affected. Thanks so much for caring about your Internet students.

[@panchovilla1486]

Wonderful video thank you much

[@niteenmusale1817]

Thanks for shearing valuable knowledge with us,sir. You are really deep knowledge person, please keep it up.👌👌🙏

[@shinli1961]

Dear Marc, thank you very much Lesson: 39

[@colsoncustoms8994]

You can also use hydrogen peroxide / salt / vinegar solution to see if the steel readily oxidizes. Something to be considered though, some stainless steels will not be stainless until heat treated, aebl for instance will rust just as fast as high carbon steel while grinding until the carbon and chromium get sorted out during heat treating. You can probably use any kind of acid to oxidize the steel and the salt might not be needed, that mixture is just what I use to etch blades and it works well. You can also heat a scrap piece of steel up above non magnetic and quench a few different ways to further determine what it might be. Air vs oil vs water quench. You can also tell a lot by breaking that hardened steel. I think around .25%-.35% carbon will show some plastic deformation before giving way, less carbon might just bend or tear (that is speculation). A higher carbon content steel will just snap like glass. I'd say anything over about .4%-.45% carbon will snap after quenching if you don't temper. Alloys will change this for sure though and this is best for a very general idea about the carbon content.

[@THATLAZYMACHINIST]

Thanks for great suggestions! They are accessible to all now. It is so nice to be able to share in this way.

[@crazyDIYguy]

I wonder if high carbon hunks or steel will have good rebound whether or not it's been hardened. I noticed my hammer bounces back pretty good on some.

[@zMvtiis]

im looking forward to get into being mechanical machinist thanks to a friend who is also going to get into it but my question is what can i do to be ready before i get into training and learn about it

[@radiusnorth1675]

Get info. I'd also like to know where on the Rockwell C scale "high" hardness begins. Thanks

[@THATLAZYMACHINIST]

Hi Radius! Medium carbon steel will harden to about 45 Rc and that can be drawn back to 35 Rc and tool steel usually hardens to 65 Rc and can be drawn back to 55 Rc. Simple answer is anything over 55 Rc should be considered as high hardness for steels but remember that 55 Rc is ridiculously soft for ceramics and 20 Rc would be very hard for most non ferrous metals. Thanks for a great question, Marc

[@radiusnorth1675]

Thank you. I've put that info on my note book. Be well.@@THATLAZYMACHINIST

[@australiancustommetalworkd1721]

I always engrave one end of all stock.

[@aceroadholder2185]

Well, you do have to be conscientious about re-stamping the material if you saw it off. If you have a storage rack, that is helpful to keeping material separated. But even with that in a workshop someone will always chuck the butt end onto the wrong shelf. Like Marc says, a paint pen is your friend if you go down the material and mark it. I keep one at the cut-off saw to mark the left overs on the spot, else I forget what it was in about five minutes. Cheers from NC/USA

[@sharpie0226]

Sitting at work trying to figure out the countless pieces of bar stock we have here on our racks. Half of it isn't labeled. Some of it has been sitting here longer than I've been alive. I want to get it used up

[@rustygnutts6255]

tried to send a note to you via your "contact" link on your website.. but 'submit' did not respond... the note just sits there... could be on this end, as I am using a really old system... to surf the wild-internet !!

[@THATLAZYMACHINIST]

Hi Rusty! Try going direct! [e-mail]

[@Butterbean00]

Is it too late to drop this class?

[@THATLAZYMACHINIST]

Hi Sport! I use to think that it is never too late to do something but as I get older I realize that somethings have a season and I am in the fall! Thanks for watching, Marc

[@richardmassey5005]

Well if you differentiate it probably is so.