die material for bead roller

[calgator]

What material are the dies made out of for a sheet metal bead roller? I would like to make my own profiles and need to know if CR is fine or should I get some tool steel.

Charles,

[Harold_V]

Mild steel may be a little too soft. I'd be inclined to recommend chrome moly--pre-heat treated 4140, for example. It is still capable of being machined, but hard enough to resist mild abrasion.

If you have the capability to heat treat after the fact, you may wish to harden up to 50 Rc, in which case you could start with annealed 4140.

I have no clue what material might be used for similar commercial applications. Could even be case hardened mild steel.

Harold

[warmstrong1955]

I made one out of 4140HT Q&T, after the original factory one broke on the roller we had at the last company I was working.
That stuff is 32-35 Rockwell C. I didn't heat treat it beyond how it came. The original one was too hard, and that's why it failed.....it broke in half.
That was about 4 or 5 years ago, but one of the guys tells me it's still going.

[GlennW]

I make some from 4140 HT, but most from Stressproof. Probably not much cost difference from a distributor, although, I did find a guy selling 12" bars of 2 15/16" 4140HT on eBay for a low price a while back.

Once again the USPS Flat Rate Box prevailed!

Using CAD sure make it easy, as I set them up so that the axle center lines are parallel when the dies contact the specific thickness metal I'm forming.

[Harold_V]

Given a choice between machining stressproof and chrome moly, stressproof would win every time.

Harold

[Steve_in_Mich]

What material are the dies made out of for a sheet metal bead roller? I would like to make my own profiles and need to know if CR is fine or should I get some tool steel.

Charles,

Yes 4140 would be great or even A2 if it is for production but occassional use on clean metal I would make the dies from CR. CR won't do well on rusty stock as the rust will scratch/abrade the CR and then the scratches on the dies will/can show up on clean stock. Die hardness affects how easily it scratches. At least that is what I find to happen on the CR fingers I made for a brake. It is always easier to work with clean stock when you fabricate, even welding. If the material we have isn't clean to start with, we can clean it, right?

Check for hardness on the edger/beader dies you now have. Will a file touch them?

BTW, would anyone care to publish what they estimate the average file hardness to be? I'm not referring to the set of hardness testing files here but rather the average ordinary home shop mill file.

I think this an interesting bit on hardness;
http://www.gordonengland.co.uk/hardness/

[GlennW]

I just boinked a Pexto die on the hardness tester and it showed 60RC, so my guess would be case hardened 1018, although I have never actually checked anything that was cased.

A file just glides accross it.

A Nicholson Mill File showed 66RC.

[Steve_in_Mich]

Thanks Glenn!

"A Nicholson Mill File showed 66RC."