Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

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SteveHGraham
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Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by SteveHGraham »

I received the unexpected gift of a thick prybar. I guess it's around an inch thick. Today I noticed that the prying end had broken off, which is probably why the person who owned it abandoned it.

Before I throw it out, I want to ask: is this type of steel useful for machining? I don't know exactly what it is. Whatever crowbars are made from.

I'm hoping it's not spring steel. I tried to cut a piece of that stuff once, and it was like a diamond.
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BadDog
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by BadDog »

It is. If I'm not mistaken, depending on type and source, it's going to be a special alloy high carbon steel (who knows the designation...) hardened and tempered much like a vehicle spring, though left a bit harder. Good stuff in general. You can turn with carbide, and you can also anneal. But yeah, cutting in the current state with a band saw is probably not going to do much good for the blade. I generally use an abrasive chop saw on such stuff. I collect and use broken axle shafts, dead transmission shafts, and I've used discarded leaf springs to forge great large blades (like a real nice large Kukri). None of it cuts on a band saw.
Russ
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by SteveHGraham »

I just realized I have a use for the bar. I am trying to fix the lathe up for wood turning, and I need a tool rest. It has to be something the HSS tools won't dig into. Maybe this is the thing.

I could cut it to length with the plasma cutter and weld it to some kind of upright post.
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BadDog
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by BadDog »

Test it first, most of the high carbon spring steels don't weld very well at all, and welding is really going to screw with the hardness. You may be better off making a clamp. Also, I think most of the wood cutting knives/chisels are high carbon. And those with HSS or carbide are only on the end. The part that interacts with the rest would generally be smooth and round anyway since you will want to sort of rock/roll it to control the edge angle.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by SteveHGraham »

The chisels I got are HSS. How far down the blade it goes, I could not tell you, but they're old Craftsmans, and as we know, Craftsman is the epitome of tool quality.

I think the best thing is to go for it, and if it doesn't work, I can cut the shank off and weld it to something else. The shank is a piece of 6150 I have lying around.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by SteveHGraham »

Well, this looks bad: "AISI 6150 alloy steel can be welded using any common welding methods. However, preheating and post weld stress relieving have to performed for welding this steel." My welding knowledge consists of making stuff stick together poorly. I don't know if I want to get into something complicated. Maybe I should just buy a piece of steel tubing.
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BadDog
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by BadDog »

Not a bad idea. Or, like I suggested, design it with a clamp joint rather than welding.

Most high carbon steel is like that. If they can be welded by standard processes, the pre-heat and stress is often necessary to varying degrees. The problem is that the weld area goes well above critical, and you have a connected mass of otherwise cold steel drawing off the heat rapidly. So the HAZ will be varying degrees of hard, huge stresses build up, and cracks are likely. Preheating generally goes well into the temper range, approaching anneal temps (depending), so if you don't reharden and temper you've also lost the hard qualities you wanted. That's the 5c description. It gets a LOT more complicated, way beyond what I understand, but basically avoiding welding on high carbon steels and high strength alloys gets me by for the most part. 4140 is starting to become a problem, and anything much above that is rapidly out of my league for fabrication (but not forging).
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refinery mike
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Re: Prybar Steel Worth Keeping?

Post by refinery mike »

if it is real old it will be common carbon steel 1095 or so. and real usefull for a blacksmith. If it is newer it will be something like L7 And me personally i have not had much luck with heat treating it. Probably error on my part. If you weld it it will most likely shatter off where you weld it. But if you insist on trying. Pre heat it to red hot, then weld it hot with stainless steel wire. then throw it in a pile of fiberglass insulation and let it cool as slow as possible. but that is going to leave you with soft steel.
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