Printer's mystery metal

[tornitore45]

Through the years I have deconstructed several printers.
The guide rods are ground stock that machine nicely.
They look more SS that Steel. To me SS looks a little more silvery yellow and steel looks more lead gray.
They are magnetic so the first easy test is inconclusive.

Does anyone know what they are?
Will a spark test tell?

[WJH]

They do machine nicely!

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[mcostello]

Read somewhere on the net(so it must be true) it was suspected they were 420 SS.

[BadDog]

Like you, I harvest all those little rods I can. Another great free resource for lathe fodder are worn out shock shafts, as long as you can get under the chrome plating. And for med/high carbon shafting, broken transmissions and such are a good resource.

Anyway, hopefully this link will help. Some I get are Austenitic non-magnetic and very silvery (nickel), others appear to be Martensitic/Ferritic (I had to look those up to remind myself which are which). The latter are mildly to middling magnetic and machine very nicely, but will discolor in some environments, though they don't generally "rust" like normal steel. Most of the time I don't much care which is which, but some (particularly Austenitic) work harden very readily, so it's generally a good idea to keep in mind for all the stainless material. I treat all of them as if any hesitance will produce work hardening, seems to be working...

[tornitore45]

Thanks all
I claim no expertise in spark reading but just tested all the 6 bars I have and consistently look like SS.
Yellow spark with a single burst at the end that looks like an elongated chicken foot. Several filaments in a very narrow cone all exiting from the same spot.

[warmstrong1955]

I had a couple of those that I tossed on my metal shelf when I scrapped out an old HP printer.

I used a piece for a hydraulic valve control lever a while ago, and it welded like stainless, and threaded like stainless.
Not sure of the flavor it is, but they are SS.

Got a laugh out of Russ's comment....I have an old JCB transmission with a hole in the case... that I can't get myself to throw away, as well as shelves loaded with old bucket & boom pins from heavy equipment, and old tired chrome plated hydraulic cylinder stems.
When you get a lathe....round stuff just looks different to you!

Bill

[pete]

"When you get a lathe.......round stuff just looks different to you." That's the 100% truth for sure. I used a boom bolt from and old scrapped P & H 1900 electric shovel as a lathe test bar.

[warmstrong1955]

Hey Pete....off topic, but I always wondered and never asked anyone.....how long does the rope generally last on one of those old shovels.

My mining has been mostly 'under the earth', as opposed to 'on the earth'.


Bill (the underworld dweller)

[tornitore45]

I have a phrase to identify the quest for machinable free stock. "Metal Content"
When my wife manage to entrap me in one of those Good Will, Salvation Army stores I may buy something just for the "Metal Content" value.
My daughter is a professional dumpster diver and now and then picks up some scrap. Never trows away anything without assessing its potential for metal content.
I do not know why we are so thrifty, but it seems to be a trait of people that can make thing rather than buy them.

[pete]

Hey Bill,
How long do the shovel ropes last? Well like anything else it depends. Those old 1900 P & H's just before we scrapped them had seriously worn rope grooves on the main hoist drums, a green operator like when I first started is clumsy on the controls. Get a bit of slack in the cables by being a bit off on the timing for the hoist and crowd and it was really easy to get those cables crossed. A royal pita and filthy dirty job to uncross them by hand since they soon get covered in semi liquid serete? (spelling?) grease used for lube in the crowd transmission and on the rack that runs the sticks in & out. If you didn't notice right away the cables start rubbing and sliding against each other. I was lucky I guess, but I've seen one or two go through a brand new set in one shift. Normal operation maybe 800 - 1,000 hrs but it's also got a lot to do with how well the blasters do their job and how well the rock fractures after a blast. Tough digging does affect the cable life quite a bit. I did see one guy screw up so bad one night he bounced the hoist ropes right off the point shives at the top of the boom. They had to bring the shovel crew and crane operator in on OT to get them back where they were supposed to be.

I bought a solid cast iron real old school clothing iron in a pawn shop Mauro. I guess to use them they got heated on the kitchen stove back before electric irons were invented. It's probably worth more as an antique than the cast iron is worth, but not to me. 8-10 lbs of solid cast iron that's stress relieved through likely 100's of heat / cooling cycles for 5 bucks was a good deal I thought. It's rusty as hell and why it was so cheap but that's only on the surface.

[warmstrong1955]

Thanks Pete! Always wndered about that.
I’m all too familiar what rookies can do to machinery. We called it job security for the aintenance guys!

Bill

[pete]

LOL, rookies Maybe I was lucky since I've been around gravel pits and earth moving equipment from about 3 years old I think so probably picked up a few things early on. Still made some mistakes while learning though. But yeah I'm positive you've been at the other end of those rookie results Bill. Makes a guy shake his head in wonder sometimes that's for sure.