[ZZII 527]

Originally Posted by richardmcc2

Does this mean that you've purchased an entire gearbox for every one of those tests that you did? My materials professor said I could have a chemical analysis done for about $120 to find out the exact type of tool steel....I would imagine that would be a much easier (and cheaper) route than a trial and error approach of testing many gearboxes, would it not?

I used one gearbox, but cut the plate into several pieces so I could test different samples. (Well, first I did an initial hardening to C50, then the plate fractured, then I took the pieces, cut them up further, and refired them to do the remaining tests.) A chemical/spectral analysis would definitely be faster and more definitive, though. I think the question I had was simply: will it harden? And the answer was yes for the 42mm, no for the 56mm. Getting the perfect combination of ductility and hardness is another challenge and knowing the exact composition of the steel would be helpful with that. Plus I'd be very interested to know the results just out of curiosity now.