Thread: brittle tool

Did you quench (dunk in some liquid) after heating and bending? If so, you made the key hard and would need to temper afterwards.
Even if you let it air cool, it may have been made from an air hardening alloy and hardened anyway.
Without knowing the specific alloy the key is made from, it is difficult to give advice.
But you could try heating to around 300 C (or 600 F) afterwards to take the brittleness out. That may or may not work depending on the alloy, how hot you got it and how fast it cooled.

Pictures of the break may help.
If you have any details to add that may help.

ron

hi ron.
thanks for taking the time to help me out. i will include some photos. i have to go back to work to grab my phone.
i didn't quench the steel after bending. i let it air cool. the company calls the steel. Protanium.
it was bright yellow when i bent the tool.
in the mean time it was long brake about 40mm diagonally across the bend

here are some photos

[ATTACH]Attachment 177639[/ATTACH]

ok, you got it too hot when you bent it,don't worry about what you may think in terms of having to heat to cherry red or bright yellow to bend, like mention before you heated to a temp that the air cooled it at a rate greater then it could take to remain maliuble. if you ever attempt this again try this : if you can remove the black from the key prior to heating through light linishing thats preferable. put it in a vice, apply heat, DON'T go and get it cherry red or beyond(danglen a magnet above it, non magnetic, you killed it!), don't chuck it out, turn it into a centre punch.
get it blue by gently heating it, stand back for a second or three and watch it go golden brown, be ready to start twisting now, apply weight and twist, twist like hell, put weight onto it like it's stretching beyong what would be considered normal. go a few degrees beyond where you want to be and it will come back.( its critical you don't over heat, it needs to be springy)if it snaps at this point you got yourself some real imported crap.trial by error here will be your sucess.

good luck

hi kraits. thanks mate. great description of how to go about this job. ill give it another go next week.

aaron

just going over this post again. there is a good chance that i may stuff this up.
i try and recognise the colour changes you have described .im thinking a light back ground may help me recognise
the colour changes. blue brown ect.
if i do get it to hot is there any way of saving the work.
i was thinking cooling it in an electrode oven ect.....

Originally Posted by kraits

ok, you got it too hot when you bent it,don't worry about what you may think in terms of having to heat to cherry red or bright yellow to bend, like mention before you heated to a temp that the air cooled it at a rate greater then it could take to remain maliuble. if you ever attempt this again try this : if you can remove the black from the key prior to heating through light linishing thats preferable. put it in a vice, apply heat, DON'T go and get it cherry red or beyond(danglen a magnet above it, non magnetic, you killed it!), don't chuck it out, turn it into a centre punch.
get it blue by gently heating it, stand back for a second or three and watch it go golden brown, be ready to start twisting now, apply weight and twist, twist like hell, put weight onto it like it's stretching beyong what would be considered normal. go a few degrees beyond where you want to be and it will come back.( its critical you don't over heat, it needs to be springy)if it snaps at this point you got yourself some real imported crap.trial by error here will be your sucess.

good luck

Hi Azzrock,

I agree with what Kraits is suggesting, should be fine so long you don't get too hot.

I have no idea what "protanium" actually is, or how you would go about heat treatment, this web site is just marketting blurb, dressed up as technical documentation. Protanium® Steel

What I'm wondering is why you are using good quality Bondhus hex key for what seems to be a custom key of some sort? Why not use a cheapie?

Regards
Ray

If you screw up and get it too hot, quench it in oil, clean off the black crap so you can see the colours, and then temper to blue. Probably won't work, since we don't know what sort of steel it is, but it's worth a try.

hi ray i was thinking that it would be cr-v but that's just a guess .
the reason im using a good qu8ality tool is because its to tighten
bolts on a crane lifting attachment. they really get knocked around
and the bolts need to be tight. there is often people woprking in the under the hook area.

Considered a socket ratchet and hex bit? Maybe even a torque wrench?

hi bryan i have thought of and used a few diff tools to do this job.
i wanted the ball end of the hex key. the two bolts secure a half round
cap over a shaft. the bottem ones are harder to reach thus the ball
end hex key.