Spring Steel

Went to the Bendigo Model Engineers Exhibition today and picked up a few goodies.

Amongst other things I bought some rod ends, 12mm x 300mm "Spring Steel", as well as some 304 Stainless and some 1214 Bright Mild Steel. All were going for $2 a length, so seemed a good idea to add to the "scrap" collection.

Never machined "Spring Steel", bloke selling it reckoned it was relatively easy to machine, it looks somewhat darker than the 1214.

Any tips on how to handle this, as well as the 304 SS?

Will be putting up some photos of the models on show a bit later, some were absolutely mind blowing.

Picked up a very nice digital (mm/inch) dial indicator for $50, so that seemed OK, also some various size mild steel hex bar and a collection of pin punches.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Shed

Never machined "Spring Steel", bloke selling it reckoned it was relatively easy to machine, it looks somewhat darker than the 1214.

Any tips on how to handle this, as well as the 304 SS?

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Word of warning about BOTH those metals.

Make sure you DO NOT dwell over either with the tooltip, or they will turn into KRYPTONITE.

Very sharp milling cutters only to be used, with a steady feed and moderate revs required, same for the lathe, along with copious amounts of suds to be used at all times, disobey the aforementioned, then you better re-read the first sentence again.

regards radish :D

I had need to make some seat back supports out of spring steel. They had to be bent to a shallow S shape and have holes drilled in them to allow for atachment of the seat back and fixing to the seat frame. ( similar to an office chair ) I was supplied with spring steel flat by a spring maker ,

I shaped and drilled the steel to the required shape. It was as soft and easy to bend and drill as mild steel ( maybe even more so) I then returned it to the spring maker who then heat treated it.

It transformed it into an unbendable piece with the strength of a spring leaf.

The seller may be saying its easy to machine as it may still need to be tempered to become proper spring steel.

If its tempered don't heat it, its near impossible to fix by yourself.

Stainless is murder on cutting tools, it work hardens and easily overheats.

i second that stainless is a head ach. cutting oil and duller tools not sharp but not to dull