3dpforge
Aluminum
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2010
- Location
- Southeast, USA
A friend of mine is looking to cast a batch of anvils. These anvils will be professionally cast by a local foundry. He came to me to ask what steel to use. He had 7 suggestions for the steel.
4140
4340
6150
8630
8640
S7
H13
Of these, my suggestion would be either 8640 or H13. I would heat treat them to HRc 52 (50-55 range is probably acceptable). I'm pretty sure H13 would be the best steel but I'm guessing it is the most expensive and probably is not cost effective. I'm fairly confident on the target hardness but I'm anything but convinced of my decision on which alloy to use. My question to each of you is which steel would you use and why? Feel free to suggest other alloys not mentioned here.
I'll go ahead and give each of you my thoughts so you can confirm or reject my thought process. Feel free to jump in and correct me or add your own thoughts.
4140 - I haven't looked into this steel enough to make a decision
4340 - On the heat treatment chart, it starts at HRc 52 (HT at 400 F) and drops as you HT at higher temps. This leads to me to believe (just my guess) that it will have a finer grain structures than the steels that achieve HRc 52 at a higher tempering temp (such as 600 F). The smaller grains reduce the toughness when looking at two equivalent hardness steels.
6150 - I'm not sure what to expect with this steel
8630 - A good choice but this steel is already pretty tough so a little more carbon only helps the hardness. (I have not seen any datasheets on this steel)
8640 - (see 8630)
S7 - a good choice but very expensive and not as tough as H13
H13 - the best all around but very expensive
A little background on his project:
He is planning on making about 20 anvils at the minimum for his local blacksmith group. He will make more than that if their is enough people willing to commit. The target weight is 200-250 pounds each. His target price is about $800 per anvil. If he can hit the target price and get at least 20 people interested, he will go through with the project.
Thanks in advanced
4140
4340
6150
8630
8640
S7
H13
Of these, my suggestion would be either 8640 or H13. I would heat treat them to HRc 52 (50-55 range is probably acceptable). I'm pretty sure H13 would be the best steel but I'm guessing it is the most expensive and probably is not cost effective. I'm fairly confident on the target hardness but I'm anything but convinced of my decision on which alloy to use. My question to each of you is which steel would you use and why? Feel free to suggest other alloys not mentioned here.
I'll go ahead and give each of you my thoughts so you can confirm or reject my thought process. Feel free to jump in and correct me or add your own thoughts.
4140 - I haven't looked into this steel enough to make a decision
4340 - On the heat treatment chart, it starts at HRc 52 (HT at 400 F) and drops as you HT at higher temps. This leads to me to believe (just my guess) that it will have a finer grain structures than the steels that achieve HRc 52 at a higher tempering temp (such as 600 F). The smaller grains reduce the toughness when looking at two equivalent hardness steels.
6150 - I'm not sure what to expect with this steel
8630 - A good choice but this steel is already pretty tough so a little more carbon only helps the hardness. (I have not seen any datasheets on this steel)
8640 - (see 8630)
S7 - a good choice but very expensive and not as tough as H13
H13 - the best all around but very expensive
A little background on his project:
He is planning on making about 20 anvils at the minimum for his local blacksmith group. He will make more than that if their is enough people willing to commit. The target weight is 200-250 pounds each. His target price is about $800 per anvil. If he can hit the target price and get at least 20 people interested, he will go through with the project.
Thanks in advanced