"shade tree" heat treating 1018?

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I'm producing a few stub shafts to be mounted with cutting tool for wood turning. I have an abundance of 1/2" 1018 carbon round stock drops I want to use. My question is, after the machine work, milling a flat and drill and tapping a 10-32, is done, is there a simple way to slightly harden the shafts to prevent deformation or stripping. I do not have a heat treating oven. Would heating with torch or cooking in a conventional oven have any effect? I would like to avoid quenching due to the unpredictable brittleness created. Any suggestions?Miller TrailBlazer 251Miller HF-250-1Miller MaxStar 150 STLHyperTherm PowerMax 380 plasmaLincoln PowerMig 180Millermatic 252Miller Diversion 180
Reply:Wagin,your 1018 doesn't have enough carbon by itself to harden.  You can check out 'pack-carburizing', which is a process where you enclose the objects to be hardened in a sealed container with a source of carbon, like dry sawdust, charcoal, or best of all blacksmith's coke.  Heat the sealed container for several hours and this will diffuse some carbon into the surface of the steel parts.  What you should get is a hard skin of med-high carbon steel, overtop your low carbon core.  You'll see some distortion of the part dimensions, but I suspect this won't matter for your purposes.  references on pack carburizing should be able to give you a better feel for the size of typical distortions.You should research this carefully with regards to time, temperatures, and the dangers involved.You could also try heating the parts with an oxy acetylene torch, using a carburizing flame.  This can impart some hardening to the steel surface, but it's tough to control and get uniform results.You might also ask around for a local heat treatment shop.  Somebody that does large scale gas-carburizing or carbonitriding of batches of parts could toss your pieces in with one of their normal batches for a reasonable fee.  So long as you tell them you're not looking for specific finished properties, I don't think they'd charge you much.  The only down side to this is you'll see some distortion of the parts, and that might require post heat treatment finish machining to restore them back.  I don't think this would be an issue for you since this doesn't sound like a part with strict dimensional tolerances.Benson's Mobile Welding - Dayton, OH metro area - AWS Certified Welding Inspector
Reply:What he said.  For easy of backyard heat treating oil hardening drill rod (tool steel) would be my choice. Hardening without a quinch? In my simple mind that would be done with an air hardening drill rod, but even the air cooling is considered a quinch.Tough as nails and damn near as smart
Reply:Try Cherry Red-instant case hardening compound.This stuff is available from blacksmith suppliers like centaur forge.heat and quench then temper(tempering makes the brittleness go south) is your cheapest and easiest route there is lots of info on this on the net.you have lots of ends so practice till you can get an edge that holds but 1018 is not the best place to start for a good edgeFelonCaution lurker lives here" hmmm That is serious,pass the ganja and pick up a  24 of MGD"
Reply:Tresi,  I have successfully case-hardened things in the fireplace although I prefer my electric HT furnace for most small parts. I too have my secret recipes--secret 'cause they're always changing and I never remember exactly what the last one was. The first real tool I made was a hammer, in 8th grade metal shop; because I'd done such a good job making it both usable and perfect, the instructor had me case harden it with the OA torch, after which I really had to work to get it clean and shiny again. It has a touch of rusty stain today, but is nearly as good as when new, despite being almost half a century old and still being used.I'd say FM's suggestion is the easiest and best, in your situation; the material I'd use is called Kasenit, and is available in many places. Midway, Brownells, MSC, McMaster-Carr and many good hardware stores carry it and a Google search will get you lots more plus stories about it, I suspect.To use it, you heat the part with a torch (propane works for small parts), dip it into the powder, then reheat the part again. There are tricks like wrapping it with aluminum foil before reheating it inside of a tube (to protect the foil from flame) but direct heating gives a decent case which can then be hardened by a water quench as the interior is still low carbon steel. Here is a picture of what a can of Kasenit looks like: Attached Images
Reply:Just a heads up If you go with the case hardening compound "cherry red' is made without cyanide while kasenit and a lot of others are or contain sodium ferrocyanide. So be careful out there.Felonps i re read your post and i would think the case hardening is the way to go.I was thinking along the lines that it was the cutting tools you were making, not the holders for them.Last edited by Felonyass Monk; 12-29-2009 at 11:25 AM.Caution lurker lives here" hmmm That is serious,pass the ganja and pick up a  24 of MGD"
Reply:Thanks guys for all the helpful info. I found some 304 stainless stock I'm using instead of the 1018.Miller TrailBlazer 251Miller HF-250-1Miller MaxStar 150 STLHyperTherm PowerMax 380 plasmaLincoln PowerMig 180Millermatic 252Miller Diversion 180
Reply:Originally Posted by waginThanks guys for all the helpful info. I found some 304 stainless stock I'm using instead of the 1018.