knowlage of metal

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Moparfinman

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Guthrie, Okla
If using metal-steel-what ever a person find, how can you tell what kind of metal it is? I have some different kinds of parts that came off of who knows what not car parts, :confused:and wondering if they can be welded into some I can use. I think that some of it came from A/C engines or like that. seems like very hard metal.:confused:
 
if its hardened steel it will brake (like bed rails ) they aint to good of stuff to use .. if its thick you can hit the corner or edge with another piece of metal and if it dents pretty easy its not ridged or tempered .. You can hit it pretty hard and it will not put much of a mark on it .. if its tempered steel ,, I call that stuff (wear plate ) platinum almost looks like stainless , I tried welding platinum and it will fall of as soon as you lift your shield . I guess they have a special rod for platinum .IDK ?? Maybe this kinda helps .... I may be wrong on what they call it but the tempered will brake on ya .
 
1. Iron/steel: Is 3x heavier than aluminum. Will rust. Sticks to a magnet… is abundant. is strong

2. 304 stainless steel is an iron alloy with 18% chromium an 8% nickel. It WILL NOT draw a magnet. (Use the Spark test.)

3. 316 SS is non magnetic Is an iron alloy with 18% chromium and 10% nickel, but is worth up to 50 cents more per pound depending on the yard. To me and most scrappers, it looks exactly the same as 304 stainless. Look for a “316 SS” stamp or one similar to distinguish this. When spark tested, will have less “forks” at the end of streams.

4. 200 SS •Is an iron alloy with 17% chromium 4%Nickel and 7% Manganese
•Are much more corrosion resistant that 300 grade.
•In NON-MAGNETIC
•Are harder to sell to a scrap yard because they will not accumulate enough to find a buyer.
•A scrap yard could sell this with 300 grade stainless if they wanted to.

5. 400 GRADE STAINLESS STEEL has no nickel in it, and therefore IS magnetic. If it is magnetic, many yards will not pay stainless price for it. Is an alloy of 11% Chromium and ~1% manganese -

6.CUPRONICKEL
•a fancy way of saying copper/nickel alloy
•is worth much more that copper 1.
•Some yards will cheat and try to buy this stuff as brass or cheaper.
•is actually at least 30% Ni, sometimes up to 90%, which is 3 times as expensive as copper.
•Is often used in fake jewelry, silver plated dinnerware, ship making, salt water pipes, heat exchangers and condensers, musical instruments and more…
-
7.
Aluminum:

•is quite light
•does NOT draw a magnet
•does NOT throw sparks when ground with an angle grinder.
•doesn’t rust.
-

Spark Test here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFf_x97vcQ0
 
I think there's a good chance that the platinum might not have been platinum. If it was definitely platinum, I'd be interested in hearing how that all came about. [;)

Platinum is running about $15,000 per pound right now. :eek:

If anybody has any spare chunks of it laying around, I'll dispose of it for ya. :)
 
Here's a list that might interest you.

If you were trying to make tools or possibly knives, these commonly found metals come in very handy. Mostly a list of carbon steels. Some easily obtained knowledge of how to heat and quench these kinds of steels would allow you to make lots of stuff ...
 
Thanks sniper! Lots of useful info on hardening, quenching, annealing and such can be found in the Machinery's Handbook. It's online somewhere but I have lost my link.
 
I think there's a good chance that the platinum might not have been platinum. If it was definitely platinum, I'd be interested in hearing how that all came about. [;)

Platinum is running about $15,000 per pound right now. :eek:

If anybody has any spare chunks of it laying around, I'll dispose of it for ya. :)


I have no clue on what it was ,,, it was about a 1/4 or so round stock and I welded it to a stainless pipe made into a grill .. I was going to use it for a handle . I got the stainless rods from a buddy that welds .. I told him that it welded nicely then when you walked away from it it fell off . he said it may have been platnum .. the magnet didnt stick to it .. the weld didnt stick to it ,, but the weld stuck to the grill though... ??? I dont know ??? it was a piece of metal I got it out of the scap bin it was only about 10 inches long ..
plus im no welder either ,, that may have had a bunch to do with it ,[;)[;)[;)
 
heat treating metal

Years ago in my metalurgy class the professor did a demo of carbon steel wire. He had about a 10 ft length of carbon steel wire hooked up in series with a light bulb and switch stretched across between two insulators with about a 18 inch sag in the middle . He turned on the light and the current flowing thru the steel wire started heating it and it expanded and started to sag. Then all of a sudden it started shrinking and tightened up. he turned off the light explaining if he left it on the wire would start glowing red hot like in a toaster then burn and break. He explained when the carbon steel nolecules reach a certain temperature the atoms of steel and carbon and other allow elements rearrange their structure to a denser form, and it is harder and at that temperature it becomes non magnetic . If the metal is rapidly cooled at that point. the structure is " frozen", tempering the steel by slowley heating allows some of the molecules to reform into the older structure. . the temperature and time allows a differeng % of the 2 molecular forms of the steel. Depending on the alloys, different cooling materials and times are required. water, oil, sand. etc.
 

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