How do I turn the shaft on a 3/8-24 grade 5 hardened bolt?

[Bob Benson]

A friend asked me to turn five 3/8-24 x 5" bolts to leave a 1" threaded portion and a .250 diam by .500" long shaft above that. I went to the hardware store and the only 3/8-24 bolts available were grade 5 hardened. So I am assuming I will have to anneal these before I can hacksaw off the heads and turn the shanks down.
I have a 9" x 36" lathe and a set of the scintered? turning tools. No way of annealing except the wife's oven.
Any suggestions as to how to proceed? Thanks. Bob.

[SID]

You shouldn't have to anneal. Carbide will cut just fine. Pick good speed and feed and have at it!
-Sid

[SGW]

Yeah, give it a try. Even HSS may do it okay. Just don't try to pretend they're aluminum when you set speed/feed.

If it turns out you do need to anneal, heat up with a propane torch to dull red and let cool as slowly as you can. Or run them through the "clean" cycle in the oven, if it has one, and see what that does for you.

[gbritnell]

Grade 5 bolts are not hardened. They can be cut with high speed. Carbide will work better if you have it. The only place they tend to be a little harder is where the head is forged into the hex but that won't bother you. They will cut quite nicely, almost like an unhardened tool steel. Even Allen head bolts cut very well. I use them for making miniature fasteners for my model engines. I hope this helps..

[gbritnell]

I found the website: http://www.rockcrawler.com/techrepor...ners/index.asp
In there the author has a chart which gives the Rockwell hardness and the material that grade 5 bolts are made from. You will see that the Rockwell rating is far below that of a high speed tool bit so you won't have any problem.

[bspooh]

No problem...even grade 8 and grade 9 should not give you a problem at all....

brent

[Bob Benson]

Thanks, all. I'll give it a try this weekend. Bob.

[Al Messer]

O.K. I need to make 6 "shouldered" bolts. The shoulder needs to be .375" and the threaded portion needs to be .250". Like lawnmower wheel bolts. Do you think I could turn down the threads and part of the shank with HSS tool bits then?

[ulav8r]

Yes, it will work just fine. Ive modified grade 8 socket head bolts with HSS to make guard screws for a Mauser 98. Cuts real well.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Al Messer:
O.K. I need to make 6 "shouldered" bolts. The shoulder needs to be .375" and the threaded portion needs to be .250". Like lawnmower wheel bolts. Do you think I could turn down the threads and part of the shank with HSS tool bits then?</font>

[Carl]

I made an exhaust manifold stud for my pick-up a while back. 3/8 NC thread on each end,a slightly larger turned diameter in the middle(.387 if I remember right) and a .500 diameter shoulder 1/4 inch wide off set toward one end. I used a 1/2 inch grade 5 bolt, a HSS cut-off tool to cut the head off , and carbide tools to turn and thread it. Worked great!