metal used for punches

[Herm Williams]

Anyone know what type of metal strippit punches is made of. I need to anneal a couple of punches to modify.tia
re

[Evan]

The preferred material for making punches is O-6 tool steel.

[Toolguy]

O-6 is the easiest to machine tool steel. However, punches are commonly made of 0-2, D-2, D-4, A-2, S-7 and several other alloys. If you can't find out from the Strippit company which alloy it is, you can modify without annealing by grinding or anneal, alter, then heat till you see freckles and oil quench. Draw back to a straw (golden) color.

[Bgmnn1]

Hard cut with TiAln coated carbide end mill.

[D_Harris]

Anyone know where I can easily look up info like this?

If I wanted to find out what materials generally used to make things like lead screws, gears, chuck jaws, sine bars, ect. would there be a reference I can access?

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Herm Williams]

I appreciate the input, I heated the die to 1550, let it set for about an hour then let it cool slowley (about two hours) it came out soft enough to file will see what happens when I try to harden it.Thank all for the help.
re

[Evan]

O-6 is the easiest to machine tool steel. However, punches are commonly made of 0-2, D-2, D-4, A-2, S-7 and several other alloys.

Other alloys are used because they are cheaper, not better.

AISI Type O6 Tool Steel
Categories: Metal; Ferrous Metal; Tool Steel; Cold Work Steel; Oil-Hardening Steel

Material Notes: General purpose, oil-hardening, nondeforming alloy tool steel suitable for applications where extreme dimensional accuracy is required. Applications include ring and plug gages, drawing dies, perforating dies and punches where excellent wear resistance is desired. Contains free graphite in the microstructure to improve machinability.

http://www.matweb.com/search/DataShe...86fe771&ckck=1

[strokersix]

In the distant past, I've made a lot of punches from O-1. If O-1 wasn't good enough then A-2.

Application was production stamping.

I can't answer the OP question about Strippit. Sorry.

[lazlo]

O-6 is the easiest to machine tool steel. However, punches are commonly made of 0-2, D-2, D-4, A-2, S-7 and several other alloys.

...and one of my new favorites: H-13.

Other alloys are used because they are cheaper, not better.

There's no "One Size Fits All" tool steel. The holy trinity of tool steels is hardness, toughness, and wear resistance. You can only optimize for two.

If you go to the Crucible tool steel selector page, you'll find dozens of comparison charts like this:



So if you need high shock resistance (jack hammer bits, chopping/granulating dies), you use S-5 and S7. But they can't reach the hardness of a high-tungsten tool steel like T-4 or T-15, which are very brittle. If you need high wear resistance (like a lathe cutting tool), you want vanadium, hence the CPM 3V, 9V, 10V series.

Then add variables like air- or oil quenching, whether it's hot workable, stain resistance, and that's why there are dozens of modern tool steel alloys.

Toolguy's recommendation is good: all tool steels anneal the same, the trick is in re-hardening it. You don't know if it's air- or oil-quench tool steel, but you can oil-quench air hardening tool steel with a small loss in hardness.

Edit: here's a great comparison page showing the "holy trinity" for the various tool steels:

http://www.latrobesteel.com/technica...esults&CatID=1

[sidneyt]

Anyone know where I can easily look up info like this?

If I wanted to find out what materials generally used to make things like lead screws, gears, chuck jaws, sine bars, ect. would there be a reference I can access?

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Tool Steel Simplified by Frank Palmer, et al, Chilton Co, 4th ed 1978. gives a detailed description of a large number of tool steel types and what they are used for. As an example the chart showing which steel is used for cold punches includes: D2, A2, A6, D3, O2, and L6 depending on the specific application. It also covers heat treating of these steels.