Annealing Dowel Pins

[Mike Hunter]

Can dowel pins be annealed, need some soft 1/16 x 1/2 inch pins to hold a part in place, bought 500 dowel pins off the "Bay' for less than I can make them for, would really like them un-hardened. Box states "Alloy steel' unsure of which alloy though.

Thinking 1400 deg F for an hour. Thoughts/recommendations

Mike

[Mcgyver]

they don't need a very long time at all at soak, but the key a slow cool. I welded up a box and have it filled with ash from the fireplace, works perfectly. You will however get scale..... various ways to avoid that. Is making them still look so bad?

[Illinoyance]

Expect some scale on the surface.

[Mike Hunter]

Thanks for all the replys

Well I do color case hardening and annealing here in the shop, fairly familiar with keeping oxygen away from steel parts, Plus a quick tumble in citric acid and they come out bright and shiny.

Plus, 500 dowel pins ran me $11 that includes shipping, No way I can make them for that price

[brian Rupnow]

I buy 1/16" steel welding rod for use as unhardened pins. It is cheap and readily available.

[wierdscience]

Thanks for all the replys

Well I do color case hardening and annealing here in the shop, fairly familiar with keeping oxygen away from steel parts, Plus a quick tumble in citric acid and they come out bright and shiny.

Plus, 500 dowel pins ran me $11 that includes shipping, No way I can make them for that price

Heck if you seal them up in a metal container along with a wad of paper you won't even get any scale.

[LKeithR]

Nothing works better for slow cooling than ag lime. Cover parts with an ample layer of lime and they'll take
a long time to cool...

[754]

Why can't they be hard, are they shear pins ?

[epicfail48]

Do you need fully annealed, or just soft enough to work on? If its the second, a soak at 550-600f should be sufficient for most alloys. Should bring most alloys down to 45-50rhc, still pretty tough but workable, mostly. Going up to bout 1000f, if you have the capability, should drop you down to 35-40rhc, pretty well machinable, thats what 4140ph is sold at after all. The relatively lower temperatures will be less likely to cause distortion or scale than a complete anneal