Guys, I have a small project where I need a stop that clamps to cast Iron ways on my lathe. I first thought of just making it out of mild steel. But on second thought I was thinking if i made up some Aluminum bronze with maybe 2-5% aluminum it should be softer than the cast iron so it wouldn't dig into the ways and not be so hard to machine as the higher aluminum % bronzes. Having never worked with Aluminum bronze I'm checking to see if I'm nuts or if you think it's doable. Being able to adjust the properties of the metal stock is what I love about home casting. CBB
I've cast C954 aluminum bronze a few times, but I never intentionally messed with its ingredients. I have seen in a few places that too much AL makes a homebrew al-bronze alloy so hard it will shatter like glass, but does that mean less Al makes it softer? I do not know. I have read that unlike other copper alloys, it can possibly be hardened with a heat soak and water quench, so if you were to try annealing it that way... it may have the opposite effect of what you had in mind. Wish I could tell you more... Jeff
Doesn't it tend to work-harden Jeff? Did you not hammer out an axe head edge or am I loosing my memory/ the plot (actually don't answer the second bit )
Maybe ask Chirpy aka cae2100 from alloyavenue for more info, he doesn't post here but I know he uses homemade al-bronze for some of his machining projects. Jeff
I was working on the theory that if more makes it super hard that less would mean softer. Not knowing for sure is why I was asking here Not having any experience with Aluminum Bronze I will take in all the info I can get!! (I did send Chirpy a message on your recommendation)
It sounds logical... But I'm not enough of a metallurgist to answer with much certainty. I posted just seconds before your last post too, in case you missed that...
I heard back from Chirpy. His recommendation for Aluminum Bronze that machines well is C642. The composition for C642 is 7% aluminum, 2% silicon, and rest copper. I have everything on hand to give this a shot. If I can get my 3D printer back up and running (changing out the controller board from a MKs 1.4 to a Duet 2 Wifi) I will give it a try soon.
If I could piggyback on this thread... I would like to make some small pencil sized chisels for soft stone work. I figured Al Bronze might be feasible and was wondering about hardening it. Would grinding the points do it?
I have to peen my C954 axes' edges to harden them, grinding them hasn't seemed to do the trick for me. Once I ground off all the work hardened metal resharpening one, and the axe totally deformed when I used it next. It's also possible I accidentally annealed it though on the belt sander, it got really hot and I did see some funny darker gold/blue/purple colours appear on the corners of the blade at the time... I'd really like to try the heat treatment hardening option sometime, once I get my kiln upgraded with PID/t-couple control. That is supposedly one way to avoid all that peening. If you have a way to do a controlled temperature soak, that might be a good way to go. Please let me know if you figure out the details on how to do that, I keep putting off doing that research since I don't have the right gear to try it yet anyhow...
