12-12-2024, 05:03 AM
Hi
En 36b is a case hardening steel- fine grained. the shafts run in bronze bushes at the inner ends and the gears that transmit the drive need to be hard wearing with a tough core i have made them from 4140 high tensile bar before and induction hardened the ends to toughen them, you cannot get them much above 45 Rockwell C in this material however,
4140 is somewhat cheaper and easily available outside of england. Nitriding 4140 isnt a good idea as it will tend to flake under torsion.
I made 25 of them from this stuff some years ago on a center lathe. Lots of swarf generated between centers. Got the gears cut as a batch. The economics are not good if doing it for a living. Steel prices have gone silly recently also.
The original shafts were stable fine grained equivalent of EN36b (KE )
En 36b is a case hardening steel- fine grained. the shafts run in bronze bushes at the inner ends and the gears that transmit the drive need to be hard wearing with a tough core i have made them from 4140 high tensile bar before and induction hardened the ends to toughen them, you cannot get them much above 45 Rockwell C in this material however,
4140 is somewhat cheaper and easily available outside of england. Nitriding 4140 isnt a good idea as it will tend to flake under torsion.
I made 25 of them from this stuff some years ago on a center lathe. Lots of swarf generated between centers. Got the gears cut as a batch. The economics are not good if doing it for a living. Steel prices have gone silly recently also.
The original shafts were stable fine grained equivalent of EN36b (KE )