How to separate steel

I used to get boat prop shafts free from the boatshop next to me....he had rich customers!......Anyway,the stainless in the shafts was all 300 grade (austenitic) I assume,but some was wonderful free machining,and some was so tough it was just scrap.....possible it was a monel.......He used to buy new prop shafts from the boat makers at high cost,and they new ones were always very soft ,free machining stainless.....lovely to work with.......And they bent very easily,which was good for his business.
 
Stainless is often very expensive ,and often in short supply.
 
Too much stainless going into rockets in Texas causing a shortage??
 
Ok. I also have 3 pces of steel that is in a cardboard tube. I think it was ground and polished. Is that isually a certain grade if steel for that?
If those pieces are 3 ft. long (or half that), they sound like drill rod. Unfortunately, drill rod comes in numerous grades of tool steel.
 
There is an ongoing project to make a DIY xrf spectrometer. https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/needing-more-than-a-spark-test.83558/#post-735602
The main participants are @graham-xrf and @homebrewed.
Just to help update - the project is ongoing. The temporary hiatus on my end is entirely because of domestic practical difficulties. I have building operations imminent, and a whole lot of house stuff to fix before I am allowed to play again. :(

But .. I may now have some help. My son, who just happens to be a aerospace software developer, has been using the very same little computer for local servo command testing and instrumentation interface. I think I have persuaded him to get the ADC side running.

Most of us want to recycle any metal we can liberate into nice project stuff, but we can't tell the mix? Is it air hardening? Water? Oil quench? Does it have Moly? Will it corrode? Am I going to have a bad time when it comes to tapping the holes? Is it stuff so rotten hard to live with it should never grace a chuck? Should I attempt to weld on it?

I do want to make this work, but the réparations chez moi have to come first! :)
 
Just to help update - the project is ongoing. The temporary hiatus on my end is entirely because of domestic practical difficulties. I have building operations imminent, and a whole lot of house stuff to fix before I am allowed to play again. :(

But .. I may now have some help. My son, who just happens to be a aerospace software developer, has been using the very same little computer for local servo command testing and instrumentation interface. I think I have persuaded him to get the ADC side running.

Most of us want to recycle any metal we can liberate into nice project stuff, but we can't tell the mix? Is it air hardening? Water? Oil quench? Does it have Moly? Will it corrode? Am I going to have a bad time when it comes to tapping the holes? Is it stuff so rotten hard to live with it should never grace a chuck? Should I attempt to weld on it?

I do want to make this work, but the réparations chez moi have to come first! :)
Like Graham, some things have come up. They have to do with a trashed-out rental we have, so we've been spending a lot of time getting it back into shape. I'm working on an enclosure to act both as an electronic and radiation shield, but it's only getting a little spare time here & there. We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel so hopefully I will get to spend more time on the fun stuff before long.
 
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