Material for tool holders.

Brento

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Due to my clausing mill have a mt2 spindle, which type of steel should i use make a mt2 solid holder out of? I am also looking to make a ER20 collet for my SB 9A as well. Should i harden the solid holder as well?
 
Ease of machining and availability would be: steels: 1215, 12L14, 11L17 and 1144(stressproof), SS:303, . for hardening:O-1.
There are many other choices but may be hard to find and expensive.
If you get into hardening you have to worry about distortion after the hardening process.
 
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I have no means to harden with oil anyways. Can you harden a material in a home owners oven?
 
need to get O-1 to 1500
I have no means to harden with oil anyways. Can you harden a material in a home owners oven?[/QUOTE
To harden O-1 tool steel you need to get to 1500 degreees F.
 
Obtain some 4140 half hard or annealed. It's hard enough to take a beating, but not too hard to machine with HSS tooling. It would be ideal for your tooling purposes.
 
Obtain some 4140 half hard or annealed. It's hard enough to take a beating, but not too hard to machine with HSS tooling. It would be ideal for your tooling purposes.

If i cant find annealed i can anneal it myself then case harden it correct?
 
If i cant find annealed i can anneal it myself then case harden it correct?

It's not that easy. You ought to be able to find it annealed. 4140 is not like carbon steel, it needs to soak (be held at temp) for specific times (possibly hours) for each operation, and case hardening needs the same temps as any other hardening. I bought some 4140 flame cut drops, they were diamond hard (so to speak) I couldn't hack saw them. I built a charcoal fire in my grill, put the two pieces (3/4 by 3/4 by 12 ") in and let it burn out. cooled overnight. I could then cut it with high speed steel but it wore the cutter pretty quickly. Once it's annealed (Half Hard) its still RC 30 or so.
 
Ok so definetely need to make sure it is annealed then. I have some carbide tooling that will be going on the lathe so im sure ill have enough power then to go through it decently.
 
4140 Annealed machines like a dream and is tough enough to withstand most normal use.
My go-to steel.
 
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