Printer rod alloy

martik777

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Anyone know what laser, bubble jet printer rods are made of?

They don't rust so some kind of stainless? They are so easy to machine unlike 303 or 308 so I was thinking 12L14 but that rusts.
 
My main reference (McMaster-Carr website <https://www.mcmaster.com/stainless-steel-shafts>)
offers stainless steel linear motion shafts in 440C stainless (magnetic, surface hardened)
as well as in 17-4 PH (precipitation hardened) stainless.
If you want to machine 'em, you probably don't need
the accurate dimension or hardening, and maybe (with plastic glides) dotmatrix printers don't need hardening either.
 
Anyone know what laser, bubble jet printer rods are made of?

They don't rust so some kind of stainless? They are so easy to machine unlike 303 or 308 so I was thinking 12L14 but that rusts.

All the ones I've played with have been chromed or are leaded steel. But as you say, nice to machine.
 
This has been asked for quite some time and, to my knowledge, nobody has identified it. I agree that it appears to be some kind of stainless alloy or some rust-resistant alloy that is accurately ground. I've machined a lot of it and it is for sure not 303 or 416. It is really soft so you might suspect it is leaded or possibly have some sulfur or selenium in there but nobody seems to know.

Tell you what, though. No discarded printer is safe from me - if I see one, I grab it to harvest the rods.
 
This has been asked for quite some time and, to my knowledge, nobody has identified it. I agree that it appears to be some kind of stainless alloy or some rust-resistant alloy that is accurately ground. I've machined a lot of it and it is for sure not 303 or 416. It is really soft so you might suspect it is leaded or possibly have some sulfur or selenium in there but nobody seems to know.

Tell you what, though. No discarded printer is safe from me - if I see one, I grab it to harvest the rods.
Yep, yep. whole drawer full.
I let two big Xerox 6250's get by me this past summer. Those would have made for a nice harvesting.
 
If it machines that nicely, it could be 12L14 that's been chrome (or hard-chrome) plated and ground. Can you take a really light cut (less than .005) or does it chip?

Making me think about tearing into that old Brother MFC that's sitting on the bench.
 
Hard to tell if it's chipping or not but even when cut it doesn't rust. It is also weldable.

My best harvest was a Lexmark color laser 13 long rod, mostly 1/2". Don't forget the laser cartridges, they have a couple too and a nice metal tube.

You can buy the 3D printer rods on ebay which I think are the same material. They describe them as chromed carbon steel:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/8mm-CNC-3D...0-500mm/192537955768?var=&hash=item2cd4280db8
 
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The stuff I've used does not chip. It cuts like butter and will take a very fine cut and produces a really fine finish, especially with a sharp HSS tool. I've turned a lot of 12L14 and this stuff turns even easier and it doesn't rust like 12L14 does. Hence the mystery.

Martik, chromed carbon steel from China - have you tried to turn it before? Is is the same stuff? I think the reason most of us want to know what it is is so we can order it in larger diameters and quantities. At least I would.
 
It looks exactly like the rods I used to make my 3D printer. I just machined one and it does appear the same. Not cheap at $3.99 / ft on ebay though.

Alibaba may be under $1/ft I sent them a quote request - will share when they respond

https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...l?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.23.11d762fe6VBRt5

If you're looking for material easy to machine, try some 1144 stressproof, it's become my favorite. onlinemetals sells it reasonable. Not suiitable for good welding due to high sulphur content.
 
Yeah, I like 1144, too, and I use it a lot but it is much harder than printer rod. I wonder what they mean by carbon steel - sort of a generic term, no?
 
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