repurposing metal stock for the lathe...

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rambin

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always looking for some decent material for projects.. hot rolled round is easy to find but doesn't seem to be the best finnish… nice but not great.. found an old cv joint thought It might be good quality steel but all I got was sparks when I put it in the lathe. and not much of a finnish. im guessing it must be hard as hell? would axle shafts be good material?
 
Test your work for hardness before you start cutting it. A file will tell you what you have. If the file skates and does not cut, it is too hard for normal machining. You learn to tell hard from soft metals pretty quickly using this method.
 
Most axles are pretty hard. File test it before you go through the effort to set it up and toast a lathe cutter.
 
I was successfully able to use a FWD axle as lathe stock. I used it for some taper tooling. First annealed it in a fire, then it cuts fine with file, hacksaw, HSS. Just heat to non-magnetic and cool slowly. Even as-forged or normalized is OK.
 
I use front drive CV shafts quite a bit. They are not to hard in the center section ,but the splined ends will be hardened.
As mentioned file test it first.
 
I have made numerous things out of an old ford tractor implement drive shaft.
 
I cut a piece of solid 2" x 2" 12L14 that had been in a fire.
It cut like aluminum. Worked out great for the project but boy was it annealed!
Most scrap I get is mystery metal. Yes, a file works great to help identify.
Aren't most axles and hydraulic shafts close to 4140? Usually hardened on the business end?
 
rgray said:
I use front drive CV shafts quite a bit. They are not to hard in the center section ,but the splined ends will be hardened.
As mentioned file test it first.
Click to expand...
I tried cutting the bell section (outside shell of where the balls ride) and as I said made lots of sparks, it did cut but nothing nice.. I didn't try the spline end. annealings a thought but a lot of effort and I don't really wanna light the wood stove its july I can find softer metals!
 
rambin said:
I tried cutting the bell section (outside shell of where the balls ride) and as I said made lots of sparks,
Click to expand...

I have not tried that part. May be different material. I use the outers as seal drivers, they work pretty good for that.

I've just machined the shafts. I usually end up cutting the splines off.
 
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