Should Pin Spanners Pins Be Hardened?

R

Ripthorn

Active User
Registered
Joined
Dec 8, 2013
Messages
147
With my new G0704 getting plenty of use, I have worn out the crappy little pin thing for loosening and tightening the drawbar. I have some .223" O1 drill rod that I can use for making a spanner. I will need to turn a few thou off, but my question is whether I should harden and temper the pin, or just use it in the annealed state. I am certain the annealed O1 will be stronger than the mystery metal thing that came with it, but I don't want to have it be too soft, but I also don't want to make it so hard that it will damage the spindle. What say ye?
 
O-1 should be fine, but I wouldn't harden it. Use it as is. See how long it lasts. I think you'll find it will last a long time before needing to make a new one.

You harden the pin and it will break off almost immediately. Another thought is to get you a H & G dowel pin and use. It's case harden, or supposed to be, but may not be able to get the size you need.
 
This is a little off topic,
I have a couple of adjustable pin spanners, I don't remember if they are Armstrong or Williams brand maybe both. I needed one that I did not have in my stash of tools that had pin diameters something like 1/8". So I took one of the larger ones, lined up on the existing pins and drilled a hole from the back side about 1/4" deep. Drove in a couple of 1/8" roll pins so they stuck out about 1/4". Worked perfectly for what I needed it for.

So another option would be to use a roll pin.
 
Put a file to a couple of commercial pin spanners, they were hard. I usually use dowel pins which as Ken noted are at least case hardened.

Bruce
 
My vote would be to harden it, but only if you have an oven. If using a torch I'd say leave it as is.
I would then temper it at a high temp so it wouldn't be to brittle. 600 degree gives 54r hardness.
 
01 CAN be a little too brittle even if tempered to a blue color which should give a spring temper and about 52 RC hardness. However,I have had several screws wring right off even tempered blue. 01 has too much carbon in it to behave properly as a spring. I have managed to make flintlock springs from it,but have had 2 or 3 failures before getting it right.
 
It has been my experience that damage occurs when the wrench/key/pin deforms. I have used dowel pins to make spanner wrenches for thirty years, some of which were used with aluminum nuts, without problems.
 
Thanks for all the input. I turned the replacement pin today and will try it unhardened first. If that goes poorly, I have plenty of rod to make a replacement.
 
I am in the group that uses dowel pins for the pin in spanners.
 
I went and checked out some of the spanner wrenches I have. Some are harder than others, basically, I can cut them using a file. So that means they are softer than a file. They are not rock hard. Most I suspect are in the 40-45 HRC range. I didn't feel like getting out my heat treat files and pin pointing the hardness to a range.
Regardless, it's all up to what the spanner is being used for. IF you have to beat the crap out of the spanner to break the nut loose, then maybe a strong pin is needed or a different wrench arrangement is needed, i.e., a pipe wrench! Let's hope not. Interested the arguments are, I don't think any one answer is correct.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top