in need of metal info

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Chris Wood

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2002
Messages
3,497
alright all you metalurgy guys,

Does anyone know how to bend spring steel or is there a formula or is there info on the net to read. and if you bend it does it stay or is there a process for hardening it..

thanks

chris
 
Chris,

Are you trying a different turnfin material? If so, you should try some

Titanium it works real well at .030" with a little support bracket behind it.

Chris,do you have any little driveline self oilers for sale? I sure could use

one on my new boat.

Thanks,

Mark Sholund

Email is: shoboat@charter.net
 
Sorry to bust in but I just saw Chris "Wood" asking for info on metal. The irony

Adam
 
I might be wrong here (killed off more than a few brain cells! :p ) but spring steel loses it's springiness if you get it hot. I think you have to bend it cold and overbend it as it likes to go back to it's original shape.

I assume this is for turn fins?
 
Id agree with Tim, but I too could be wrong...

Tim, we are probably both wrong, and someone here with more brain cells than both of us combined will let us know, but it is what ive heard with spring steel. :rolleyes:

~James
 
If this is for a turn fin why spring steal.I'am a tool maker by trade.
 
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Just a guess but probably to make it as thin as possible while retaining it's shape after loading it up in the turns?

I guess you would have to wax it also as it rust's.
 
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Guys,

I am looking to try for turn fins as you guessed, 7075 aluminum doesn't cut it, it still bends, with the forces on todays boats and the speeds it still moves and flexes.

I would like to try spring steel, i have seen it used in the past and it is very hard to bend, i don't think it will flex like alum.

as for the rusting, i don't care, wd-40 and a scotch brite will take care of that.

My main concern is how to bend it without cracking it or busting it, if i am not mistaken it is very brittle..

Any Ideas???

Mark, give me a email, need the diamentions from the center of the stuffing tube to just a little below the top of the boat or the bottom of the cowling, and how wide you would like it..

chris
 
P.S, I have tried .045 titanium, not sure on the grade but it didn't work either.

thanks
 
Chris,

I don't think it's that brittle that you couldn't bend it cold to small angles, but you do need to overbend it. It won't be that easy to bend though - might need a big vice or sheet bender.

Tim.
 
Hey Chris take a piece to a spring shop that dose springs on cars and trucks they work with that stuff everday and they know what to do with it maybe they can tell you how? just a thought Nick
 
You can bend it, just not at sharp angles. It's not the friendliest thing. Just a thought. But what about a tool steel that can be hardened. It might take some trial and error but you could adjust the temper to a suitable level of being tuff but not brittle.

Or, laminate some CF to an aluminum turn fin. Or, make a mold to lay up a solid CF fin.
 
Many times spring steel is formed in it's annealed state (soft) and then it is heat treated to give it it's spring properties. A machinist's handbook would be a good start for type of carbon steel to experiment with. I imagine a quick search of the web might be useful as well. You could hard chrome the turn fin when finished to prevent rusting as well as give it a hard finish. You can get chrome hardness up into the 70's r/c.

Just my 2 pennies

Kurt
 


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