hardening metal

[wontonjohnny]

can this be done to say, your rear sway bar???

anyone here work with metal alot ??? i kinda know that if you heat metals up to about 800 C and water quench them it makes it harder, so would this work??

[rezzle]

No it cannot be done.

http://www.key-to-steel.com/articles/art9.htm

Note that spring steels have a low carbon content. Thus heating and cooling them will nullify all the work hardening processes the engineers have specified be done before it is mounted on your car. This heating and cooling of low carbon steels and other metals is called annealing. Annealing your nice cold rolled and drawn work hardened swaybar will turn it into nothing more than a limp noodle in comparison to what you had before.

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EDIT:
Or if there happens to be an appreciable amount of carbon in the steel dunking it into water after heating (with a torch or in brine or whatever) could reverse the tempering process. Tempering is a controlled cooling to allow for a precise grain formation. Instead of a spring you could well have something that will snap as easily as a toothpick because it has lost all its ductility.
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You are lucky however. You live in Calgary.

Calgary happens to have one of the best automotive spring remanufacturers in the world. If you want to stiffen your swaybar of perhaps reshape it go talk to the folks at http://www.standens.com/index2.htm

They do wheel alignment also.
No I don't work there.

[boroEF]

just double it

[88 LE]

Originally posted by wontonjohnny
anyone here work with metal alot ??? i kinda know that if you heat metals up to about 800 C and water quench them it makes it harder, so would this work??

Its the other way around.

When you heat up metal and dunk it in water it restructures the molecules / atoms / whatever of the metal.

I learned this from taking welding in college.

So if you weld something don't dunk it in water. Let it cool off naturally.

[wedge]

It depends on the type of metal. These guys are all talking about steel.
I used to work in an Aluminum Extrusion plant. The metal that we worked with was called T4 (that's the level of temper) and it is very soft at that point. But before it is shipped out, it gets put into the aging ovens. They cook it at about 200 degrees for 6 hours. When it comes out, it's now T6 which is actually harder than steel. And just in case there's any steel workers that'll get offended by that. Note that I said "harder" not "stronger", there IS a difference.

[NOTSOFAST]

Doesn't quite work like in the movies where they forge the swords, and anyway u would ruin the nice shiny finish, assuming u have it !

[Flashmn]

Usually they are quenched in oil, not water... ok movies are movies... but forging in water will make it harder, but also more brittle... thats how I remember it being.

[rezzle]

How come i had to answr that.

I only took two strength of material courses, I know diddly, where are all you mechanical engineering types?

[wontonjohnny]

yeah im taking materials right now at sait... that class is confusing

ok so if you cant stiffen the bar how bout this mod.

http://web.mitsi.com/autocross/TRD_mod_bar.html

[Flashmn]

Nope, I'm a pilot... but I had some machine shop stuff back in highschool. some basic stuff...

[rezzle]

Originally posted by wontonjohnny
yeah im taking materials right now at sait... that class is confusing

ok so if you cant stiffen the bar how bout this mod.

http://web.mitsi.com/autocross/TRD_mod_bar.html

heh those are the ones I took, 10 years ago. You should know this stuff inside and out. Who's your teacher?

[Alpha]

10 years ago !! you're fvckin old! :p