Well all I can do is go by what iv been told and read. You are the first one to ever claim original ford axles are not heat treated. Perhaps you have something to back this up? Also , I have never claimed there not durable. BTW if you ever drilled a 1 1/8 hole in one you and your drill bit would know there hard as all hell.
No, for a piece like this to work harden would take many many cycles of bend and rebend, unlikely for an axel.
I speak from 40 years experiance as an Industrial Blacksmith. I have forged & drilled tons of Cr Mo (V) steels without too much trouble, sharp drill bits and heavy duty drill presses with auto feeds take care of the hard work. BTW don't get into a ******* contest with me about the size of your drill bit. We used to drill holes 4" diameter more than 20" deep thru some alloys. Some of the ingots we forged weighed up to eight tons. If it's not too much trouble could you cite your sources for the Heat Treatment of axels. I'm not being snippy here or trying to make this too complicated but there are many forms of heat treatment and unless you have some knowledge on the subject it can be hard to make sense of it all. The process I outlined previously is a form of heat treatment as opposed to Hardening and Tempering. The reason axels aren't Hardened and Tempered is because the forces on axels are too great, they would eventually break. This is why the axels are made of an exceptionally pure Cr Mo with V added as a scavenger/purifier. This alloy has the benefit of being a Tough Steel ( 'tough' is a technical desciption of the character of a steel as is 'strong' which this steel also is. With these characteristics this Alloy Steel is well suited for axel application in it's Normalised state (a type of Heat Treatment).This state will also allow the steel to retain enough 'hardness' without allowing any hazards such as breakage from being overhard. Combine the features of this exceptional alloy steel with hot forging, to shape the axel and to refine the grain structure and you have a great piece of engineering made at low cost, subject to many and varied abuses over several decades and still capable of more abuse and they are still running strong.
Ok, I'll play your silly game. Like I said previously there are many kinds of heat treatment and unless you know what your talking about you can get confused. An axel is a critical part, failure is not an option. So that mark is probably the result of a ball impact test. Now who said those marks appear only on hardened and tempered parts? Think about this rather than getting hot under the collar. After all the stress an axel goes thru in it's manufacture it still must be fit for service before being fitted to the car. How do we test this? By various means; elongation, twist, bend and ball impact to test for resilience and hardness. Don't forget that many alloy steels even in their annealed state are several times harder than mild steel, and that's why alloys are used, to gain strength and toughness without the need to resort to hardening and tempering a lesser quality steel and then run the risk of it breaking under stress. The ball test is also to determine if the blacksmiths have overheated the axel thereby burning out some or all of the elements that add strength to the alloy thus rendering it useless, also as a test that the alloy meets spec. (apart from test cert's). You must have cottoned on to this somehow as you say you straighten axels cold. If these axels were hardened and tempered how could you straighten them cold? You will also find indents in pitman arms and they aren't hardened and tempered either, again this is a critical part that cannot fail for all the obvious reasons I have stated. So your indentation is in fact a mark of quality control, the fact that there is only one is evidence that axel p***ed with flying colours on the first attempt.
Good reading. I've seen those marks on some axles and wondered what it was. Back in the 70's when I was running old Ford axles oval tracking, we used to bend them and straighten them on a regular basis. Always did it cold, no heat. Used to do it at the track with a porta-power, 2 chains and an I-beam. If they were bent real bad, we'd take them outa' the car and put them in a press. Never had an axle break. The Henry Ford steel had to be some tough stuff. If they were heat treated, I would've thought they'd break. I still have the I-beam and use it to ADJUST camber when needed on mine and friends stuff today. It would be interesting to find out if anyone has ever done a composition ****ysis of the steel in these axles.
You know what, youre the one ***uming im playing a silly game and or implying you dont know what your talking about, I really dont understand the big at***ude? Im always looking for more information , thats all and I never said anything about axles being hardened and or tempered. Im going to also ad now that just because I dont brag about my experience and equipment on line here doesnt necessarily mean I dont have any. I have over 30 years experience in various steel and aluminum fabrication fields and I have infact learned a few things in that time, but not everything. Good info, thanks.
Love the idea of a couple of guys under a car gettin that damm axel straight again, bet there were some interesting conversations. If someone wants to send me a slug out of a hole sawed centre (minimum size 7/8ths Inch) I'll send it to the lab. It would be easy for an Aussie Hamber to do, PM me for my address. Takes about one/two weeks, I'll post the ****ysis results. Please be sure that the slug is out of a 1936- 1940 axel.
Personally, I think any axle that wasn't made by Ford isn't worth a ****. The new dropped axles just don't look right. Have a stock Henry axle bent up by 296V8 and you'll never want an aftermarket axle, whether it be Taiwanese or Americanese. Made in USA, Dropped in USA.
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