Good grief Charlie Brown...HSS is tough stuff!

What's your worry? You've simply been going at the material with the wrong tools. Since it's virtually impossible to anneal and reharden at home, and you're starting with it hard, work it hard, and that means:

Grind the stuff. It grinds. If you need to cut it, you can either cut it with an abrasive cutoff wheel, or you can get a "grit-edge" hacksaw blade that might do it, if the bond holds up (I've had better luck with Remington than with Starrett, in these blades).

Don't drill, punch, or file it. Grind it. Wear eye protection, pay attention to where the sparks are going, clean up the woodshavings first if you don't have a separate metalwork area, or take it outside (fire is bad). AlZn on a belt sander does wonders. Plain old cheap gray grinder wheels work fine if you are patient.

Just as you wouldn't use a butterknife to cut steel pipe, you aren't going to get anywhere working HSS with tools made to cut softer metals. Your problem isn't one of skills (necessarily) but one of the proper equipment. You need tools (or blades, bits, files, etc.) that are harder than the metal you're trying to work. These aren't the kind of things that you can run to Wal-Mart for either. Well, mostly not anyway.

Regular M2 HSS, which your jointer blade probably is) is pretty tough stuff but there's much much harder stuff to work out there. Many turners regularly work HSS to make their own tools just like you're doing with the jointer blade, sure. Do you have a grinder with the grey wheels (silicon carbide probably)? If so, you can use that to grind your scraper profile. The wheel will wear away but most people have these so that's why I suggest it. It's also better than using the good white/blue/pink aluminum oxide wheels for this application. Of course, for more aggressive work, you can buy special hacksaw or jigsaw blades and drill bits to do it. But just for making a scraper, just grind it.

- Andrew

I make "D" bits out of HSS drill rod. I just grind them. Have tried just with a grinding wheel, but found that a handheld one to be the most efficient. I will use the wheel grinder for final shaping, though along with the Zirconia belt on my 1" x 42" vertical belt sander. I have soften HSS to drill a hole through it, though. I will then reheat it and quench it in oil. Don't know what has happened to the steel, but it was for a situation that didn't need full strength HSS.

I worked with the stuff on a regular basis in my previous life in Tool & Die. Grinding is probably the most effective given what you are likely to have in your home shop. Another method I used is a cutoff wheel on a high speed air grinder 25,000+ rpm - not necessarily a die grinder. And the cutoff wheel was not the standard type; it was about .0625 thick and about

2" diamter. The cutoff wheel was rated well above the max rpm of the high spped air grinder. A good deal of caution was needed including a heavy-duty face shield and a safety glasses.

You can easily grind it with a normal grinding wheel and cut it with a standard angle grinder. Cut a suitable peace and silver solder it to a suitable piece of normal carbon steel shaft. With a low melting point solder and fairly quick heating there is no loss of hardness in the HSS. For heat treatment etc see e g

Lennart Delin

"Joel" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Thanks all...I do have a access to a grinder with grey wheels and I'll probably put my old stationary belt sander to work too. Leif, I guess I don't know what a "D" bit is...and what grit Zirconia belt to use

60, 80 ?

Thanks again...I grow each day by asking questions and listening.

Joel

Joel: A "D"bit is also known as a gun drill. Its value is to be able to hold a straight line through material that it is drilling a hole in. I got into this when I started to make peppergrinders. I was looking for the site of a UK woodturner that has a graphic drawings to show the profiles. However, I will attempt to describe a D-bit. Get a appropriate diameter HSS drill rod. I clamp the rod in a vise and, using a handheld grinder, will make a flat on the end. This will extend back 2 to 4 inches. The dimension of the remaining drill rod will be approximately one to five thousandths greater than the diameter of the rod. When you have done this look at the end with the flat on it and you will see it resembles the letter "D" hence the name. Now I go to my mounted wheel grinder and looking down on the flat grind back the end of the flat approximately 1/2" on the left side. Then grind back the other side about a 1/4" so that you will have a lopsided spear point. It is best to grind back the bottoms of the angles to give some relief to the bit. There is a bit more involved by cutting a flat bottomed notch near the opposite end of the flat for the purposes of allowing sawdust to be ejected.. In using it, I will start a hole with a bradpoint bit for about an inch into the wood and then switch over to the D-bit. It will be slow going, but your drill will come out in the center of the opposite side of the piece you are drilling. You will have to move the drill bit in and out a few times and blow out the hole. The wood can get very hot so I will sprinkle mineral oil on the bit to help cool it and the wood. HTH. Maybe someone else can come up with a website that has pictures or drawings.

Leif "Joel" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

news:...

******************************************* Joel, The quickest way to cut any steel is with a cutting torch, but then you either have to grind away a lot of metal or reharden the piece, or both. The other way is with abrasives, such as a cutoff wheel in a right angle grinder or die grinder. If you don't have either, but do have a Dremel and lot of patience, you can get some diamond cut off discs (about 1 inch dia) at most hardware stores and some Walmarts. These take some time to cut off a big planer blade, but they are good for shaping smaller pieces, such as HSS drill rod. I have cut and shaped some larger pieces (like the planer blade) just using a bench grinder. Again, it takes patience. In addition to shaping, you might want to check with the manufacturer of the planer blade to see what the steel grade (M2, M4, etc.) and hardness they temper it to. It could be that if it's at maximum hardness it may be brittle like a file. If that's the case, you may want to temper it some by putting in an oven at around 450 degrees for an hour or so. That will reduce the hardness some, but make it tougher. And be sure you have a good face mask if you use the die grinder. You'll have the metal and grit to contend with, but if you happen to have the wheel start to self destruct, you'll need good protection. Stay out of the "line of fire"!

Ken Moon Webberville, TX