at home case hardening

[TheBigAR2003]

has anybody tried to get a good color case hardening at home?
i read a little on this kasenit stuff and it looks pretty good has anybody had any experience with it or any similar products?

 

[rcmodel]

Yes, I have used Kasenit for about 45 years.

It does a fine job of case hardening small parts.

But it is not "Color" case hardening.

Parts come out a uniform dull gray.

Color Case hardening involves a furnace, bone charcoal, and a controlled atmosphere free of any oxygen.

http://www.brownells.com/userdocs/learn/INST-531.pdf

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1026/Product/COLOR_CASE_HARDENING_KIT

rc

 

[alemonkey]

Ouch...that's kind of an expensive kit. Seems I've read before where guys do it by sealing the part in a pipe, and throwing it in a wood burning stove. I'd worry that would make a pipe bomb, though, when the charcoal started burning and letting off gasses.

 

[BCRider]

You wouldn't be doing that without a little vent hole or just adding the end caps on semi snugly by hand so that the gases can leak out through the threads.


Oops, you'd need a slip cap to allow the end to be slipped off while red hot so the contents can be dumped into the quench barrel.

The big deal here is that you're going to need either a pretty significant furnace or a nice big charcoal/coal forge setup with a blower to get the temperature hot enough. Obviously it's not something you do with a propane torch.

 

[rcmodel]

It's not something you do at all unless you have a lot of parts to waste experimenting with the results.

For instance, things like frames have to be blocked with precision ground steel blocks to keep them from warping, etc.

rc