Heat treating a breechblock

[Alex]

I've been tinkering around with the idea of buying one of the new Stevens favorites made by Savage and my biggest turnoff from the new rifles are the skeletonized breechblocks. I've looked over the machining on their blocks and feel confident that I can duplicate it, but leave the unit solid, my problem is what kind of heat treatment gets done to these. I'm just thinking of buying the 22 LR, would mild steel that has been case hardened work well enough at these pressures, or would something more exotic have to be obtained?

 

[Jim K]

Ordinary bar stock case hardened should do very well, but fully hardening steel requires knowledge of the steel involved. If you want to use fully hardened steel, check with the steel supply house or your books and use the proper heat treatment.

Jim

 

[wintermute76]

You could also use prehard 4140, about 30-35 Rc. Be a bit tough with HSS tools, carbide would be much better.

Jim is correct, proper heat treating requires the use of a furnace, and depending on the steel, a controlled atmosphere. I have done some stuff out of A-2 (air quench) but nothing critical.

Or if you want, PM the details, I work at a mold shop, and have ready access to hardened steels and EDM equipment, if it's simple enogh I may be able to whip something up.

 

[Alex]

Thanks for all the info, I'm moving more in the direction of buying an original and simply rebarreling it, I have Frank De Haas Single Shot Rifles and Actions on order to replace my missing copy, If memory serves he talked at some length on modifying these little rifles. I definitely agree that the EDM machine would be the way to go. I worked as a tooling engineer for a few years and they had the EDM machine that they would cut out die parts from tempered steel blocks, talk about a slick way of eliminating distortion from heat treatment in a finished part. My dream is when I someday finish my PhD I can find a university with a lab full of fun machines that I can play with to my hearts content.