Heat Treating Blast Baffle

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Sergeant
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Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Sergeant »

Would heat treating limit erosion of my first battle?
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by FrugalFred »

Probally. If the heat treat yields higher hardness that is. Like I would think h900 would take blast better than h1150. I don't know that it's a huge problem unless you are really really hard on the can though. Others may chime in on that though.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Sergeant »

Thank you
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Fulmen »

I concur. It should help, although it won't be magic. Whether or not it's worth it depends on how much extra work it is for you.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Hasdrubal »

I would be more worried about distortion of the part during the heat treat process, depending on the material involved.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by FrugalFred »

Hasdrubal wrote:I would be more worried about distortion of the part during the heat treat process, depending on the material involved.


This too. I know when welding 17-4 it warped all over the place even though I had it jigged in the lathe. I had to use a torch to bring it back around. Though ht is usually an even heating process and at 900 degrees (best for 17-4..just assuming that's what you are using) I don't see warping being an issue at all. It will shrink a tiny tiny bit though. But again at 900 degrees shrinking is really minimal.

If you can stick it in a ht oven for free I'd say worth it, but if you have to pay..ehhh. I don't say it making much of a difference. I've found what works best is a sharp edge so that it defects best.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by T-Rex »

A lot of speculation in this thread, since we've yet to determine the material's composition.
My T6 baffles came HT'd from my metal supplier :D
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by joe0121 »

I recently took some test cuts on 17-4 in h900 condition and with Tin Carbide tooling on my 60 year old south bend it cut wonderfully. Slightly on the stringy side but thats due to my belt slipping before i could get the feed rate up to engage the chip breaker.

I was lucky enough to get an Alloris tool post with my lathe so buying decent kenametal inserts and holder on ebay isn't that expensive.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by FrugalFred »

I'm not sure how that correlates here, but good info! I've been using double h and it's easily the best cutting material I've ever cut. Even better than aluminum. I would prefer h900, but for some reason few sell it in that condition.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by yondering »

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've had no warping issues when heat treating my 17-4 PH cone baffles, so I do all of them that way. I turn them in the annealed state, and heat treat in a lead casting pot with a PID controller set to 900*. Verified with hardness testing at work, the heat treatment I'm using is effective, with the end result 42-44 RC. The blast baffle in one of my cans is only .040" thick 17-4, and shows no pitting or damage at all so far, but that's less than 1,000 rounds of 5.56, 308, and 6.5 Creedmoor through it.

I would turn in the H900 condition, but prefer to drill it in annealed condition, and don't want to remove from the lathe, heat treat, and then turn the rest. With xxGT inserts anyway (intended for aluminum, ground sharp edge with positive rake), 17-4 annealed cuts like butter for me so it's no issue either way.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by joe0121 »

FrugalFred wrote:I'm not sure how that correlates here, but good info! I've been using double h and it's easily the best cutting material I've ever cut. Even better than aluminum. I would prefer h900, but for some reason few sell it in that condition.

Sorry I failed to complete my thought. If you buy the material pre hardened and tempers you need not worry about distortion in heat treating. At least not much I dont know enough to about 17-4 to know if it will be stress relieved in h900 condition. but it will certainly be less movement than if you cut metal away and than heat treat.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Fulmen »

17-4 is a precipitation hardening steel, the HT of that is more comparable to a tempering process that shouldn't affect dimensions much. For normal steels you would have to austenitizise, quench and temper, and the quench can affect shape and dimensions. Especially if it's an asymmetrical shape or you quench in water.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Sergeant »

This question came about while I was testing a can. I shot 4 thirty rd mags throught it at a fairly rapid pace. There was some wear on the leading edge around the hole of the 1st cone. All other cones were not touched. The cones are stainless steel.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by FrugalFred »

yes, but what KIIIIND of stainless?

If it's 304 or 316 heat treat wont do a lot....and that's probally why you see wear because those are like marshmallow. 17-4 heat treat has dramatic effects on it's mechanical properties.

Even if it's 17-4 depending on your design 4 mag dumps is pretty rough on it. Can't say I've ever done that though so I don't know. I can get through about one mag dump just for the hell of it before my inner jew starts screaming.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Fulmen »

Yeah, not much you can do with most stainless steels (except stuff like 17-4). But don't worry too much about it, some slight wear on sharp edges can appear quite fast. Most times it stops once the edges has been rounded a bit.
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Re: Heat Treating Blast Baffle

Post by Sergeant »

Thanks Guys.
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