I accidentally heat treated a piece- now I need to anneal it,

[LukeZero]

Saturday afternoon, I was making a piece for the 45 with the lathe and the mill, and I drilled a hole in the wrong place. So, I get out the welder and plug weld the hole shut. Then without thinking about it- I water quenched the piece. Now the weld is harder than my drill bits or end mills. Do I need to get some better carbide bits or can I anneal this piece by heating it to cherry red and letting it cool slowly. It is a hot rolled, mild steel piece with similar welding wire.

If I have to- I can remake the piece, but it took about 3 hours. Thanks, Luke

 

[knorrena]

It takes a long time to anneal steel after it has been welded and quenched. In some cases it may takeup to a day to get uniform temperature and several days to cool in fashion that allows the ferite molecules to align themselves in low stress configurations. A really neat reference can be found here: http://www.key-to-steel.com/default.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&NM=15 . You could try, after all you really have nothing to lose, but I myself would not have the patience and would just remake the piece.

Karl

 

[rusty_tlc]

It takes a long time to anneal steel after it has been welded and quenched. In some cases it may takeup to a day to get uniform temperature and several days to cool in fashion that allows the ferite molecules to align themselves in low stress configurations. A really neat reference can be found here: http://www.key-to-steel.com/default.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&NM=15 . You could try, after all you really have nothing to lose, but I myself would not have the patience and would just remake the piece.

Karl

So would you need an oven to do this?

 

[Cube Dweller]

Yes.

 

[LukeZero]

After breaking off a carbide bit in the piece- I went and got a piece of steel and am remaking it. Maybe then I'll heat treat it on purpose.

 

[BlackSmoker]

If it is mild steel it is low carbon and the weld is the hardened part to anneal it heat up to orange for 1 hour per inch of thickness and slow cool in sand. Hope it helps by the way what did you weld it with?

 

[LukeZero]

If it is mild steel it is low carbon and the weld is the hardened part to anneal it heat up to orange for 1 hour per inch of thickness and slow cool in sand. Hope it helps by the way what did you weld it with?

Big MIG with .035 mild steel wire. The quench was what killed me. It doesn't really matter now, I spent about an hour and a half last night and am almost done remaking the piece.