Drill rod question...

[Steve Vaughan]

So, I got me a 3' piece of 5/16" drill rod to top off my toolrests. I'm lucky to have a local Fastenal dealer...great folks there!

Now, I've got about an 8" piece of the drill rod leftover. It's the oil-hardened variety, so my question is this - Can I use pieces of this drill rod to grind some sort of edge on, or groove in, and put in a handle (cold-rolled steel, not wooden) to use as a small gouge? Will this metal hold up to cutting wood as a tooltip, or should that be another piece/type of metal?
Thanks!

[Mike Vickery]

usually drill rod has not been hardened yet. Drill blanks have, unless you plan on hardenening it I do not think it would work well as a turning tool.

[Steve Vaughan]

Mike, thanks for the reply, and you might just be right there. I know the label said "oil hardened" but I also cut it with the hacksaw...a bit tougher than just mild stuff, I could tell. I'm thinking then, that this stuff would react well to cutting the piece, rough-grinding to shape, then hardening and then annealing. Am I in the ballpark with the thinking here?

[Tom Lewis]

I have made lots of lathe tools out of oil hardning rod. First grind it to roughly the shape you want. Heat it with a torch to a cherry red color, ( you will know it's the right color when it turns non-magnetic), quench in a light oil. Then draw back the hardness in a oven at 375 degrees f.
Then grind to final shape, being careful not to get it too hot. If it turns blue you have un-done your heat treatment.
O-1 steel is not quite as good as M2 steel for lathe tools, but it makes a good tool. Like I said, I have made lots of lathe tools out of this material.

[Jeff Nicol]

The drill rod that we all get at Fastenal is not hardened yet and will not do you much good on a tool rest in its annealed state when you buy it. There is tons of information on heat treating on the web and to do it right it takes a bit of time. When you are tempering it back to a workable hardness it can take an hour or 2 to do it right. It works best if you have a little blast oven to do the heating and the annealing in so as not to tie up the kitchen stove, the wife does not like that much!

Jeff

[Tom Lewis]

I forgot to mention leave the drill rod in the oven at 375 degrees for two hours, then let it cool, then put back in the oven for two more hours at 375 degrees.

[Mike Vickery]

Mike, thanks for the reply, and you might just be right there. I know the label said "oil hardened" but I also cut it with the hacksaw...a bit tougher than just mild stuff, I could tell. I'm thinking then, that this stuff would react well to cutting the piece, rough-grinding to shape, then hardening and then annealing. Am I in the ballpark with the thinking here?

Yes.

I never wanted to mess with heat treating so I have always bought drill blanks to make my tools.

[Steve Vaughan]

Thanks for the replies and info. Maybe I should have hardened the pieces before I put them on the toolrests...uh oh. Oh well, it's gotta be better than stock and I've got other material to make a few more toolrests to play with, so I'll harden those rod pieces before I put them in place.

I'll use the extra I have now and play with making some tips for experience and may look into getting some drill blanks and working with that.

Thanks guys for your help!