Making Shop Made Turning Tool

[Alan Gan]

Hello all,

I have this old Tire changing tool, It is a Ken Tool T-19 24" long and the rod is 5/8".

I cannot find out for sure the type of metal it is made from, all I found is Steel.

I was thinking about making a custom Rounded head scraper tool.

Any way to tell what type of metal it is or has anyone made a tool from a Tire Bead Breaker?

Trying to figure what I need to do to use it, temper etc...

Thanks!

Ken Tool T-19.jpg

[Dale Miner]

There are times when a tool like that can be handier than a knob on a door.

My suggestion is to purchase a tool instead of trying to remake the tire iron. The steel in that tool is not a steel that would have been used for a turning tool years ago, and then are many, many better steels for turning tools today.

The tempering process is a rather complicated process to obtain a tool with reasonable hardness while avoiding brittleness. Even if the tempering was done to get the proper mix, the tool would not hold an edge as well as hss, and would be easy to overheat while sharpening and destroy the temper in the edge.

[Brice Rogers]

To add to what Dale said, it is likely that this is just a soft steel. Even if it was a high carbon steel, it would get dull much more quickly than, say, HSS (high speed steel).

If you google it, you can find ways to roughly determine if you have high carbon or low carbon steel based on what the sparks look like. Take a file to the grinder and then take a nail to the grinder - - you'll see a difference.

If you have a low carbon steel, you can try to harden it, but you won't accomplish much, if anything. There are Youtube videos on doing that. Besides hardening you'll also need to temper (soften) it so that it isn't brittle. One way to see if something is hardened is to take a sharp file to it. It it easily cuts a groove, it is not hardened. If it just skitters off, then it is hardened.

If you want to make a tool, perhaps consider buying a carbide scraper and attaching it to the end of a rod. I've been buying 1/2" x 1/2" square hot-roll stock for $ 0.60 a foot at the local metal yard. Dirt cheap. I've machined some to accept square scrapers and some to accept round scrapers. Check out Eddie Castelin's you tube video on that. I made a positive rake scraper from a file (I first softened it, shaped it, hardened it and annealed it). It works okay for its intended purpose but doesn't work as good as my Hurricane 1/4 inch thick scraper.

[Dennis Ford]

Your tire tool would be good for a shaft with a separate cutting edge attached. A mild steel bar would be just as good and easier to fabricate.

[Alan Gan]

Thanks for the help, I thought the Temper process was simple. Heat with Mapp Gas and cool in Oil or water, must not be that simple. I will just keep it as a tire tool, it has been laying around for 20 some years. Glad I did not mess it up, Thanks for the help!

Would old Files work though, some Metal work and some Woodworking. I have several older files that are about 1 and 1/2" wide. I do Google a lot and it looks like they may work.

This is a great site with a vast wealth of information. Thanks Again for the help!

[Hayes Rutherford]

Alan, files don't work well either. They like to crack when you start hammering on them and polishing them first is out of the question.

[Brice Rogers]

I'll disagree with Hayes. If you know what you're doing, you can use a file to make a high carbon tool.

You will first need to soften it. Heat up to the Curie temperature and then slowly cool it. Then it will be soft. Form it as you want. The tang of a file is a bit narrow and is a weak point. If you are reshaping, you improve that. After you reshape it, then you need to harden it by bringing it up to the Curie point again, and quickly cool in either oil or water. Sometimes water works better and sometimes a water quench causes it to crack. At this point it is probably quite brittle. Drop it on the floor and it'll likely break into pieces. So, then you file or sand off the scale to make it shiny and then you anneal it. I typically anneal it to a straw color. If you google this you can get more info.

Some of the limitations of using a file are that files are a bit thin for some applications. Another one is that it is only high carbon steel. I made a Termite hollower out of a square file. Works well. I also made a special tenon cutter. So it does work. But you need to do your homework when hardening and annealing.

[Thom Sturgill]

I think Brice has his terms confused, but the process is right. Annealing is softening, so Anneal, Harden and Temper. The tempering process depends on the chemistry of the metal and commercially you can buy Air hardening (A-1), Oil hardening (O-1 or O-2), or Water hardening (W-1). Drill rod is often sold in an annealed state. The temperatures needed for the curie point differ but can be detected by checking for magnetism - the metal will stop being magnetic at the curie point. The tempering temperature is much lower and is specific to the metal and tempering process.

O-1 for example requires 1400-1500 degrees for hardening and then re-heating to 350-550 before quenching to temper.
Here is a good discussion: http://www.threeplanes.net/toolsteel.html

Files are often used for carving tools without doing all of this, but remain brittle.

[Hayes Rutherford]

Brice, I didn't say files wouldn't work, they just don't work well. Especially when re shaping. A comparable amount of good steel isn't very expensive. Like Thom mentioned, A-1, O-1, W-1, etc.would be a better way to go.

Alan's tire bar would be good for the tool shaft if the paddle area is cut off, then a hole drilled to receive a 3/16" HSS tool bit. I made one from the very same item and it works well.