• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Need to harden a small part

Tesoro

Non-compliant
Gold $$ Contributor
I just bought an unfired 357 IMI Timberwolf. Very cool little rifle but it has not been made for 35 years and parts are scarce. It has been reported that the weak spot is the extractor which can become 'loose from wear'. Not sure if it is a non-cleaning/lubrication problem or design flaw. The one part I cannot find is a spare extractor so I want to make mine last. The fact that this is the only part not avail at Numrich etc sort of tells me someting!

As it is reported that wear is the issue then I am thinking of treating the extractor and the bolt where it operates in with some kind of hardening process, either a treatment like DLC or classic hardening. But I dont know anything about this other than it is not as straight forward as it appears, and esp with small parts. Any suggestions appreciated! ( pic is a stock image. I haven't removed mine yet to inspect)
Image 1.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I just bought an unfired 357 IMI Timberwolf. Very cool little rifle but it has not been made for 35 years and parts are scarce. It has been reported that the weak spot is the extractor which can become 'loose from wear'. Not sure if it is a non-cleaning/lubrication problem or design flaw. The one part I cannot find is a spare extractor so I want to make mine last. The fact that this is the only part not avail at Numrich etc sort of tells me someting!

As it is reported that wear is the issue then I am thinking of treating the extractor and the bolt where it operates in with some kind of hardening process, either a treatment like DLC or classic hardening. But I dont know anything about this other than it is not as straight forward as it appears, and esp with small parts. Any suggestions appreciated! ( pic is a stock image. I haven't removed mine yet to inspect)
View attachment 1686600

Personally I would have it documented via precision measurements aka mechanical drawing while it’s still in one piece in case a replacement needs to be made in the future.

2nd maybe you could locate some Kasenit and case harden it, if not, someone may know of the current replacement treatment for the obsolete Kasenit.
 
That's got the look of something that might be stamped/cut from a hot piece of stock, and then trued to size where needed.
It would indeed be a good thing to get as accurate of drawing with dimensions before you mess with or break that one. jd
 
Used to do a lot of fixture pins with O2 but had the oven to do it. Heat, quench, draw back then grind. They took a beating but never broke and wore very well. The other option is A2 drill rod.

He could probably get away with 01, a torch, and quench in oil.

I'd make a drawing, have someone wire them, probably use S7, heat treat, and finish grind, if it were me.
 
Make one using a knife blade blank such as 1084 or 1095, low cost and annealed soft as purchased. Shape it, use a propane torch to heat it bright red until a magnet no longer attracts (indicates proper temp), drop into canola oil to quench. It will be brittle hard at that point, so temper at 400F in an oven for an hour and leave at room temperature until cool. Looks tedious but shapable with files, which easily cut the annealed steel.
 
Why not just DLC treat it?

My suspicion is you will pay more to have someone coat a one off than you will pay to have a small run done. If you have 5-10 wired, then you have swap in spares and don't have to worry about something happening to your only one.

Coating is not going to eliminate the stress concentrations in the parts, i.e. sharp corners & edges where it is likely to fail.

Wire time has gotten fairly reasonable. I use a guy locally that has four wire machines looking for work if you cannot find anyone out west to help you I can send you his name and phone no.
 
My suspicion is you will pay more to have someone coat a one off than you will pay to have a small run done. If you have 5-10 wired, then you have swap in spares and don't have to worry about something happening to your only one.

Coating is not going to eliminate the stress concentrations in the parts, i.e. sharp corners & edges where it is likely to fail.

Wire time has gotten fairly reasonable. I use a guy locally that has four wire machines looking for work if you cannot find anyone out west to help you I can send you his name and phone no.

The reported problem is not breaking but wear-slop. But yes ideally it would be nice to have a handful of spares! my problem is i have no idea what 'wire machines' are!! Will look them up. interested thx
 
If it was made of a low-carbon steel, I would use an oxy-acetylene torch and heat it to bright red in a highly carburizing flame then quench in water. This should result in a very hard wear surface and no scale. If I made it with spring steel, I would heat in a slightly carburizing flame, quench in oil. Then heat to just blue and quench again to temper. The use of the slightly carburizing flame is to prevent scaling. The main difficulty with a part like this is holding it. I use a hemostat clamp for most little stuff. If I made a part like this from a piece of flat bar (little flat bar), I would leave the part attached to the bar, but nearly parted off, then I would snap it off after treatment. WH
 
If it was made of a low-carbon steel, I would use an oxy-acetylene torch and heat it to bright red in a highly carburizing flame then quench in water. This should result in a very hard wear surface and no scale. If I made it with spring steel, I would heat in a slightly carburizing flame, quench in oil. Then heat to just blue and quench again to temper. The use of the slightly carburizing flame is to prevent scaling. The main difficulty with a part like this is holding it. I use a hemostat clamp for most little stuff. If I made a part like this from a piece of flat bar (little flat bar), I would leave the part attached to the bar, but nearly parted off, then I would snap it off after treatment. WH
How are you supposed to know what it is made out of?
 
You would have to send it to a lab that does analysis. It's not made of low carbon steel I can guarantee you that, Low carbon can not be heat treated, The only way to impart some hardness to it is to Case Harden it, That would be a fools game on an extractor.

The pic of your extractor looks like it was made in Khyber Pass by an angry Chinese Beaver. Just get a Marlin in .357 and you will be money ahead.
 
More likely a Nepalese beaver. With a small part like that you can only guess at composition, unless you want to lose the part. Looking at the picture, I would be willing to bet a small amount that it is low carbon material. WH
 
I dont think that ejector in my pic is an imi one. Must have been some stock photo. The one I can see in my rifle is waay cleaner. As is about everything else compared to a modern production Marlin.
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
166,229
Messages
2,213,883
Members
79,448
Latest member
tornado-technologies
Back
Top