heat treating and case hardening

[grunt95]

Had the idea of getting some Death Metal Garage AR60 diff skids and getting them either heat treated or case just to see if they would slide better or not. However I have very little experience in this type of process along with not having the equipment either. So I was just wondering if any one here has had experience doing this or knows someone who does?

Or maybe my thought process is way off and my idea is completely garbage?

[rngrchad]

Eh, throw a block of paraffin wax in your pocket and give them rub down every now and then like skaters do on rails and ledges.

[JatoTheRipper]

The metal is most likely going to experience a lot of deformation/warping from all of the heat. It's most likely not going to be as easy or cheap as it sounds.

If you're worried about drag don't get diff skids at all. They will just hangup more than the axle. If you want slick get something like Delrin, but that will also gouge much easier than metal so you probably lose some of what you gain.

[smitty2919]

Look into a sheet of "spring steel". Should be thin enough to manipulate it and hard enough to not gouge.

[rngrchad]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

If you're worried about drag don't get diff skids at all. They will just hangup more than the axle. .

^ my thinking exactly JTR

[Kapti]

Depending on the metal they made it out of determines if you can harden it. Most likely you cant. Warping isnt usualy an issue especially on something that small. If you can make something out of spring steel than I would suggest picking up a piece of 0-1 instead. Spring steel will be harder to work with. If you get 0-1 it is soft to work with. Regular hand tools, file, drills, hand saw, will work great. Then when you get the shape you want just heat it up red hot and dunk it in oil. It will be so hard after that you will (almost) never wear it out. It will be as hard as a file. And the best thing for it after heat treating would be to throw it into the oven at 400 for an hour to take the stress out of it. It wont soften it but it will make it more durable.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[badhoopty]

could just use some associated chassis protector sheet. i forget what the 3m equivalent is.

[grunt95]

Thank you guys for all the info. Judging by what Kapti seems like it might be fairly easy to do. Besides not having the tools might have to find someone who does.

The reason I wanted a skid in the first place was because I liked the look and I also wanted to try and make a clear diff cover so I need some sort of protection for that as well as my axles.

Badhoopty might be on to something I have searched and found some materials and products like the one you said however I believe they will just gouge just like plastic does but I dont know.

So I will hunt down some chassis protector material along with figuring out how I could get some heat treated as well.