EN1A mild steel strength

Anybody know how EN1A mild steel will hold up as a bearing surface? give good thread strength?

From what I have read is that it's used extensively for machining parts because of it's softness and finish you get, if this is the right words to use, but to me it dosent seem to have a lot of uses, no good for stress items or turning shafts, they say it will easily pick up on the mating surface and wear badly and it doesn't have a lot of strength, I dont fully understand what they are saying really, Bronze against steel wears excellent, so soft mild steel against hard steel should be the same?

lee

Hard steel is used to cut soft steel. Soft mild steel will seize if used against any steel bearing surface. Strength is a matter of design requirements; cost largely determines which steel should be used ,one would not specify a more expensive high tensile steel to make a gutter bolt because the application doesn't require it. However you can run a casehardened mild steel shaft at quite high speeds in a case hardened mild steel bush with lubrication. The properties of materials make some suitable for bearing bushes and other materials, usually steel ,for shafts. Mild steel is adequate for many shafts such as counter shafts for amateur use. Colin

Thanks for the reply Colin

Would EN1A steel be ok, Strong enough to use as a sliding shaft collar, similar to what you would get on a Pillar drill? these **LINK**

They would only be moved slowly along a hardened chromed shaft.

lee

hi lee there are 2 types of en1a leaded and unleaded, unleaded should be fine for your needs, leaded allows it to machine easier but is softer. En3b will do as well for you. ian c

Hello Lee,

I'm sure a collar made from EN1A would be fine for the duty, certainly on the shaft in question.

What you may need to allow for is provision for the grub screw, if that is how your job will work, to grip the shaft without raising a bruise or burr which will ulimately interfere with moving the collar about.

An improved design is to make the collar as a close fitting fit with a split on one side and a nip screw across the split to clamp the collar onto the shaft. A better grip is then assured without damage to the shaft

Regards

Brian

Lee,

I agree with Brian's advice, about the collar. The collar displayed by your link is intended for use as end stops on a running shaft and would cause damage to your drill's column if the original steel screw is used. It may be possible to add e soft slug to the screw to minimise this risk but generally the collars' wall isn't thick enough to allow this and a soft screw, eg. brass. isn't strong enough. Aluminium could be used to make this collar and it could be rectangular. Colin

Ok Brian, Colin

Thanks for your advice,

Yes, the last thing I want to do is damage the shaft, my idea is to have those collars split and fitted inside what you could call a heavy duty strap/collar that is also split but made so to have a clinching fitting, the hard chrome shaft came from a very heavy duty hydraulic unit, the casing of the unit is thick walled so will be ideal for this, I have bought two of those collars and they are a nice tightish slide fit, I do have thoughts of also drilling some holes equally around the collers, and fitting in Bronze studs so as to run against the shaft just to help with any wear?

Thanks

lee

Edited By lee hawkins 1 on 04/04/2014 07:02:53

Would EN1A Pb (ie leaded) or a suitable friendly alternative offer better performance. I noticed some hex bar EN1A Pb on flea bay last week.