Reply To: Hardness of steel rod…

[david pierce]

Tom,
I have not heard of 2L14 before. I have heard of 12L14 and 12L14 with tellurirm. Both of these are called screw machine stock; also known as leaded stock. You can bury a cutter into the steel, run the RPMs up and and produce a finish that looks like it was polished. The tinsile strength is relatively low @68,000 psi. The carbon content is extremely low .09% and it contains .15%-.35% lead. There is no steel that I know of that machined as well as this stuff but it was extremely difficult if not impossible to weld. Steels designed to be hardened contain a carbon content of .3% up to 1.02%. The higher end carbon content steels are used for low tinsile strength high hardness applications such as ball bearings.
A2 would be a much better choice for a punch and die.
david