Blaster Killed In Action!

yeah it is a good thing your ok, thats the important thing, but i know when i wreck and people ask me if im ok, im only ok if my bike is! Lol and nice damage man, thats worse than when we split the frame of the 420 !
 
This process is hardening and tempering, like you do to the cutting edge of cold chisels. It makes it strong,but certainly does not make it flexible.

Heated, then naturually cooled steel is pliable, and will flex.

Working steel cold can destroy the grain structure and cause it to fracture.

I disagree. For an easy experiment and cool camp fire trick, take any old saw (for cutting wood) that you dont care for anymore, and stick it in the fire until it is cherry then take it out and let it cool. You will notice it will just snap when you try to bend it because it is brittle, unlike it was when you started. Then with the other end try what I said and you will notice you still retain flexibility.
 
I disagree. For an easy experiment and cool camp fire trick, take any old saw (for cutting wood) that you dont care for anymore, and stick it in the fire until it is cherry then take it out and let it cool. You will notice it will just snap when you try to bend it because it is brittle, unlike it was when you started. Then with the other end try what I said and you will notice you still retain flexibility.

I fully understand what happens to saw steel when heated, however I don't think A Arms are made of the same material as saws, and are certainly not hardened and tempered.
 
noid; said:
This could very well be the case, when you heat metal it becomes brittle, you have to heat treat it by dipping it immediately in water (while its still cherry red), then you have to reheat to a blueish color and then cool it again with oil. This will keep the metal flexible, and strong.

Blaaster; said:
This process is hardening and tempering, like you do to the cutting edge of cold chisels. It makes it strong,but certainly does not make it flexible.
Heated, then naturually cooled steel is pliable, and will flex.
Working steel cold can destroy the grain structure and cause it to fracture.

I disagree. For an easy experiment and cool camp fire trick, take any old saw (for cutting wood) that you dont care for anymore, and stick it in the fire until it is cherry then take it out and let it cool. You will notice it will just snap when you try to bend it because it is brittle, unlike it was when you started. Then with the other end try what I said and you will notice you still retain flexibility.

I ain't NEVER going to get some of those green rep thingies.
I have the arrogant name of BEST (it is my last name actually) and a "know-it-all" attitude.
Always pissing someone off, but sorry, I really have been around a bit, and that really is my last name!

So Noid, what you are talking about is hardening and tempering of high carbon or alloy steel.
If you heat that high carbon steel up red hot and then quench it in water or oil, it will harden and turn very brittle.
Some carbon steels will crack if quenched in water so they are oil quenched.
The quenched steel is then polished and slowly heated to some temperature between straw to dark blue depending on how hard or malleable you want it.
Then it is allowed to air cool slowly. It all has to do with the carbon crystal structure within the steel.

Now, the saw blade you put in the fire. If it air cooled, it will be soft.
If you put the fire out with water, it will be hard and brittle.
I make knives from saw blades on occasion, and take advantage of this.
I have to temper the steel dead soft to drill holes in it, then harden it to hold an edge, then temper it slightly so it won't snap in use.

The A arm could be an alloy steel that may be hardenable to a slight degree, but even mild (low carbon) steel has grain to it and is able to work harden to a degree. To take a slight bend out I doubt many shops would use any heat, because it would wreck the paint. A slight bend would not be looked at as a work harden hazard, even though they can be in localized high stress areas. My guess is that if it bent there before, and it broke there now, there is a huge amount of stress on that particular area. Any work hardening or potential kinks or minute cracks from the straightening operation would not have helped.

I think I would have done exactly as you did.
Too cheap to chuck out a slightly bent arm, I'd put it in the press and check it over.
I had drag links bend on my old 4x4 Dodge. It hung low and would hang up on stumps and rocks.
After bending and buying a few, I started straightening the bent ones, with no problems.
 
good info best, I agree, saw blades are High carbon steels and respond differently to mild steel.

Thanks slick! keep an eye out for me, im low on cash and dont know when il get around to sorting this out. My concern is that the upper arm may also be bent slightly or perhaps the ball joint is damaged from the collapse.

here is a pic of the kit BEFORE I had it worked on. However Best---they did not worry about paint. I was ruined and they hade sanded the area where they worked I was going to resprAY Anyway..

You can see the kink circled in red

spares.jpg
 
ok, well I finally got around to stripping all the busted bits off and found this:

IMG_2505.jpg


IMG_2506.jpg


IMG_2507.jpg


NOTE: a WELD!!!! the buggers, cut the arms (both of them) bent them, welded them and grinded it off, and they told me they heated it and bent it.

Oh well.

I will get some more up of the pieces. the shock rod was bent badly, its a throw away
 
And didn't even get a good weld on it.
Looks like only about half of it had any penetration.
Put a surface weld on it and then ground it off. No wonder it let go.
 
haha well i wont be entrusting anything to those guys again, another reason why it pays to DIY! at least you know what you are getting...