A customer told me my leaf springs looked 'angry' and it changed my heat treating

So this old timer comes into my shop last Tuesday, looks at a batch of leaf springs I just finished, and says 'these look angry, boy'. I had no idea what he meant lol. Turns out he was talking about how I was quenching them too fast, making the metal all stressed and brittle instead of tough. He showed me his method of a slower oil quench and letting the steel normalize for 20 extra minutes. Now my springs actually flex without snapping. Has anyone else had random advice like that just stick with you forever?

4 comments

4 Comments

dakotab9324d ago

Bruh that's wild, sometimes the old heads just know stuff that ain't written in any manual. I had a dude tell me once that I was "fighting the metal" with too much hammer work on a blade, and it totally changed how I look at shaping stuff now.

jakejones24d ago

Think you meant "fighting the steel" not metal...

-1

the_jake24d ago

Nah, you're right. "Fighting the steel" makes way more sense. I had a guy once tell me to let the steel do the work and just guide it. Changed everything for me too.

janah8324d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of my buddy who builds cabinets on the side. He was having trouble with his router bit burning every piece of wood until this retired carpenter watched him work for like five minutes and just goes "you're choking it." Told him to let the tool breathe and back off the feed rate. He said it felt like magic the first time he got a clean cut lol.