Question about steel type

[tominboise]

I am working on a shop project, building a finger brake. Just for something to do. I am thinking about using a piece of material like this snow plow cutting edge / wear bar as the finger tool itself.

Snow plow wear bar

Mostly because it has a sharp angle on the foward edge that will minimize the bend radius. Anyway, I assume this steel must be pretty hard - has anyone had any experience cutting/drilling something like this?

 

[Vise_Squad]

Snow Plow Cutting Edges – An Introduction to Steel – DMC Wear Parts

dmcwearparts.com

 

[cannuck]

I am working on a shop project, building a finger brake. Just for something to do. I am thinking about using a piece of material like this snow plow cutting edge / wear bar as the finger tool itself.

Snow plow wear bar

Mostly because it has a sharp angle on the foward edge that will minimize the bend radius. Anyway, I assume this steel must be pretty hard - has anyone had any experience cutting/drilling something like this?

You need to start by going back to the manufacturer to find out what steel and what heat treatment has been used (Warn built or at least re-sold what you linked). You will notice it already has holes in it, but those could have been punched before heat treatment. Could be as much as 500 Brinell after quenching so may not be machineable. Fingers in a finger brake also need to be higher behind the outer section to allow for bent up flanges to fit when doing the box and pan thing (main job of such a tool). You could use the piece you show, but it will be very limited in what it will do. Also, you need to be able to saw that piece into fingers - and that could use a lot of blades up in the process if as I suspect this is AR plate. Other option is to completely anneal the material, do all of your machining and re-harden (again, get in touch with Warn).

A finger normally needs a LOT of milling to build, so all you would be saving is the angled cut. You still need to do the very deep clearance cut at the back bottom side and the fiddly little anchor cut at the very back (to go into the groove). You might consider saving a bunch of milling by welding up a finger design to save the back/bottom offset. You might even find it makes more sense to just buy a set of fingers from a machine tool manufacturer (getting scarce in NA for brakes). I need two fingers for my 48" brake and puzzling over that same question.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Prob better off heat treating after machining. That steel would need to be softened to get anywhere with it....

 

[2oolhound]

I'm in a similar boat. Bought a used box+pan and need 11" of fingers. a 2", 4" and a 5" will do me. I'm planning on using a piece of fork lift tine. It cuts nicely on my band saw. I'm not sure if it's strong enough.