r/metallurgy • u/Clorox___Bleach • 43m ago
r/metallurgy • u/Zenfern0 • Jan 29 '25
Papers and Drinking Group?
Long-time materials scientist, first time poster (on this subreddit). Would anyone be interested in a weekly or bi-weekly online group that meets to argue over paper(s) while also drinking (if you want)?
EDIT: Shuttered the server due to inactivity. Maybe someday....
r/metallurgy • u/Puzzleheaded_Map5200 • 3h ago
Can I oil-quench my hitch bolts, or is it a bad idea?
I have a truck that I'm removing rust from. After Ising phosphoric acid and Evapo Rust, is it a bad idea to get the bolts hot and dip them in oil to avoid having them rust again? They are undoubtedly a specific grade and strength of steel so replacing them is not really an option.
r/metallurgy • u/IncreaseConservation • 23h ago
Does carbon steel actually retain water?
Howdy yall, I'm a welder. When we use torches to apply heat to carbon steel, it forms water on the metals surface. There's a huge debate in the welding world on whether or not that's just a reaction from the oxy/fuel torch tip or if water actually gets caught inside the steel. We preheat metals after a certain thickness to help with out welding process, and many people will say we preheat to 'get the moisture out'. I figured yall might know the truth.
r/metallurgy • u/Disastrous_Web_6120 • 17h ago
Flywheel
Cast aluminum small engine flywheel. Are we trusting this at 10k rpm? Are you concerned about the cracks? Coleman mini bike with delete governor.
r/metallurgy • u/LegateDamar • 22h ago
Labs that can determine liquidus and solidus of exotic alloys?
I work at a foundry and we need to pour an alloy of roughly
33% chromium 16% tungsten 0.2% carbon 0.5% manganese 1% aluminum Balance nickel
I've reached out to a few universities with materials characterization labs and some independent labs with no success. Anyone have any suggestions?
r/metallurgy • u/SpecialistAd2933 • 23h ago
Is this a lost cause?
This crucifix was given to me by a friend. I hadn't worn it in a while and suddenly in the space of two weeks it seems to have stained and I genuinely am puzzled as to how. He says it's silver but I don't know how to tell
r/metallurgy • u/Sraomberts • 2d ago
Device to Help Determine Young’s Modulus (Non-Destructively)?
I'm looking for a way to accurately determine the Young’s modulus of a material from samples of ultrasonic horns without destroying them. The goal is to get precise material properties for modal analysis simulations.
Back in my college experimentation course, we had a lab where we determined the modulus of elasticity by attaching a piezo pickup to an isolated steel bar, striking it with a hammer, and using the resonance frequency to calculate the modulus.
Is there a commercial device that can do something similar? Something that can measure the time of flight of ultrasonic waves within a material to determine Young’s modulus? I’m not sure if such a device exists or if this method would even work, but I’d love to hear if anyone has experience with something like this.
I have company funding, so price isn’t a huge concern, but if I can find something under $10K, that would be awesome. Any recommendations?
r/metallurgy • u/Energia91 • 2d ago
Inocculants for Cu-12Sn (tin bronze) alloys
We're having a lot of shrinkage porosity problems during the centrifugal casting of Cu-12Sn-2ni bronze alloys.
I have tried optimising the process parameters as much as possible. It yielded some improvements (reductions in porosity). But still do not fully conform to customer standards.
The most effective method is to increase the rate of solidification.
But we're limited thermally by our casting setup. So increasing cooling rate and pressure (higher spin speed) is not possible.
So I thought about chemical inoculants to accelerate nucleation growth.
Can anyone recommend me any reliable suppliers of copper alloy inocculants/nucleating agents?
Cheers
r/metallurgy • u/iamdrowningfish • 2d ago
Looking for efficient way to strip enamel from copper magnet wire tips for motor soldering (mass production)
Hey everyone,
I’m working on a project that involves mass processing of enamel-coated copper magnet wire, and I’m looking for the most efficient and scalable way to remove the enamel just from the wire tips – enough to solder them to motor terminals.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
- Sandpaper – works, but way too slow and inconsistent for bulk
- Burning with a lighter – leaves carbon, inconsistent results
- Soldering iron with flux – sort of melts the enamel, but it’s not clean and too slow for production
- Acetone – doesn’t affect the enamel I'm dealing with
What I need is either:
- A chemical process that reliably strips enamel from the tips without damaging the copper
- An automatable mechanical or thermal method (laser, hot blade, abrasive tool, etc.) that works on thin copper wires (0.2–0.5 mm)
- Ideally something that prepares the wire ready for soldering without needing additional cleanup
This is for connecting wires to small motors, so reliability and solderability are key. Anyone from coil winding, electronics assembly, or similar fields with proven solutions?
Thanks a lot in advance!
r/metallurgy • u/srahman3 • 3d ago
Galvanised Steel Tube - Is this sharp raised defect normal or not?

I bought some zinc galvanised steel tube and it has raised sharp edged patch across a small area (5cm x 10 cm). I want to use this as part of a pull up bar and am not sure if this is normal or not?
I contacted the company and they say it's normal to have this patch when the tube is removed from the molten zinc bath.
I can try and sand it off but am not sure if this would expose the tube to rust?
Thank you so much for your help!
r/metallurgy • u/EverydayMetallurgy • 4d ago
Input for Subjects on my metallurgy podcast
Hi Metallurgy friends I started a YouTube Channel with a video podcast two years ago because we have difficulties in attricting young talents to our community. I am member of the board in the Danish Metallurgical Society as well as member of the board of the European Powder Metallurgy Association, and in both places we have discussed how we could attrack more young people to take an Education within materials science. Therefore I initiated a podcast called “Everyday Metallurgy” where I invite top experts to talk about their field of expertise and to relate that with our everyday lifes as well as give an impact of what happens if development within this field will be stopped. Today I have made 43 episodes that Can be seen on the Channel I am looking for new interesting subjects and would love your ideas for content in future episode that you think will be of interest for young people on the edge to decide which education to go for. I am also looking for ambassadors that will help sharing the content among students to ensure that more will go for materials science in near future. Hit me with your ideas🤩🙏.
r/metallurgy • u/Badkneemcgee • 4d ago
Why Do I Have These Features On My Ingots
My goal is to make several ingots using metal powders ranging from 42-44% Cu, 51-53% Ni, 4-5%Fe that I weigh to 150g. I currently don't have any way to mix up the powder more than pouring the powder through a sifter and after I have 150g, closing the bottle and shaking it up together.
I split the 150g mixture into two rectanglular alumina crucibles and place into the lab furnace(circular ceramic tube with heated coils surrounding it encased in more ceramic) at room temp. For a melt, the furnace is fed a mixture of 3% Hydrogen , 97% Argon gas at 100 scc/m and fed pure Hydrogen at 7 scc/m. The furnace then ramps up at 300 C/hour until the peak temperature of 1557 C, where it stays for an hour, then ramps down by 300C/hour to 75 C. It then slowly goes from 75 C to room temp. If it helps at all the lab itself is usually 22 C and ~30% Humidity.
I'm getting an interesting "rainbow" effect on the surface of a few of the ingots, one added here. what looks to be different "sections" on the surface that show at angles to light sources. And "dark" areas at the top center of the ingots. What are these and what causes them?
In some of the pictures, the bottom of the ingots also have voids, which I think come from the alumina crucible outgassing or the powder mixture having airpockets. Is there a different way to ramp the temperature to help minimize these?
I can't get any better pictures of the ingots anymore, as they have been pressed into other things I am using for research.
May follow up with a post about testing if the ingots actually resulted in what I wanted. I tried to use xray flourescence to see if the metals mixed well in the melt process.
r/metallurgy • u/SnooLentils5747 • 4d ago
ternary alloy of cu-pb-ga?
I have interest in a ternary alloy between copper, gallium, and lead, primarily to act as a brazing filler for copper to copper joins.
Does anybody know of any research done on the subject? Having trouble finding anything.
r/metallurgy • u/Wolf9455 • 4d ago
Aluminum Heat Treat Question
Can someone explain the difference between 7075-T351 vs T352 And 7075-T7 vs T7411?
r/metallurgy • u/Bifidus1 • 4d ago
Ford Steering Column
Got this steering column from a buddy out of his truck. Thought it was aluminum. Decided to put a torch to a small piece. At first it started to collapse like melting zinc. Then it got red hit with little bumps before igniting into a white flaming chunk of metal. Third pic is the leftovers after breaking up the still glowing chunks that had grown in volume. What did I just set of fire? Should I toss the crucible I used?
r/metallurgy • u/Jonpaul333 • 4d ago
Aluminum foil in oven
Somehow I adhered aluminum foil to the bottom of my oven. I’ve tried cleaning with everything from oven cleaner, barkeepers, etc. Would diluted HCl dissolve the aluminum? If so, are there risk of fumes or anything?
r/metallurgy • u/grr_itsthe_murr • 4d ago
Metal ID help for vintage fireplace
Looking for some help identifying what metal the decorative face of a fireplace insert from the late 1800's might be made of (I know, I know apologies!).
I'm restoring an old fireplace in my house and after a few hours of scrubbing I'm seeing some metal! But, the sheen & hue I'm getting from the metal on the decorative face doesn't look what I expect or know from cast iron, more like bronze/copper/brass.
I'm guessing it may be plated, but I'm not sure what would've been used around this time, or if it was a common technique then.
Here's what I know in addition to the pictures...
This is the likely original fireplace from 1894. It's a Buckeye dual damper fireplace.
This was probably an expensive fireplace. Buckeye fireplaces seemed to be upscale at the turn of the 20th century.
Magnets do stick to it
The metal does rust. I scrubbed a lot of it off when cleaning.
There's a clear seam or weld between the decorative plate and the insert itself, so it was cast/manufactured separately.
I'm hoping for some guesses as to what it might be so I can properly restore it!
TLDR: What metal is the decorative face of the fireplace?
r/metallurgy • u/Evening_Estate_8075 • 5d ago
Some questions about AZ91 magnesium
I find myself grinding on AZ91 (magnesium chainsaw engine casings). I know it's super reactive to open flames, but is it equally reactive to water?
I just dont want to set our companies dumpster on fire disposing of this stuff
r/metallurgy • u/Kooky-Manner-4469 • 5d ago
Irrecoverable Loss of Osmium for A Sci Fi Plot
I'm currently writing a science fiction story in which a plot point requires a great deal of Osmium be lost or destroyed. Preferably, I want a good way for it to be vaporized/alloyed in a way that can't be unalloyed or some other loss of material that would mean the original sample could not be gotten back.
A little like iron rusting. Is there some way for Osmium to be rendered irrecoverable?
r/metallurgy • u/elephantchickensoup • 5d ago
Aluminum cans pitting in Stainless steel cooler w/ water
Can anyone tell me what would cause aluminum beer cans to rapidly pit and corrode while sitting in cold ice water in a stainless pan? they seem to corrode and get pinholes in about a weeks time.
r/metallurgy • u/caseylain • 7d ago
Is it normal for Zinc to sparkle like this?
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r/metallurgy • u/Illustrious_Cash1325 • 6d ago
Dishwasher aluminum magic.
Washed some (aluminum) motorcycle parts in the dishwasher and they came out with a nasty dark grey color that I absolutely adore. But it wipes off. Is there anything I can do to "set" this (assumed) oxidation?
r/metallurgy • u/Illustrious_Cash1325 • 6d ago
Dishwasher aluminum magic with pictures.
So here's the lovely doomy post dishwasher grey, alongside a part made of the same material.
r/metallurgy • u/marxistopportunist • 7d ago