[cob]

maybe this is the right place to post this question
I am trying to figure out what is one of the toughest or strongest steels out there with out heat treating it
trying to make a punch and die to press some parts but the material has to be very strong . (steel)
I was thinking of D2 steel.
does any one have a good strong steel that they would recommend ?
I am going to be pressing some SST .040 thick.
any info would be greatly appreciated
thank you

[Jim Dawson]

D2 would be fine, but to be useful would need to be heat treated, it's pretty soft in the annealed condition. Is this going to be a punching or forming operation?

[cob]

It's going to be forming
So basically what I was thinking is machine my punch to the size it needs to be then send it to get it anneal to (get harden )
Then just polish up.
I am just concern about dimension. Are the going to get bigger or smaller
Also is there a way I can harden it myself or does a special shop need to do this
Thank you for the replie

[Jim Dawson]

A6 might be a better choice for forming dies, much more forgiving to machine than D2. Harden and draw back to about a R56-58C, unless you are coining the material then D2 or S7 would be the better choice. In that case, you would want to harden to about R60-62C. To harden and draw correctly takes special heat treat ovens, possible to do in the home shop but best results would be obtained from a heat treat shop if you don't have experience at doing it.

D2 tends to grow very slightly when heat treated, maybe 0.0005/inch of thickness. A2 and A6 is normally very stable in heat treat. Of the tool steels I mentioned above, D2 is the most abrasion resistant due to it high chrome content.

[cob]

Thank you
I think I will be trying the d2 and like you said harden to R60-62c
Thank you