Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurt in NJ
When my brother and I were straightening axles it was easy to tell which ones were heated, it took 1/2 the pressure to bend them compared to ones that didn't get heated red, and there's little bounce back
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This makes sense metalurgically. As you heat it beyond the transition point, you "anneal" the axle and reduce any "cold work" that brought it to the hardened finished condition.
When annealed, you're starting in the range of basic metal with basic grain structure, and carbon steel has an ultimate tensile strength of 60KSI. Chrome-vanadium steel perhaps 75KSI.
When "work hardened" such as the work necessary to produce an axle in a press, the metal can harden to greater than double the annealed tensile strength - but this comes at a price of decreased malleability and increase in tendency to crack. Part of Ford's genius connected with vanadium steel is bringing the steel to that "optimized" point for the application.
By heating it to cherry red, you anneal. You may work-harden some in the hammering and twisting to new shape, but the process isn't near as controlled as Ford's press, his axle cross-sections, or any furnace tempering Ford may do afterwards - all properties bending an axle can mess with.
As I say though. I can't think of a single instance of someone losing an axle end and attributed to "lowering" to make a Rod.
Ah - what we do in seeking "style" - however we perceive it to be.
And perceptions may vary. Around here we make fun of a car that "strikes sparks" as it passes over the railroad tracks. In some parts of the country its considered "manly" - or something.
"Optimal lowness" can be dialed in at the dashboard on many of these. Along with neon blue undercar lighting.
Joe K