15N20 liners/frames

[AcridSaint]

Hey Ed, I was wondering if I can pick your brain about using 15n20 on your folders.

I have some relatively thick 15n20 (.090) that I was thinking of using for some slimline folders. I haven't done a folder before nor anything with 15n20 so I'm wondering how you go about spring tempering them. I actually think it's about spring tempered now, but I think I'll want to aneal it before I go drilling, grinding and cutting slots in it, I guess since it's thin I could just do it, but I'd like to know what you think.

Thanks a million,

[Ed Caffrey]

15N20 will work just fine for liners. What I do with mine is.... throw it into the tempering oven at 550-600F and bake it for 2 hours. That's it! If you try to harden it, then temper it the stuff will warp....maybe not ALWAYS, but enough of the time to make me not do it. I've noticed that different batches of 15N20 sometimes work a little differently. By that I mean that sometimes pieces will seem hard, even though they've been "tempered" as I decribed above.
.090 is pretty heavy stuff for liners. Most of the time when using 15N20, I try to keep it .050 or less.

[Ray Rogers]

600 degrees for 2 hours? That's it? Geez, I wish somebody had told me that! I just put about 7 pounds of 15n20 through a 36 hour annealing process. Before I annealed it I could drill a hole in it but 3 or 4 holes would be the end of a drill. After the annealing, I was able to drill about 160 holes with one drill bit....

[Ed Caffrey]

Sometimes it can still be tough to drill/tap, but if you use cobalt or carbide (which is about the only bits I keep in the shop anymore), it's not much of an issue. A small dab a "crisco" (yea, I actually use Crisco, it's much cheaper than tapping oil, and it works as well or better) on your tap, and everything works fine for me.

[AcridSaint]

Thanks for the replies guys, and sorry for the confusion Ed, I'm planning on using the .090 for a framelock (or 6) not a liner, so really it will be just a very thin frame as opposed to a thick liner. Btw, I only buy cobalts now too, broke/dulled too many 1/16ths drilling thick stainless.