How to harden a screwdriver bit

Our market is simply flooded with low-quality Chinese tools. And it’s not even a matter of the manufacturer, but rather of resellers who massively bring in cheap Chinese screwdrivers, passing them off as a brand. There are also excellent, high quality Chinese instruments, but they are quite difficult to find.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

How to harden a screwdriver bit

How to harden a screwdriver bit

We won’t talk much about what and how, but we will try to improve the quality of a screwdriver or screwdriver with replaceable bits.
I will harden the bat. Hardening has the goal of increasing the strength of steel, changing the properties of the metal, making it harder, but more brittle.

How to harden metal with your own hands


The hardening process is extremely simple and does not require any special knowledge or special work techniques from you. But you will have to be especially careful when working with hot metal and a gas burner.
So, what do you need for hardening?
  • - The bits themselves come first.
  • - Heater. Ideally use induction heater, but if you don’t have one, you can use a gas burner like I did.
  • - Machine oil. Any kind will do, it’s even better to use used one, as it’s thinner.

Let's start hardening the metal.To hold the bat over the burner, you need to make a holding device. I'll make this out of regular steel wire, wrapping a few turns around the bat.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

How to harden a screwdriver bit

In principle, you can simply hold the thick end of the bit with pliers so that only the part of the bit that interacts with the screws and screws is hardened.
We light the gas burner. We bring the bat and start heating the metal.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

How to harden a screwdriver bit

How to harden a screwdriver bit

Heat until bright pinkish. It is not recommended to heat it until white, although you are unlikely to be able to do this on such a burner.
As soon as everything is warmed up, quickly lower it into the oil for 5-6 seconds. Then we take it out.
You can use another process: 4 seconds in oil, and then sharply in cold water, they say the effect is better, but again, I have not tried it.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

How to harden a screwdriver bit

That's all. The process is complete. All that remains is to wipe off the oil from the bat and start using it.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

It looked darker.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

I would like to add that not all bits can be hardened. I don’t know what is mixed into them, but there are specimens that are not only not affected by hardening, but even destroy them, and they become like plasticine after heat treatment.
I would also like to add that this method is in no way similar to factory hardening, so there is no need to expect the same hardness of the metal. Since even the metal is not the same as the factory one. But there is still an effect of increasing hardness, and therefore operating time.
How to harden a screwdriver bit

Watch the video of bit hardening


come back
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Comments (17)
  1. Vladimir
    #1 Vladimir Guests 18 November 2017 19:45
    4
    If the carbon content of the metal is less than 5%, which can be determined by the sparks created when sharpening a non-working tip, then it will not be hardened
    1. Alexander
      #2 Alexander Guests 19 November 2017 08:55
      21
      If the carbon content in iron is more than 2.14%, then it is already cast iron. They don't make beats out of it)))
    2. Guest Nikolay
      #3 Guest Nikolay Guests 15 April 2018 08:19
      3
      An alloy of iron with carbon where the carbon content is more than 2% cast iron. Solidarity with Alexander. Steel st (grade) 45 (carbon content in HUNDREDTHS%), etc...
  2. Vladimir
    #4 Vladimir Guests 18 November 2017 22:01
    3
    It’s better to throw it into water, then let it go until it turns slightly tarnished.
  3. Pasha
    #5 Pasha Guests 18 November 2017 22:32
    2
    Why buy something that is obviously bad?
  4. Alexei
    #6 Alexei Guests 18 November 2017 23:33
    8
    Hardening does not increase the amount of carbon in iron, cementation saturates the surface layer of iron, but that's a completely different story...
    1. feelloff
      #7 feelloff Guests November 19, 2017 07:45
      2
      Steel cementation is the surface saturation of low-carbon steel with carbon in order to increase hardness and wear resistance.
  5. Valery Prusenko
    #8 Valery Prusenko Guests November 25, 2017 00:58
    3
    That's all interesting, but who is there on the topic of motorized wheelchairs for the disabled? I want to build one for myself, due to severe arthritis of the knee joints. - the head thinks, there is technical knowledge, but the legs don’t move.
  6. Stanislav
    #9 Stanislav Guests December 5, 2017 20:19
    14
    A pointless operation is described. If the metal of the bat can be hardened, it will be hardened at the factory. If the bat is soft, then it’s just a hack, it’s completely possible to ruin it, but not to harden it.
    Someone here wrote about cementing, but this is not suitable for screwdrivers at all, since the thinnest layer of several microns is hardened and this layer will crumble the first time it is used. In general, this is a long process that requires special equipment and a lot of time.
    Summary: Throw away this bat.
    1. Guest Andrey
      #10 Guest Andrey Guests 27 May 2019 21:57
      1
      The top layer is strengthened by nitriding or carbonitriding. Cementation is carbon saturation of 0.1 mm per hour.
  7. WWW
    #11 WWW Guests 21 December 2017 15:03
    1
    if she is a raw material/if you know what it is/she cannot be hardened
  8. Guest Yuri
    #12 Guest Yuri Guests 24 March 2018 17:49
    3
    The best way is to pour 3/4 volume of water and 1/4 volume of oil (any kind) into a container, then slowly immerse the hot bat into water through a layer of oil. The dive time is worked out empirically. Personally, I dive pretty quickly. I lowered it for 2 - 3 seconds, held it and removed it. I don’t recommend keeping it in water for a long time; in addition to hardening the metal itself, you also need to “release” it - let it cool slowly.
    1. Beloglazov Anatoly Georgievich
      #13 Beloglazov Anatoly Georgievich Guests March 1, 2019 00:21
      0
      Oil on the surface of the water certainly and critically worsens the hardening conditions. Sometimes carbonaceous flocks heat through water into oil, but not vice versa!
  9. Unarmed
    #14 Unarmed Guests 13 December 2018 15:41
    1
    In production and for ourselves, even nail pullers made pry bars and mounts from 16-20 pieces of reinforcement. they heated it with a cutting torch and there wasn’t a single chip in it, not like the Chinese crap now...
  10. Guest Alex
    #15 Guest Alex Guests 5 April 2019 20:11
    2
    I hardened it in graphite (graphite powder + welding machine)