Re: Sway bar bending advice needed

[bearbvd@domain.elided (Greg Hermann)]

>If you heat the sway bar you will indeed ruin it.  Anthing that is used as
>a spring is made from high carbon steel and has been heat treated.
>There's really no good way to do this and get the original "spring" back.
>You can re-harden it, but it won't really be right.  If you get it too
>hard it will break.
>
>I've seen people unroll the eyes on leaf springs and roll them the other
>way to lower or raise a car.  But I'd bet serious money that these springs
>weren't worth beans after that treatment.
>
>Chassis and body pieces are low carbon steel and have not been heat
>treated, weld away.
>
Yep--the heating will cause grain growth which will make the steel brittle.
But--surprisingly enough--if enough working was done to re-roll a spring
eye, that might be enough work (also called forging) to bring the grain
size back down, and restore things to an OK state metalurgically!

But--I'm not betting on it!

The whole reason a smithy uses a hammer is to reduce grain size! Also the
reason why it is good to use a hammer or  a chipping gun on a hot weld!

Regards, Greg