Reply to: Resurfacing Rocker Arms
It seems to me, that these are probably manufactured with some kind of
surface hardening, which will be lost if you polish or sand it. But what about
retreating the metal? If the carbon content of the steel is high enough, it
can be hardened just by the proper sequence of heating and cooling. (
Quenching in oil? ) There is also "Case hardening compound" at the welding
shops.
Of course, to harden metal properly, you need to be able to heat it evenly.
But you'd think you should be able to do that with something as small as a
rocker arm, right? Just hold it somewhere in the outer cone of the welding
flame, rather than bringing the little blue cone to bear...
There's a garage sale that happens near my house once in a while. These
people have a little oven that shows up at each sale. It's a box about a foot
& a half on each side, with thick firebrick insulation, and an internal cavity
about twice the size of my fist. Apparently someone used it to make jewelry,
so it at least melts silver and gold. Probably steel too.
I've been tempted to pick this thing up to use for heat-treating metal parts,
doing castings, etc... Then my rational side butts in and says "Jerry, this
will just be another piece of junk laying around in your garage, taking up
space." :-)
- Jerry
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