Would it need hot forging or hot pressing before heat treatment to be equal in strength and toughness to commercial AR500 steel plates?
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3$\begingroup$ Melting steel at home is a hell of a task that requires tremendous heat (1425 - 1540C or 2600 - 2800F). If you are doing this to make shooting targets, you may be better off just buying it online. $\endgroup$– JasonCommented Aug 17, 2017 at 5:25
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1$\begingroup$ What Jason said, but there seems to be a lot of BS about AR500 on the web. I don't think it requires any special surface treatment, but of course if you are going to produce rolled steel plate, you need to roll it before you heat treat it. Trying to get the same grain structure etc by forging or pressing instead of rolling won't work. Just buy the stuff from a reputable supplier. You don't want to risk your life because bullets are ricocheting off any random angles, or going straight through the plate! $\endgroup$– alephzeroCommented Aug 17, 2017 at 11:42
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$\begingroup$ What's the problem you are trying to solve? As the DataMungerGuru says, "don't ask how to do X, ask us how to solve the root problem." Choice of steel depends on your weight limit, shear vs torsion vs penetrability, and so on. $\endgroup$– Carl WitthoftCommented Aug 17, 2017 at 13:26
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$\begingroup$ I just wanted to know if just melting with/without simple hot pressing or hot forging would produce a steel with similar perfomance to commercial AR500 or even improved properties if hot pressing produced fine grained AR500 steel ! $\endgroup$– abdaaamoonCommented Aug 17, 2017 at 23:42
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3 Answers
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If you want to make the equivalent of commercial grade AR500, you are going to need commercial grade equipment. This will include a professional grade foundry, press, roller, etc - not to mention the SPACE required to do all this which will cost you in excess of several 100,000$ to purchase. This is not something that DIY equipment will be able to do efficiently. Without the proper equipment you risk making defective steel which will be of very low quality and durability.
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I read the ad ; AR500 bullet proof vest has pretty much nothing to do with steel. Vest design and the aramide fiber are the critical factors.
answered Aug 17, 2017 at 15:14
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Hurstwic has been doing some interesting work with basic iron/steel smelting. Not an answer to your question, but, Yes, you can smelt your own Iron/Steel at home with relative safety (your mileage may vary). You'd have to figure out what additional properties you'd need to add in the smelt, and the refinement work would take additional research, but it's probably more possible than others on here have thought, to make a variety of steels at home (which is how steel was made 1,000+ years ago anyway).
