Got My Crankandstein (w00t!)...Any way to tell if stainless or regular steel?

So I just got my (very awesome) Crankandstein 3D today. I had the Doc make up stainless steel rollers for this one. I'm wondering if there's any way I can verify that the rollers are indeed stainless. I don't doubt that the Doc knows his stuff, but occasionally mix ups do happen, etc etc. I just don't want to find out the hard way a year or ten years from now that they're standard steel.

you could try a magnet. I know good quality stainless will not be magnetic. I think? My fridge can't have magnets on it . Not sure on quality of SS 18/10?

FOILED! My stir bar sticks (and literally hangs) from one of the rollers (pic below). It's supposed to be 303, which is non-magnetic. Any ideas?

You're good... a magnet would stick to "regular" steel.

nah, them rollers 'er aluminum! Ship 'em to me for proper disposal!
Congrats on that mill!

Magnet would be the best way. Quick and simple.

Kal

Depending on the strength of the magnets it might stick to the plain steel hopper because to flat but not stick to the rollers because knurls give it less surface area.

Crap...my stir bar sticks right to it (see pic a few posts down). 303 is supposed to be non-magnetic. What's up now?

Some stainless is magnetic, it depends on what the chromium content is. Leave it outside overnight. Stainless should not rust.

This is a pic of my magnetic stir bar hanging from one of the rollers

It's supposedly 303 grade stainless. This is what the net has to say about 303: "Alloy 303 (UNS S30303) is a non-magnetic, austenitic, free-machining stainless steel that is a modification of the basic 10% chromium -8% nickel stainless steel specially designed to exhibit improved machinability while maintaining good mechanical and corrosion-resistant properties."

What, if anything, does this mean? I'm def. not putting it outside or dousing it in water...

Any thoughts?

Uh ya. If you payed for stainless and didn't get stainless, I would talk to the guy. Not that you need stainless rollers but hell you payed for it. Get what you payed for.
IMHO
JJ

Crap. I've sent him an email and will see what he has to say. I hate it when stuff like this happens...

Pelikan said:

Crap. I hate it when stuff like this happens...

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Life is too short to put that much into it. It will all work out.
Cheers
JJ

true. On the one hand, stainless is considderably more expensive than the other options -if you paid for it, you should get it.
Now, that being said (And in truth I have no idea what a crankandstein costs -I purchased a barleycrusher and have been perfectly happy with it, so I haven't researched any others) if it didn't kill the budget, ultimately you aren't about to wear the beastie out in your lifetime (not doing hombrew, anyway) and only you will ultimately be able to determine if its worth hanging onto or not. Though you lose absolutely nothing in asking him to explain your findings, hopefully it will resolve in a way satisfactory to you. Nothing galls me more than buying equipment and finding out I didn't get what I paid for (unless -and it happens so rarely- what I got was actually an upgrade -that HAS happened before, and in that case I called to see if I was going to be asked to foot the higher bill, and was told 'no' it was shipped because they didn't have the lower priced gear that I'd actually ordered -I did the happy snoopy dance. )

Dr. Crankandstein said:

Non-magnetic is a misnomer. There's iron in it so it's bound to be somewhat magnetic. The correct term is low-magnetic, like knives that stick to a magnetic holder. If you put the magnet to a piece of plain steel, you can feel how much stronger the pull is.
Thanks for checking.

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I guess I'm good then.

That is a good description. I was going to say that all stainless is inherently slightly magnetic because of its ferrous nature. After machining in the knurls, it is possible that some magnetic properties were temporarily (or permanently) given to the metal. Also, the knurls will actually increase the magnetic properties due to magnetic density formed by the points of each knurl.

If there is no indication of SS versus regular steel, then you just have to trust him. Perhaps you could email him and comment that he should stamp SS into the end of his stainless rollers.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

That is a good description. I was going to say that all stainless is inherently slightly magnetic because of its ferrous nature. After machining in the knurls, it is possible that some magnetic properties were temporarily (or permanently) given to the metal. Also, the knurls will actually increase the magnetic properties due to magnetic density formed by the points of each knurl.

If there is no indication of SS versus regular steel, then you just have to trust him. Perhaps you could email him and comment that he should stamp SS into the end of his stainless rollers.

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Stainless was written in sharpie on the frame, but I'm just a nit about these things, and wanted to make 1000% sure it's stainless. Of course, there's no way for me to do that safely short of sending it to a lab, so I'll just have to go with benefit of the doubt. The rollers aren't nearly as magnetic as standard steel, so I'm fairly certain they're stainless.

just hose them down, set them outside. If they don't rust, you're good, if they do send pics to the guy say 'ahem!

IrregularPulse said:

just hose them down, set them outside. If they don't rust, you're good, if they do send pics to the guy say 'ahem!

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Thing is, other parts of this mill, such as the axles, knobs, etc, are standard steel. I don't want to be the dufus that has everything rust off except the rollers. The Crankandstein is fairly well established, and I cannot think of a valid reason as to why the Doc would try to hoodwink me for a few chunks of 303.

Another pretty easy way to tell would be to check the hardness of the rollers. You would need to get to the ends. But if you take a sharp pointed pick and push it into aluminum it will be much softer than SS. I think if you tried a ice pick on SS and Aluminum then hit your rollers you could tell pretty easy.

/DN