Any engineers/metal type guys willing to help a brother out?

[Cook$]

I have a couple of questions. Doing a design project for my degree, you don't need to know the ins and outs, but what do you reckon this is made from, and what finishing technique has been used (if any)?
It's a chain tool for a bike. I'm reckoning it's cast from aluminium, with the black part being machined from hardened steel. I'd like to think (for ease) that it was all hardened steel, but I don't think you could cast that with that level of detail. As for the finish, I don't know.
Thanks for looking!

 

[renie]

without seeing it I would say it would be cast stainless or just plated steel as ally would be to soft,
and as for the detail that's not really high detail and easy to achieve in a cast
the black parts are most likely chemi black (a chemical agent that turns steel black like on a rifle barrel)

 

[Cook$]

Cool. Do you think it would be stainless or maybe a low/high carbon, or alloy steel?

 

[renie]

hard to say mate the only casting ive machined were stainless door hinges on the Mercedes McLaren SLR.
being USA made I would say it would be of a higher quality to something you get from Taiwan
common steel is CrMo plated.

more info on wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_casting

 

[BOD]

Definitely won't be cast aluminium that would snap as soon you started to push the chain pin out of the chain, cast aluminium is pretty brittle stuff.

 

[powie]

try a magnet on it, stainless and ally are non-magnetic, my guess would be chrome-vanadium as most decent mechanics tools are made from that

if you have one you could always do a density check ( weight / volume)

displace it in water to find the volume

 

[Cook$]

Thought of a magnet not long after I posted earlier. It is magnetic so definitely not Al.
Thanks guys, narrowing it down.

 

[philfull]

most chain breakers i encounter are cast from chrome vanadium. the only hardened part is usually the pin.

had a couple snap in my hand on paticularly stubborn chains mixed with a shoddy cast.

 

[Cook$]

That's what I was thinking, the pin would be the only hardened bit. I've snapped a few, but never a park tools one. Quality stuff.
So consensus is chrome vanadium. That'll do me. Done some digging, and the best I've come up with was hardened steel which was pretty vague.
Thanks again.

 

[MattC]

https://www.facebook.com/parktool

Post up... they will tell you exactly what its made of.