gary wrote:In Steve's case I would have thought that the hardening process would also be the hardest part (no pun intended).
Steve, this is probably teaching grandmother to suck eggs, but when specifying the holes make sure either your specified size or the laser cutter operator (via a specification) takes the laser kerf into account otherwise the pins will drop straight through or will wobble in the hole.
Oh............ There is NO NEED for any hardening at ALL.
My sole reason in reccomending silver steel was it's very accurate dimensional diameters and fine surface finish.
Steve could give the lazer cutter a sample of the shaft too, to make sure of a tight fit in the slat holes asd well as the pins.
But he knows this anyway.
Just to recap....No hardening of SS.