Hi Randy, Nice to hear that someone is anxiously waiting for the next video... (Nice big smile over here...!!! ) Lately, all we get is RAIN, before it used to be once every 2 to 4 Winters, this year, it's been at least more than 6 to 8 times... Sigh...!!! A couple of times it's been freezing rain, tough on the roads. Take care and thanks for comment, Pierre

It should make decent blades with proper treatmernt, glad it helped you... .🙂

Be carefull not to harden that stuff or it will crack all over, good practice to heat up the area to be welded wide enough for that the HAZ doesn't cool so fas as to harden on the edges, use a blanket or a shield in order to prevent rapid cooling in the hardening temperature range... Have fun seagulling and making projects... !!! ;)

Hi, thanks for visiting and leaving nice comments, Pierre

Hi, thank you very much for viewing and for taking the time to leave a comment, Pierre

This should work great for this purpose, a little tempering would allow the knives and points to resist breakage...

Hi Everett,My pleasure about the shout... ;) If you want a better heat source at budget price you could use a propane weed burner, something just like we used in the cheap forge video... Shouldn't be much more than 30 to 40$. Take good care, Pierre

With proper care those frames are will make some excellent structures, great source for hardenable steel, one issue about them, the batches may vary quite a lot from one frame to another, you may require some testing for more critical apps. For normal use there is not really big issues, also good tip to look at the Salvation Amry, it may help them get some funds and you get some good steel at great price...!!! ;)

If you require to weld those types of alloys, you need to proceed with preheat and post heat proocedures in order to end up with safe and reliable welds.... 🌈👍

Hi Josh, Thanks viewing and for the nice comment, Pierre

Much appreciated!

Aren't we all getting exited in front of a big pile of metal scrap...??? lol Welding when properly done is ok, just make certain the welded zone don't cool too fast due to the mass of metal asside that will be pulling the heat from that welded zone, some preheat with lower cooling rate and some stress relieving will help make safe welds minimizing the risk of cracking. The use of 7018 rods is also a way to improve the results, also sometimes higher Nickel content filler will do... As I say, advanced welding techniques are part of an art that is learned by specialized training and expereince... ;) Compared to most other viewers, you're not that far from here... ;) Thanks for your comment, Pierre

You hit the nail on the head. Right rods and welding a smaller cross section steel angle to a larger heavy walled square tubing. Can't argue with what works. And yepper I'm not that far! Been in your neck of the woods many times. I even used to live in La belle provence!! They let me out for good behaviour.

Hi Big Bill, As I just got back to a previous comment, on how to help with making safer welds with this type of steel, this is a copy/paste: You"ll se that your idea of using 7018 rods is a start in the right direction... ;)You got to keep the weld itself and the adjacent zone from cooling too fast as it will make the weld harden and brittle. some preheat, filler material designed for high carbon content (example, 7018 rods ) and very slow cooling, will help getting better welds... Thanks for sharing and for your comment, Pierre

You're welcome and thanks for comment, Pierre

Just let your imagination go free, only thing is to be very careful when you want to weld some structural devices, brittleness is a big issue... Thanks for comment, Pierre

Hi Chris, Another batch could yeld different results, that material isn't ruled by any convention... So, results will vary from batches to batches... But don't loosse sleep over it... lol Cheers, Pierre

Hi Larry, This material as delivered from the factory is pretty safe, the problem occurs when you weld, the weld itself is getting way above the temp where the steel will harden if cooled too fast, this is where the mass beside the weld will pull th heat so fast that the weld and the surrounding zone will harden and be VERY brittle. Using fasteners would allow you to use that steel in a safe way. Thanks for your comment, Pierre

Hi Jim, After you visiting a home people will find themselve sleeping on the floor... lol I hate so much overlooking a typo, even worse on a name, there is no way to change this without reuploading the whole video... Sigh... :( Cheers, Pierre

The moving period is the best time to collect those... Just need to be faster than the scapeers... One of the way to get "Safer" results is to use 7018 rods, be careful to cooling rate, also try to keep the HAZ ( Heat affected zone ) cooling rate as slow as possible, even there, it will also depend on how much carbon is in that particular batch of material... Carbon content over 0.5% is starting to be quite more critical to make safe welds just by ordinary techniques. Take care, Pierre

All the Alouettes are gone in Texas at this time of the year, you should hear them sing in your own backyard, aren't you gone chasing old bed frames for your future projects...??? Cheers, Pierre

There is a viewer that emailed me about some possible composition of some of those bed frames, if they're made from old raylway material , the composition could be around .8% of Carbon and also .8% of Manganese, this should be a decent material for knife making, since I've worked a lot on that type of material and the traditionnal forging techniques, I suggest you try some different procedures and compare the results on how well the edge is performing. The Manganese will improve many properties as ductility, wear resistance, traction, tempering easier... Give me some feedback about how you get by... ;) Thanks for viewing, Pierre

Just like you say, it takes good quality cutting tools, otherwise you're in for lots of frustrations... 🥵🙂👍

Those bed frames angles, though, not being a very controlled composition from batches to another will most likely make decent blades when properly treated, they shoul be able to keep a pretty sharp edge. As for case hardening of mild steel, I'm not recommanding it, as the hardened layer is only very thin, a few thousands of an inch ( around 0.1mm ) at best, and it wouldn't stand many sharpening cessions. Hard facing is generally super hard and in most cases brittle unless being supported by a more supple under layer of steel, it would also require very hard stones or media for sharpening. You can take all this with a grain of salt, but it's my personnal feel about how it would go. Thanks for watching and for you comment...

The failure comes from the HAZ, ( heat affected zone ) there is a area with very high carbon content that freezes very rapidly and is also very brittle, you should pre-heat that area and let it cool slowly, this shoud help, but having .8% of carbon and .8% of vanadium those rails are good steel but need special care and experience to do proper welds, using fasteners is another way to get by safely... To make holes in that material you can easily use some HSS Cobalt drill bits, they'll perform real good compared to cheaper stuff. I've got a video on that set with 15 bit for about $10, there is also a set with 25 bits or so for around $25, here is the link to the video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qMphmNyp19KtmKs.html

Hi jster, Some reliable source says that it's railroad tracks recycled, or at least most of it... it's got quite high carbon and a fair amount of manganese... Cheers, Pierre

Sweet! Thx again....

Thanks but no thanks, lately, I'm looking for working less... ;) This is called retirement, doing more of the fun stuff... Cheers, Pierre

Hi Charles, You got to keep the weld itself and the adjacent zone from cooling too fast as it will make the weld harden and brittle. some preheat, filler material designed for high carbon content (example, 7018 rods ) and very slow cooling, will help getting better welds... Thanks for sharing your expereince, Pierre

Hi, when welding higher content carbon steel, the fast cooling of that joint will harden the zone and cause brittleness, this is where the cracking comes from... In short, you need to use filler metal compatible with high carbon alloy, like 7018 rods or so, keep the weld and the surrounding zone from cooling too fast, re-heat the assembly in order to releive stresses, even then it's a hard to control alloy due to inconstant quality control and quite different batches produced without any universal standard... Thanks for yor comment, PIerre

Don't worry, I did the same for some non critical devices, judgement is key in our everyday decisions... 🙂👍

Most steel alloys will change their cristaline structure in the range from 1400geg to 1600F ( 760 to 871 deg C ). When you heat an alloy above this transition point the cristaline structure reorganises, and, when you let it slowly cool below again, there is a normal transition where the cristals will get to reorganise to the appropriate state related to the temperature. When you get the temp above this transition point and cool the alloy rapidly the cristals don't have time to normalise or settle to the appropriate state, then it gets this piece of alloy real hard and brittle. In order to avoid the brittleness, soon after the part cooled, you need to temper the part to remove some of the brittleness, what you lose on hardness you gain in flexibility, this is where you make the balance acording to what purpose the part is destined. Just so you know that an alloy freshly hardened is way too brittle to be usefull, it risk shatering like a piece of glass, the reqired step to make the part usable is to temper it to required hardness. As for using those bedrails, this type of alloy is able to harden to quite high figures, to make usable welds you'll need to keep the transition zone from cooling very fast, one way to achieve this is to preheat further than the heat affected zone so that the point where the molten metal and the cool zone don.t create a hardened and brittle zone. Just to detail a little bit more, the molten metal from the weld is way above the cristaline transition temp, and the cold unmolten zone close by will act as a rapid cooling factor, this is the moment when this rapid transition will freeze the cristaline structure into the hard and brittle zone, the result will be a thin brittle zone highly subject to cracking. Keeping the heated affected zone (HAZ) and well behond well preheated during and even after the weld will prevent brittelness by slowly coolong the whole weld and HAZ... Hope I was able to express myself clearly so you could visualize the process, there are good readings about alloys and how to heat treat them.

@@pierresgarage2687 Thanks for the metellurgical exposition! BTW, I'm not wondering if it might be best to just braze them either gas or tig with eutectic or silver solder braze. That would seem to remove the hardening/annealing issues, and heating up a larger zone of metal as you indicated. I think most decent brazing is around 70ksi, so I'll check it out. Thanks, and glad to see you back!

Lucky you, they lost your address... Don't start making publicity if you don't want them back... ;) I'd never weld antyhing for someone else with that stuff too risky to loose your house...

Hi Dennis, Nice of you to drop by, it's been a while, hope you're doing good... ATB, Pierre

No need to anneal before or after, some preheat behond the heat affected zone would be a good practice, something around 500 deg F (260 deg. C ) will do, very important that the welded and preheat zone cools as slowly as possible in order to avoid the weld to harden and get brittle by cooling very rapidly like when there is no preheat applied. Hope this helps you, but be very careful when trying processes you're not yet mastering, get some practice on trial pieces, you can test your joints be comparing the hardness of those joints to untouched parts of the beams. A simple automatic punch could do, you compare the size of the prick hole to each other, a large hole is softer metal and a very tiny hole means a very hard possibly brittle segment.....

@@pierresgarage2687 Thank you! I really appreciate your response. I'm going to have to invest in a quality torch.

Hi Glenn, Most of the time you get to burn a drill bit, even the good quality ones, os that often people turn the bit too fast and the heat produced tends to harden the material... The speed and feed rules apply there also, in alloy steel you try not to go oer 40 to 50 feet per minutes on the rotational speed. You're not the only one to over speed, guess how I know... ;) Thanks for viewing and for comment, Pierre

Pierre, I really do appreciate your input, because I had not considered that at the time and likely would have made the mistake again. Good one Sir. By the way, were you able to saw the coupons out on the band saw or is the material too hard for that? At this time I don't have a piece of bed rail angel or I would do some testing myself.Thank you for your knowledge and the time you take to put up these videos.

As found the material is soft enough to cut with a good quality blade, there was no problem, also, my saw has coolant capacyty, good luck on future gargage days to find some good frames... ;)

Hi, if you,'re talkig about using the hole saw during hardness testing, it can't be done, the part needs to lay flat on a solid surface in ordere to keep the flex to near zero, otherwise the result wouldn't be valid... If it's what you meant... ;) I had a viewer that told me that it may also contain manganese as well as carbon... Thanks for your time to leave a comment, Pierre

No instead of the copper pipe for a stand

That's alumina, just like a cup for TIG welding torch... It's an insulator... ;)

Got a good way for you to find some, before bed time tonight, just watck "Jack and the beanstalk" movie, sure you'll find what you need there... lol

It's easy Brian, all you need is an electric arc furnace, and a small concast line. You left a pit in the barn floor for the concast loop, didn't you?

Scrappers can be quite agressive some days, they often make dammage by removing metals from functionning apparels, mostly Al and Copper, bloody thieves... GRRRRRRR...!!!! I hate those kind of lawless rats...

Hard to say about the source of every frame but this is also what I've heard, this steel is really good for lots of apps as long as it's for non critical propose cause nobody can really say what is in it..... 😉

Hi Barry, Got tha tester some years ago at a reasonnable price, you got to be patient an keep looking at the adds, they're rare but sometimes luck strikes... ;) Make sure you got the cash when the deal shows up... lol Cheers, Pierre

Sorry for the delay, the comment got lost in the lot of other comments... About repairing your bed frame, if it's a standard frame, with casters, most likely that they're made with alloyed steel that is quite resistant. This alloy is a though one to weld if not properly done. You need to preheat the area to be welded and a slow cooling after the weld is required, if this procedure isn't followed there is a high risk that the welded area will be prone to cracks and failure. Hope this helps you to asses the care related to weld high alloy steels. N.B. If the frame reveals to be simple cold or hot rolled steel with low carbon or other alloying elements, then, the welding procedure is simply to weld without special treatment....

@@pierresgarage2687 No worries. It appears to be hot-rolled steel, but I'm not sure. Would that create a problem? It's only a bed frame and it's broken already and I'm sleeping on it. Another failure would be no big deal. I'm willing to experiment a little.

The difference between hot rolled and cold rolled steel is the finish, hot rolled has a thin hard dark scale coating on it's surfaces as cold rolled has none of this oxide on it and has a steel colored softer surface. Your frame is probably hot rolled if it's made from non alloyed steel, note that cold rolled steel is probably near double the price of hot rolled steel. they both weld about the same and don't require any special prep when welding smaller pieces, some preheat may be requider when dealing with thicker plates, though, bed frame is considered very lite material...

@@pierresgarage2687 Fantastic. Thank you so much. I couldn't get a clear answer from anyone about any of this. You answered all my questions. Thank you again.

Just make certain that you only use on non critical or non highly solicited devices, what you suggest sound like reasonable uses of welded devices from bed frame steel, best case scenario is to pre-heat, weld and slow cooling...

@@pierresgarage2687 awesome! Thanks for the reply! Keep up the good work!!

Guess we all tried it one day or another... lol

This is related to Brian Block using a plastic bucket to hold the oil used to harden some parts, he got a little scared that fire would spread and burn or melt the plastic bucket, now he uses metal containers... ;) His Channel: bcbloc02 Cheers, Pierre

Where do this come from.... ????? lol Thanks for watching and for comment, Pierre