Inexpensive/easily found tool steel.

Regarding bed frame rails, it is my understanding that they are (or were) made from recycled railroad rail. That stuff work hardens bigly and is tough as it gets. I tried drilling some bed rails once, only once.
YMMV
 
bed frame angle iron is low grade spring steel, guess why! If you need to machine it, all you need to do is anneal it first. If it was standard low carbon mild steel it would just bend out of shape after a few "active" nights! I use a lot of it for various constructions, it is a useful material, and if well trained, you can get all your local friends to bring it to you for nothing. if worked in its natural state it will blunt drills and take the teeth of even good quality saw blades., Anneal it!.
 
Anneal it!.
In my home shop I have trouble annealing a 6 foot/2meter piece of angle. Not really, I have a chop saw and a torch set to cut it up and anneal smaller pieces, but annealing anything of any size will be problematic in a home shop, other than perhaps building a hot fire big enough to anneal it in. The metal would then likely be machinable but not pretty after cleaning off the resulting scale. I find it much easier to just obtain a piece of metal ready to use. Too much hassle to mess with bed frames if there are other options!
 
Most of the projects that I do will take "whatever iron" and will work just fine. However, first I will do a file test and a spark test to get some idea. There is also a list here on the site ( can't seem to find it right now) that will tell what steels for what applications.
 
My last project was to make a 4 way tool post about 5/8" higher to fit my lathe. A new center post had to be made and I used a rod from a hydraulic cylinder. The spacer was just cut from a piece of 11/4 plate from work.
Bolt handle for a side charging AR9 was made from 5/8" drill rod I got from Hobby Metals. I still have a nice leftover piece for another project.
Last night I cut 9" off of a solid piece of 11/2 x 11/2 x 5' long square rod that used to be a trailer axle. It actually had bearing spindles welded on each end. The 9" piece that I cut last night will be milled into a carriage stop that will have an adjustable post and an indicator on it and the remaining piece will be two v-blocks . The mill head will be tilted to 45 degrees, so I will kill 2 birds with one stone there.
One of those axle spindles is stiking out of my slotting attatchment mount and is the base of a small crane to move my rotary tabe on and off of the mill table.
 
Back
Top