My son and I have been using discarded bed frame angle iron, which is easily available ( and cheap) for practice welding and making shop items. Some of it I find is almost impossible to cut with a power band saw and really messes up drill bits. I guess it must be hardened, but seems to be able to be cut with a file. Anybody else run into this or is it just me? tcary
Many bed frames are some type of carbon steel. They are harder than mild steel. As you said some drill and cat hard. Now if you are using them to practice welding you may put down a good looking weld on these "Hard" frames, but if you do a stress test you will often see than just break in the HAZ. It can become VERY brittle, so please keep that in mind in what you are making.
A lot of bed frame angle iron is made of recycled railroad track- the old track is heated and rolled into angle iron. Since the composition of railroad track steel varies by railroad (and sometimes whether it's used on curves or in yards) it's not unusual to get high-carbon steel angle iron bed frames.
-Carl
This comes up pretty regular.
This is something I posted last time this question reared it's ugly head.
I've heard a lot of stories about this over the years. So I thought I'd check some info about this on the web.
I'll be darned if this one isn't true.
Here's a site that says most of their production goes to bed frames;
Paul K. Dickman
Work hardened *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*
Aren't they hot-rolled?
Tim
-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @
We just had a discussion of what constitutes work in the "Compressor Motor . . ." thread, and now you're muddying the issue. Personally, I don't think _that_ qualifies.
Is she a goer? Sports fan?
R, Tom Q.
I've been using the stuff for years. It's generally considerably higher carbon than mild steel and frequently has hard spots. Here are a few tips that have worked for me: Use Cobalt high speed drills for holes. Anything less will simply lead to frustration. Cut it with your cutting torch. A bi-metal blade usually works ok on my bandsaw but it can be hard on the blade. Get some 309 stainless filler rod for welding it and O/A or TIG.
Ted
In the UK the rolling mills rerolled old railway track to produce this product. It is a bit of good stuff.
I've run into that stuff, in my case it came from a bed made around
1910 or so. Harder than hell. Not sure what the deal was, never tried annealing it or anything because I was in a hurry. Anyway you're not going nuts, there is some very hard bedframe angle out there someplace.
I had a pile of these "angle-iron" bed frames many years ago when an old people's home was being refurbished.
Cut off the cast-on corners with a lot of hack-saw blades, welded the angle into channel, and built a trailer out of it! Its still in existence now 40 years later. As you say, the stuff is as hard as hell.
Spitfire
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