5 Things to Know Before Buying cold rolled round bar

Unfortunately as hobbyists we have to get what's available for a decent price.It would be nice to use , 12l14, but there are limits on cost, etc. I try to learn how to work with the material I can get, and this forum is useful for those ideas.

I understand this.
However many hobbyists are more concerned about appearance then function, hence the many "Can't get a good surface finish in steel" questions posted.

If I were making a hobby part and the most important consideration is surface finish I would happily pay more for a material that finishes nicely with the tooling and machines that I have to use.

Does this not make sense? On the face of it, it does make sense, but availability is a big issue with most folks, it seems; surely we could all order from a convenient online source, such as Mc Master Carr, but it gets pretty expensive. I am personally fortunate to have cleaned out all the remnants of stock when I sold my business and taken them home, my very own little scrap yard, and can still go back to my old shop and beg material when needed, in exchange for such as cutter sharpening, etc.
Most hobbyists are not so fortunate, and must, by necessity use what comes to hand; by experience, they will learn to deal with less than ideal materials, and learn which cutting tools and lubricants lead to an acceptable finish, and also, they need to learn the use of files and abrasive cloth; cutting tools are not the panacea when it comes to finish.
Another thing that I have harped on several times previously is the choice of carbide inserts that hobbyists seem to gravitate to for reasons of economy, handiness, and utility; I am speaking of the parallelogram shaped (negative rake) inserts, they do not lend themselves to nice finishes to say the least, fine for roughing on a machine with sufficient power to effectively use them, machines, for the most part the hobbyist does not possess. A free cutting (positive rake) insert goes a long way to solving finish quality problems. I use nearly all TPG (positive rake) 300 and 400 series inserts for my lathe work except for work done on my 9" Monarch, where I use all HSS tools.

cold rolled is typically a better steel, and usually 'new' plain carbon steel, whereas hot rolled is cheaper and usually just a structural grade such as A36, which is just a minimum tensile strength. with A36 you dont always know what you're getting and could get some very hard / non homogonized steel that forges poorly relative to , or you could get just fine stuff, you never really know for sure.

The latest load of a36 hot rolled 1"x3/8" that I got is MUCH harder working than any of the cold rolled in my shop (which is all ) and i even have a piece that i polished and etched that you can clearly see a hex bolt head in the steel (higher chromium content, etched out brighter than the surrounding steel) so you know that it's got some higher carbon spots than other spots, which makes it much riskier to use water to cool a piece while working it etc because you may crack it.

Either works fine for forging, cold rolled is usually more expensive but better controlled, hot rolled cheaper, but you dont always know what you're getting.

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i use mostly hot rolled .. cost is main reason but some stock only comes cold rolled especially small stuff (1/8sq 3/16 sq). i have seen a difference in working especially fileing on some stuff tho.. but not enuf to change . i also use scrap and have found out what potato digger rods are made of! i was at a place in twin falls idaho (heart of potato growing) and the local supplyier informed me that some of the older ones (belt links used to dig potatoes) were but all the links they make now are ! if you get some of these they are great ! i get them with 3 ft of useable 1/2 in round rod (used and rusty). I use them to make punches and small tools .. and also make dinner triangles out of um! they ring great as long as you dont quench um!

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Before I started my apprenticeship as a Blacksmith I worked as a Millwright helper in a Major Steel Mill. My apprenticeship was served with this same steel company only in the shops dept.
During my time with the millwrights however I was fortunate enough to have spent time in virtually every dept of the steel Plant. This included, Coke making, Iron Making, Steel Making, Continuous Casting, Hot roll Mills, and cold roll mills.
I have seen every process of steel making from raw material to finished parts and all processes in between.
Depending on the customer needs, some of the steel making process are HIGHLY controlled right form the iron making process through to the finished product with extremely tight tolerances in everything from the chemistry , temperature of casting, hot rolling temp, cooling rates, and final finishes. These steels are very expensive and not generally sold on the open market. Most of these steels go through the cold roll process due to the customer requirement of precise finished dimensions, grain sizes,finishes, and strength.
This was the purpose of the cold roll dept. originally.
A number of processes are used to finish the steel but nearly all start out with the removal of the hot mill scale by running it through a pickling bath of hot acid. They are then either rolled in large mill stands called reduction mills that apply enough pressure on rolls to reduce the thickness down to a very precise dimension (COLD). These dimensions are measured by use of x-ray equipment, and the mills can be controlled to within hundreds of thousandths of an inch.Another process used to reduce round stock involves drawing them through a series of dies that get progressively smaller until the last one which is the precise dia. req'd.
Not all cold work steel is still work hardened either. Some of the products are sent to the annealing furnaces in the cold mill to be heated inside airtight furnaces to soften or anneal the steel. They are cooled inside the furnace so that when they are removed they still have the same bright finish.
This is the reason that cold roll products are always more expensive ,due to all the extra processing. In our trade as blacksmiths we don't need these kinds of tolerances and unless you are looking to make something without doing any forging on the steel first, and want a bright finish there is no real advantage to using it. Of course some of the smaller dimension steels such as 1/8th thick x 1/2 in wide are produce in cold mills it is just a matter of convenience for some of the steel makers. They generally have what they call slitters in the cold mill where they can take a coil of flat roll steel and cut it into multiple strips of various widths as opposed to rolling them that way in the first place. A matter of economics.

Sorry if this is long winded. I really get caught up when talking about steel.
As the wife would say " no, REALLY?" :D

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