How does the poor quality of mild steel nowadays affect your working methods, or your choice of products to make?

mild steel is a basket term that includes a number of products.   Reviewing some welding information last night I was reminded that there are dozens of specifications of architectural specifications which relate to the application shape and thickness.   Today we have low alloy high strength steels that are the result of heat treating and processing that seem to be junk when you try to forge it, 

I don't think poor quality but instead think " What the heck did I just get hold of" 

At the risk of sounding a bit Oliver Twist, I don't think I can specify what variant of mild steel my supplier delivers to me, I think you get what you're given. Although I know very little about the steel business my assumption is that most of the big suppliers will get their steel from a variety of mills around Europe, then it all gets jumbled up on their racks. Perhaps I should be a bit more picky about who I buy from.

I was just working on a project for a friend and had the mild steel crack on me.  I've quenched a lot of mild steel in my day, but I've never seen any crack.  The really weird part was when I tried to grind down past the crack (forging thick and grinding thin!), I left one of the pieces in the little water can I keep by the grinder.  The next day, the thing was green instead of the orange/rust color you'd expect.

From how it felt under the hammer to the weird color, weirdest steel I've ever worked with.

I don't get poor quality mild steel; but I do get some bad A36 that the steel yard called mild steel.

Working with it, as it's cheap, I never quench it. Normalized is about as rough as I get.  Some won't do a simple hot twist without the corners cracking that stuff gets on the pile of steel for low grade projects---like tentstakes...

Perhaps it would help if when ordering you specified what kind of mild steel you want as there are all kinds .

12L14 comes to mind -- Machines like butter but not recommended to be welded ( I suppose because it is a leaded cold roll )

I have never had any problems with forging 1018 cold roll .

Same with Hot roll steel ( if you don't specify you will more than likely get A36 )

I have a half-mile long private gravel driveway, ... that rises a couple hundred feet over it's length.

And a couple of old Tractors used for road maintenance and snow removal.

I run "off road" ( Log Skidder ) chains on the Tractors, ( even the big 4x4 ) in order to assure traction in all weather.

On the Ford Utility Tractor, that I've owned since 1988, virtually all the "original" cross-chain links have been replaced with my "homemade"  links, of approximately 3" x 4" oval shape.

For many years I had access to an unlimited supply of the 4' long "bolts" that hold together the wooden reels used to ship electrical wire and cable.

The bolts are about 1/2" diameter, ... and are of a mild steel material that's soft enough to bend cold, as-well-as being suitable for "thread rolling".

They made good chain links, ... but do wear quite a bit.

About 5 years ago, I ran out of the bolts, and started using rebar for "repair" links.

Sometimes I find useful bits of "old" rebar, ... that cannot be bent cold, ... but otherwise work OK.

But when I use "new" rebar, ... ALL  BETS  ARE  OFF.

It's an adventure every time you try to bend it, ... or weld a link shut.

 

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15 hours ago, Joel OF said:

At the risk of sounding a bit Oliver Twist, I don't think I can specify what variant of mild steel my supplier delivers to me, I think you get what you're given. Although I know very little about the steel business my assumption is that most of the big suppliers will get their steel from a variety of mills around Europe, then it all gets jumbled up on their racks. Perhaps I should be a bit more picky about who I buy from.

Have you tried Brundles? They have the spec number besides the steel as you look for what you want. Pretty cheap too.

5 hours ago, Stephen Jones said:

Have you tried Brundles? They have the spec number besides the steel as you look for what you want. Pretty cheap too.

I haven't. I've bought plenty of discs, rivets, spheres etc off them but haven't used them for regular stock, I'll have a butchers, cheers.

Well I rang my supplier, Parker Steel, and also IS&G yesterday, it seems that S275 is the only available type in solid bar.