bed rail

[Hollis]

Hi all:
I have plenty of bed rail to practice welding on, but, while running some 6011 on bed rail
it come out looking like bird droppings. Could it be the bed rail material that caused the
6011 beads to look nasty? Normally I can weld good with 6011 but not this time.
TIA
Hollis

[NotaVegetarian]

Bed rails ain’t good to weld on, you never what you going to get, real old ones may be ok, newer may be pot metal

[Hollis]

Bed rails ain’t good to weld on, you never what you going to get, real old ones may be ok, newer may be pot metal

Ok. Yeah I am thinking it's the bed rail that is making me look bad and not my welding lol.

[smithdoor]

The last time welded bed rails I used E6013.

Dave

Hi all:
I have plenty of bed rail to practice welding on, but, while running some 6011 on bed rail
it come out looking like bird droppings. Could it be the bed rail material that caused the
6011 beads to look nasty? Normally I can weld good with 6011 but not this time.
TIA
Hollis

[Frenetic]

Remember to follow Jody's advice: enough amps so you don't snuff the arc when you hold a close arc, and... hold a close arc.

[Sberry]

The rail doesnt help a 6011,,,, or is it the other way around?

[CAVEMANN]

If your welds don't already look like bird poop, bedrail will fix them so they do!

[oldmachinenut]

Most of the bed rail you will find is really-rolled railroad rail, a lot of it coming from Jersey Shore Steel near me in central Pa. It does weld strange sometimes being higher carbon content.

[smithdoor]

Good to know.
Rails are typically 1060 steel.
1060 steel is harder to weld.

Dave

Most of the bed rail you will find is really-rolled railroad rail, a lot of it coming from Jersey Shore Steel near me in central Pa. It does weld strange sometimes being higher carbon content.

[dwall174]

Most of the bed rail you will find is really-rolled railroad rail.

That kind of make sense because it can be hard to cut & drill!

I made a couple of brackets out of some old bed rail to mount a dust collector to my garage wall.
It welded ok for me, but then I'm just a hobbyist still working on my welding skills. I believe I used 7018 since I had it on hand from another project.

Cutting the bed rail was a bit of a challenge! My band saw at the time just had an old high-speed steel blade on it & it didn't cut it that well. I ended up just using an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel. I've since gotten a couple of Bi-MetalM-42 blades for the bandsaw & they cut the bed rail fine.
It was also a PITA just to drill a couple pf holes in the bed rail.


Doug

[albrightree]

Jersey Shore Steel, aren't they up by Williamsport PA ? Last time I was up that way they had just shut down the Tetley Tea plant (2003 ?) next door to the Shop-Vac Factory. Time flies by....



Nice video, maybe a little dated. Sure explains why some angle is so tough. They also make sign posts, tree posts, as well as bed frames. Good to know they're reusing all the old rail that has been torn up.



PS - Take a look at how they break it up @ 3:40 . Seems to break like glass across a 2 ft gap. wonder how many tons that took .

[oldmachinenut]

The main Jersey Shore steel plant is in Avis About 20 miles from Williamsport. I know a lot of guys that worked there nearly their whole lives and some of their sons also work there. It is locally regarded as a great place to work.