Steel is an alloy.  It is iron with different percentages of carbon.  There are hundreds f not thousands if grades of steel.  Most of these are for specialized industrial applications.

Below are the several types of steel that I use.

The first is RG 45.

RG 45, sometimes referred to as R45 is a mild steel gas welding rod with a thin copper sheath.

The copper sheath is one of the main reasons that I use this material.  It gives me the copper color along with the strength of steel.

Note that the copper sheath burns off at the point of contact with the torch flame.

RG 45 is easy to work with. 

Good clean easy to braze material.

Readily available at the welding supply.

Although I mostly braze, there are occasions when I gas weld using the 1/16th and 3/32nd RG 45.

RG 45 is easy to get.  I can buy it from my local welding supply or online.  Not too many people gas weld in industry these days so when I order it from the local welding supply I usually order 50 pound boxes of a particular size.

If I just need a few pounds I order from http://weldingdepot.com. They sell in smaller quantities.  For example, 10 pounds of 1/6th inch RG 45 will go a long way.

Below is some RG 45:  The box on the right is the way it comes when buying 50 pounds, the tube is 10 pounds.

RG 45 comes in different sizes: 1/16th, 3/32nd, 1/8th, 5/32nd and 3/16th.

RG 45 comes in 36 inch lengths.

Below are the sizes I use most often.  3/16th, 1/8th, 3/32nd and 1/16th

Welding Depot doesn't offer the 5/32 or 3/16th.  For these I go to

https://weldingsupply.securesites.com/cgi-bin/einstein.pl?Next::1:UNDEF:OR:terms::PF

Videos where I use RG45:

Butterflies, Golf Sculptures, Cattails, Maple Leaves, Trees and all of the Bicycle Sculptures.

For example this is the "Ride in the Park" sculpture.

It is made up almost entirely of RG 45.  RG 45 currently costs about $2.00 per pound depending on where you buy it. The Ride in the Park sells for $145.00. 

This piece weights less than three pounds which means that the material costs for this piece are nominal.

Note:  As mentioned, the copper sheath will burn off where the torch has brazed the joints.  For me this is a plus!  It gives  added contrast to the finished sculpture.

Another example of using the RG 45 are the spokes for this High Wheel Bicycle.

These small table top bicycles and the bicycle rack are made entirely of RG 45.  The only exception is the copper seats.

As we go along you'll see many pieces where I have used RG 45 for the sculptures.

Sheet steel is listed in gauges.

12 gauge steel roughly means that it takes 12 thickness to equal an inch.  In other words, 12 pieces stacked one on top another.

20 gauge means that it takes 20 pieces stacked on on top the other to equal and inch.

At an 1/8th" thick or heavier such as 1/4" or 3/8th" you get away from gauges and just specify the thickness.

Hot Rolled Mild Steel

As the name implies the steel is rolled hot at the steel mill.  The steel ingot is heated to above red hot (almost molten) and then rolled out to specifications, such as sheet, bar, wire, strip, etc.

Hot rolled steel is probably the least expensive metal of all the metals. 

My primary shapes and sizes are;

1/8" sheet steel.  Usually a 3' x 8' sheet which I have cut at the warehouse into sections.  A 3' x 8' is too large for me to handle in my shop.

If I'm fortunate I will buy "drops" which are leftover pieces at a reduced cost.

Flat:  1/8th" x 1/2", 1/8th" x 3/4" and 1/8th" x 1".

Round: 1/4" round, 5/16" round and 3/8" round.

Hot rolled steel comes with a "mill scale" on the surface.  As pointed out in the brazing chapter, this "mill scale" must be ground off before brazing.

The "mill scale" might be a grey granular surface or a flat black surface.

The table top for my welding table is hot rolled steel.

Hot rolled steel is excellent for  fabricating jigs and fixtures, shop tools, bases for sculpture, including these modern sculpture below. 

To get this modern steel finish the steel was first ground down with a 4" grinder and then sanded.

Below is a piece of 1/4" thick hot rolled steel that was deeply pitted with rust as  can seen on the right.  First; grinding with a 4" grinder to remove the deep pitting, sanding with consecutive course to fine sanding discs and then buffed with buffing compounds.

I wouldn't recommend this as it took a lot of work.  It was done as a demonstration to show that under that rusted steel is a "new" steel.

Cold Rolled steel

Cold rolled steel costs about twice as much as hot rolled steel.  It is a better quality steel and would take a lot less work to get the finish as in the photos above. 

Cold rolled steel doesn't have the mill scale.  An easy way to spot a piece of cold rolled steel is that it will be coated in oil. This is to keep it from rusting.

Before using a piece of cold rolled steel I first clean the oil off with a rag and mineral spirits. 

It welds and brazes easily.  No grinding or sanding is necessary before brazing.

When I was doing a lot of Americana pieces such as Old Barns, Covered Bridges, Churches etc., I used 1/4" square cold rolled steel for the frames of the buildings.  But this was only because my supplier couldn't find 1/4" square hot rolled steel.

Another use for cold rolled is when I'm building one of the larger bicycles and using 5/16th round stock for the wheels.

Sometimes, using hot rolled round stock to make circles the way I make them, the hot rolled will have a soft spot and the circle has a slight kink in it.  Making the circle unusable for my purposes.

I've never had a piece of cold rolled steel with a soft spot. 

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