You probably will want more than one kind of steel for this project.
12L14 won't harden, as far as I know, and, since it contains Lead ("L")
it won't weld all that well either.


You don't say much about the project, but I can't imagine where you'd
use 4" round steel bars. If you need something that big around, consider
steel tubing or pipe. If I were you, I'd take my plans to a local steel
yard and ask them for some ideas.


In general, I'd go with mild steel (A36) for most of the stucture. If
you have cutting blades, A2 might work for wood. But the tool steels
cost a lot.

Many steel yards have an area out back where they have off-sizes,
overruns, and unlabeled stock. If you can use any of that, you can save
money.

Another approach would be to go to a used farm implement dealer and look
around for an implement which is similar to what you want and modify it
from there.

Pete Stanaitis
---------

Matthew wrote:

I have a project I want to build and I been looking on the internet for just
rough prices on steel. Though I see on many websites there is a bunch of
different grades and I am not sure what they all mean. I have gone to
www.mcmaster.com and under the raw materials metals section they give a
brief description on the many grades which is helpfull. But I am not sure
what kind I should look for to do my project. I am planning on making a
implement that fits on a 3pnt hitch on the back of a tractor to chip or
grind wood. I was looking at some 4" round steel bars on ebay and found out
that is 12L14. Does this has to be hardened before you use it? What grade
should I look for that I can buy then just weld it together and be done.