"Tim Williams" wrote in message
...
In case anyone was wondering, rebar is indeed any composition. Tonight I
was forging on some and out of curiosity, cheezily heat treated one end
(brought it to orange heat, quenched, reheated for a little longer than it
took the water to boil off to sorta temper). Took a strike with the
hammer
and sure enough it broke. Spark test reveals something like 1040 but it
must have some other alloying elements since it bears some resemblence to
higher alloy steel (wrench stock for instance).

So yes, it's real crappy material. On the other hand. It can be
hardened.
What a scary thought, toolbits forged from rebar. Hmmmm. But
still........

Tim


The question that begs to be asked is, what grade of rebar are you talking
about? A-615, A-616, A-617, A-706, multi grade A706/A616?
ASTM would probably dissagree with your conclusions that "rebar" (of
unspecified type) is crappy material, as it has performed it's intended task
for decades with very few failures.
I have a very nice Sand's aluminum level on my truck that I bought as an
apprentice and it has served me well for years. If you were to heat it and
beat it into a chisel, you would be sorely dissapointed, and maybe call it
junk, but as a level it's a real doozie.So that's what I use it for, mostly
g.
All of the rebar grades are weldable using the proper procedure, A709 or
multi grade is normally specified when a lot of welding is to be done. It
will have a W stamped on it, or a W and a S if it's multi grade. These two
types are easily welded with little or no preheat, depending on the size of
the bar and ambient temp. The others take more time and trouble, but are
weldable nonetheless. AWS D1.4 welding code addresses this pretty well.

regards,
JTMcC.



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