"xray" wrote in message
...

I have some random steel rods I picked up locally. I'm not sure of the
material. Two of them have colors painted on one of the ends: red on one
and orange on the other. I'm wondering if these colors tell me what they
are?

I found this link...
http://www.southerntoolsteel.com/color_codes.html
which lists color codes, but I'm wondering how trustworthy it is. The
entry for 12L14 says "black and white". I assume that means it could be
either, rather than it should have both. That entry bothers me because I
bought some 12L14 end scraps from eBay and things don't seem to match
the table I found. Some are white, which does match, but a couple are
copper color and one is red.

Is the color code a useful way to identify scrap steel? Is there a
better reference on end colors somewhere? Can anyone tell me what my two
steel rods with red and orange ends probably are?

Thanks for any enlightenment you can share.

-Rex

I received over a ton of steel rounds of all different sizes. I deduced
that some was tool steel as the company made some dies for their operations.
I stamped a code number on each round and sliced off a wafer and stamped the
wafers with the same code. I heated each wafer red hot and dropped it into
quenching oil. Then I could tell with a file what was cold-roll and what
was tool steel. Next I spark tested each tool steel wafer with a known
piece of O-1 and D-2. I feel pretty confident with categorizing each piece.
I also knew there wouldn't be too many odd-balls. I only have 2 that I'm
not sure about exactly what they are but they hardened.

Do you need to know what the alloy actually is? Or will knowing general
properties do? Try turning a whack of each piece with HSS tools, you'll
know by the way it cuts and the finish it leaves. You can even tell by the
smell of the cut. Don't even think about sending samples to a lab for
$4-600 a pop.