"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?

Color codes are not standardized, so unless you have the code from the
particular source, the colors won't tell you much.

Harold

"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.

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:53:26 GMT, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

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.
Oboy,,,
Years ago we had a machinist who was not exactly a rocket scientist.
We did a lot of SS, and generally from this vendor the color codes
were predictable.
The guy was looking in the stock bin for a piece of 316...we noticed
the blue end, and it was one of those afternoons where people were
feeling humorous. We told him, "Just breathe on it and smell it
quickly when it is moist...you can detect the "tang" of nickel!"
"Look!( Noticing an orange code) You can even smell the sulfur in this
303, and in this 17-4 (Grey/white) the aluminum in it makes it smell
just like 6061!!!"
We walked away, and had a good laugh. A couple of days later, the guy
who ran the place, a good mettlaurgist in his own right, walked by,
and saw this guy smelling the stock, one piece after another. He
walked up and asked him what he was doing. From a distance, we could
see the rocket scientist trying to explain, gesticulatiing and
thrusting pieces under the boss's nose.
The boss just stared at him silently, and walked away.
We got to the other end of the shop ASAP, collapsing with laughter.

OH MY GOSH!!!! Now THAT was a riot. Reminds me of a good one...Here
goes:
I recently retired from the army. After 25 years in the military as
a welder/machinist, it's safe to say I've met some pretty colorful
folks...one of them was a guy by the name of Vern back at Fort Knox,
Kentucky.
I was the sergeant in charge of the shop & "corpral Vern" was one of
my not too bright welders who couldn't get through even the smallest of
tasks without getting really confused. He and one of my sergeants
finally had it out about Vern's inability to work on a project without
it turning into a disruption for the whole shop.
I had recently undertaken a project where we were about to begin
taking a bunch of M60 battle tanks into the shop, draining all the
fluids, removing the transmission & engine and cutting 4" holes in them
before putting them back in, welding up all the hatches & plugging the
barrel, painting the tank green with a white star and shipping them off
to VFWs for use as a display tank.
After the 1st tank had arrived, I was away from the shop for awhile
taking care of some business. As I was walking back into the shop, I
notice Vern out front standing on this tank....tapping it iwth a
hammer...nodding his head up & down (as if to say "yes" to
himself...Vern talked to himself a lot) and marking an "X" on the tank
with a piece of soapstone. I look over closer to the shop....and all
the guys are just rolling with laughter!
Now before I go into this any further, you have to understand that
the armor on these old tank turrets is thicker on the sides than it is
on the top...like wise the hull is thicker on the front and sides than
it is on the rear.
This tank has soapstone "X"s all over it and Vern is just happily
tapping away! I climb up on the tank & before I can say anything, Vern
says, "That's right you know what I'm doing don't you sergeant? See
people who wrok for you get smart, and then someday we get your job!" I
can hardly contain myself as I admit, 'This must be something old sarge
forgot, why don't you show me?" Vern says listen..."Tap, tap, tap (on
the side of the turret with the hammer...and then..."Tink, tink, tink
(on the top of the turret) you hear that difference sergeant? That's a
soft spot in the armor!" then he beams "Segeant Troy showed me that!"
Vern was so proud of himself...it was almost hard to explain to him,
he'd been the butt of a joke. I kept the piece by helping him play a
joke back on the good sergeant.
-Wayne-

Oh, it's not THAT easy, you have to smell it while it's cutting...everybody
knows that!

"Grunty Grogan" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:53:26 GMT, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

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.
Oboy,,,
Years ago we had a machinist who was not exactly a rocket scientist.
We did a lot of SS, and generally from this vendor the color codes
were predictable.
The guy was looking in the stock bin for a piece of 316...we noticed
the blue end, and it was one of those afternoons where people were
feeling humorous. We told him, "Just breathe on it and smell it
quickly when it is moist...you can detect the "tang" of nickel!"
"Look!( Noticing an orange code) You can even smell the sulfur in this
303, and in this 17-4 (Grey/white) the aluminum in it makes it smell
just like 6061!!!"
We walked away, and had a good laugh. A couple of days later, the guy
who ran the place, a good mettlaurgist in his own right, walked by,
and saw this guy smelling the stock, one piece after another. He
walked up and asked him what he was doing. From a distance, we could
see the rocket scientist trying to explain, gesticulatiing and
thrusting pieces under the boss's nose.
The boss just stared at him silently, and walked away.
We got to the other end of the shop ASAP, collapsing with laughter.

According to xray :

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?

If you can tell us which steel vendor they originally came from.

Really -- each vendor has his own set of codes. I could look up
the ones which Jorgensen steel uses, but I don't have a convenient
source for the others.

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.

Nope -- it should have both. (Otherwise, they would have said
"black *or* white", not "and".

This is because there are more steel alloys (and other metals)
than there are reasonably identifiable colors, so they have to use two
(or sometimes even three) colors to mark the metals unequivocably.
Jorgensen has several where there is a primary color plus a stripe of
another color.

And the Jorgensen catalog lists a lot more metals than your web
vendor does.

And this is only for metals from this one vendor.

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.

Again -- from different original vendors, so you can't expect
the color codes to match.

Is the color code a useful way to identify scrap steel?

Nope -- because with scrap, you are unlikely to know who the
original vendor is.

Now -- you could pick some vendor's color code chart to which
you have access, and paint any incoming steel which you can identify to
match.

Is there a
better reference on end colors somewhere?

The problem is that there are *lots* of them. And they all
disagree. :-)

Can anyone tell me what my two
steel rods with red and orange ends probably are?

*If* it came from Jorgensen:

Red 1040/42/45
Orange 1213.1215

Black with White stripe 1035

Brown & White Leaded Grade A (Ledloy A, La-Led) (their 12L14)
Green Leaded Grade B (LedLoy B, Super La-Led)
Pink & Purple Leaded Grade AX (LedLoy AX)

Thanks for any enlightenment you can share.

Well ... I'm sure that this is not what you wanted to hear --
but it is the real world, so I'm afraid that you are stuck.

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:17:02 -0700, "Harold and Susan Vordos"
wrote:


"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?

Color codes are not standardized, so unless you have the code from the
particular source, the colors won't tell you much.

Harold

Indeed. It would appear that most if not all suppliers have their own
color codes.

Ive got machine shops with 3-5 color code charts on the wall side by
side..and non of them match.

This sucks of course..but...thats the way it is. Shrug

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner