What steel is that banding used for holding crates together made from?

Belstain · May 17, 2003

At my day job we go through about 2 crates of glass a day. Each crate has about 40 feet of 1 1/2 x .020 steel banding around it. I stole some yesterday to weld up a billet with it and see what happens but I'd like to know exactly what steel I'm using before I get too involved.

Greg Covington · May 17, 2003

I am not sure what it is but I have heard of guys using it before.

I would quench a piece of it to see if it hardens.

Chuck Gedraitis Knives · May 17, 2003

I have been told that it is 1095. I have used it in billets with 15N20 and 1084 and had good results. I have also made billets with it and pure nickel in low layer counts with good results.

Belstain · May 17, 2003

Yeah 1095 is what I figured it is. hopefully tomorrow I can get out in the shop and play with it some. I'm going to weld some up with some 1084 and see how the contrast is.

Reg ELLERY · May 18, 2003

I have used some various types of banding. Some very thin with a green paint/coating. some thicker with grey coating.

The trick is I normally don't clean the coating off. I just give it a good soak at heat with boarax flux. With out any other steel as contrast. The welds seem to etch to a pattern.

I used to have trouble with the outside layers not welding at first.
I overcome this by soaking in the heat until the metal is fully hot in the center of the stack. Also if you see the metal is not welding dont hit it anymore just put it back in the heat. The outside go cold quick The cold anvil sucks it out too untill things are warmed up.

Goodluck

Wild Rose · May 18, 2003

The cold anvil sucks it out too untill things are warmed up.

The trick here is to keep a plate of mild steel or whatever and heat it up to pre-warm your anvil with.

Osbourn · May 18, 2003

Spark test it. I recently welded up two billets of strapping from a welding school with mild steel shim stock. I ended up with one 40 layer billet and one 80 layer billet of mild steel. It became really obvious when I started grinding on the billets after the fact.

fitzo · May 18, 2003

If it's springy it should be at least a mid-carbon steel. That stuff bends alot without kinking. Alot of American banding is 1095. Offshore stuff, who knows. I agree with the advise to quench it, then see if it snaps off when dead hard. If it's hi-carbon a file should barely cut it, too.

Guy Thomas · May 18, 2003

Strapping usually comes in two grades, one is mild steel for low strength banding jobs. The other is high-tensile strapping made from high carbon steel for jobs requiring more strength. Just what kind of high carbon steel used is up for grabs. I would think it would have to be fairly high quality in order for it to be rolled out so thin and retain a the strength needed for heavy duty strapping jobs after being heat treated.

I bought a roll of new strapping (800 feet for about $80.00) with a friend just so I would know I had high carbon steel. As mentioned earlier, if in doubt I would test quench a piece before I made up a billet.