Читать книгу Welding For Dummies - Steven Robert Farnsworth - Страница 17

Steel is a strong, versatile metal that you’ll use all the time in your welding projects. You may not realize it, but steel is really an alloy made up of iron and less than 2 percent of another material. Carbon is often used in steel alloys, and you can find three different levels of carbon steel: low-, medium-, and high-carbon steel. The more carbon in the steel, the stronger the alloy is.

You should use steel in your welding projects when you’re looking for a strong metal that’s pretty easy to weld and doesn’t break the bank when you’re buying your materials. You can use any welding process I describe in this book on steel, so versatility is also one of its strong suits. But steel also has its downsides. For one, it’s heavy. If you want your fabricated project to be light, steel probably isn’t your best bet. Steel is also prone to rusting and scaling (flaking off due to oxidation), so you have to spend a fair amount of time cleaning it up (often with a grinder) before and sometimes during welding.