Raw Material marking

[coryn]

I apologize if this is suppose to go in the material section, it was kind of a toss up. I have a few pieces of solid round stock, I was looking for a piece of cold rolled I new i had. It took a while but I believe I have found it. Is there a universal color marking if I wanted to put a paint mark on it. Looking for how you everyone separate's there stuff, or mark it. Thanks all.

 

[crossthread]

Well if its just for you then make up your own color chart and use whatever you have to mark the stock. Yes there are some more or less standard color schemes but as I said, if it's just for you then who cares.

 

[Fulcircleny]

It takes a bit of time, but I use number and letter stamps, each piece gets the cut end or if it is thin, the last 1/2" of the drop marked with Material, Vendor, and date purchased. I can then trace the certs by the vendor and / or purchase date. Not fool proof, but close

good luck
Chris

 

[DMF_TomB]

I apologize if this is suppose to go in the material section, it was kind of a toss up. I have a few pieces of solid round stock, I was looking for a piece of cold rolled I new i had. It took a while but I believe I have found it. Is there a universal color marking if I wanted to put a paint mark on it. Looking for how you everyone separate's there stuff, or mark it. Thanks all.

.
most use a paint stick marker but stamping numbers like 1018 works the best

 

[Zahnrad Kopf]

We use paint stick, but in several places along the length as well as the ends. We do this because if we do not, one inevitably ends up with the drop that is not marked and then becomes Mysterium, instead of Titanium, which ultimately leads to it becoming ScrapBinium.

 

[Ray Behner]

As far as color coding from the dealers, nothing is universal. Each and every dealer has their own color code.
Smart, huh? 1018 has brown, blue and green from the three companies in this area. Oops! forgot EMJ. Their's is black.

 

[DDoug]

As far as color coding from the dealers, nothing is universal. Each and every dealer has their own color code.
Smart, huh? 1018 has brown, blue and green from the three companies in this area. Oops! forgot EMJ. Their's is black.

I went to a large building that had qty (2) saw rooms, one at each end....

Yup, the color codes in use were different.

 

[Marty Feldman]

Welding up custom storage racks is one way. However, you mention quantities like "a few pieces" and "a piece". For dealing with small quantities, save the heavy cardboard tubes that MMC and other suppliers use to mail 3 - 6 ft long lengths of stock material. Forget the dainty mailing tubes that calendars arrive in. Label the tubes on the outside with any designations that make sense to you, e.g., "304 S/S rounds, < .500", "Brass Tubing", and so on, and drop the stock in. Cut the tube heights down so that the ends of the pieces inside stick out a bit - makes it easier to spot what you want without having to dump all the pieces on the shop floor. You can make up a corral from 2-by's to keep the tubes standing up sort of vertically. For really short pieces and drops, you can use plastic 5-gal buckets, similarly labelled.

...or any other system that works for you.

-Marty-

 

[Red James]

Paint markers seem to need fairly clean, not-oiled material. Try "Bic Wite-out correction pen". They don't seem to dry out and don't care about a little oil.

 

[MrWhoopee]

When I dealt with this issue, I created an in-house color code system utilizing the color used by our most common supplier. Cold-rolled and hot-rolled (1018 or 1020) were unmarked or white, ETD-150 green, Stressproof yellow, 304 red, 303 yellow, 1045 TGP black. I only used 2-color codes for uncommon, special order materials. Paint both ends and the middle of the bar.

 

[M.B. Naegle]

No standard color chart from what I've seen. If there is one, there isn't a supplier that uses it.

We found a chart that corresponded the best to what we have/get from our suppliers, made a few changes, and remark material as it comes in as needed.

IMO paint is the quickest way to mark the stuff. If it has documentation, it get's taped to the painted end of the bar.

We just started entering all our material into our companies inventory software and as that happens, each piece or bundle of stock gets an inventory tag giving the type and dimensions of the stock. We used to use the software (Fishbowl) only for finished product, but now we're utilizing the bill-of-materials and manufacturing-order functions more, so we can link everything together.

We buy 144" of stock > We cut up 120" to make 12 parts > we enter 12 parts into inventory.

The trick is making sure we account for the 1/8" of material that vanishes with each saw cut. That and on occasion the computer has said we have 36" of stock, but that ends up being six 6" pieces, which is hard to make into a 12" bar...

 

[Spruewell]

White out pens work the best from what I have found. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is when material gets onto the rack unlabeled. We only carry about 5 different types of round stock (CR, HR, 1045TG&P, 1144TG&P and 4140TG&P), so I have been able to tell the difference in surface finish and machinability a lot of times, but I do have a fair amount of "mystery metal" on the racks. The fun one is when someone grabs a piece of flat bar plow steel and tries to run a 3/4" drill through it thinking it's hot roll.

 

[moonlight machine]

White out pens work the best from what I have found. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is when material gets onto the rack unlabeled. We only carry about 5 different types of round stock (CR, HR, 1045TG&P, 1144TG&P and 4140TG&P), so I have been able to tell the difference in surface finish and machinability a lot of times, but I do have a fair amount of "mystery metal" on the racks. The fun one is when someone grabs a piece of flat bar plow steel and tries to run a 3/4" drill through it thinking it's hot roll.

WTF is Plow Steel?????

 

[robert123]

WTF is Plow Steel?????

Obviously not an official name, but it's probably some type of abrasion-resistant alloy.

 

[M.B. Naegle]

WTF is Plow Steel?????

It's what happens when you leave 'Dobbin' unattended in the field for too long.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I always understood it to be above .5 % Carbon

Plow Steel
1045
Flat, Plate
Hot Rolled Finish
Medium Carbon Steel
For agricultural and construction equipment
Good Welding
Typical Chemical Analysis
Carbon (C) = .43 to .60
Manganese (MN) = .60 to .90
Phosphorus (P) = .04 Max
Sulphur (S) = .05 Max
Typical Mechanical Property
Tensile (PSI) = 90000# to 100000#
Yield (PSI) = 60000#
Brinell Hardness = 201 to 229
Machinability * = 64%
* Machinability based on AISI-1212 as 100%

 

[Oldwrench]

Since we have bought from EMJ exclusively for many years it made sense for us to adopt their color code. The salesman got us a big glossy full-color wall chart which hangs in the stock area. This is useful because a bar of material at the warehouse supposed to be marked, say, red and white on the ends, will invariably be painted red and white across the end of the whole damn bundle of maybe 50 bars, leaving any single bar either red or white. So—provided the right rattle cans are handy—the correct identification can be restored as the bar is put into our stock.

I guess if you shop around among three companies each of whom uses their own system it would be advisable to come up with your own, especially if 1018 and 4140 were green and yellow respectively at one supplier and vice versa at another...

 

[Bondo]

Besides what was already listed, I like using painters tape and marker. I have blue, green, and yellow tape. It also makes it easy to put a tag back on something.

Sent from my 2PS64 using Tapatalk

 

[Kiwi2wheels]

.
most use a paint stick marker but stamping numbers like 1018 works the best

An engraving tool can work as well ; Dykem both ends and threaten physical violence to anyone who puts any material back in the rack with both marked ends gone!!

On long lengths I would also wrap duct tape around the tube/bar in two places and write the number on it with a magic marker. Extreme measures are not so necessary if you don't have others in the shop .................

 

[BGL]

1/8" letter and or number stamp on one end. Can not be wiped off, lasts to the very last part is made or sorted for scrap.

Small size stock gets paper tag covered by packing tape to make a flag style marker. Cheap durable and replaceable.