Welding Tips and Tricks

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I'm working a home project and found some bed rails the wife wasn't using.....at least I think she wasn't using them.....I'll have to remember to ask her if she was saving them for anything....

Anyway, what in the hell type of metal are these things made of??? I drilled 2 holes fine - the 3rd hole burned up 3 of my bits. I couldn't eve break through the other side. One of the bits was a brand new Irwin too!!!

Maybe it's my punishment for not asking the wife if I could have them.................

Bed rails are notorious for this. Made (probably in China) from cheap triple recycled crap from all over. Can easily be hardenable and likely have poor weldability. They get used a lot in home re-purposing projects like shelf brackets and frames etc., cause they are always lying around waiting to be used for somethin. Keep your drill bits sharp and run them slow with as much force as the bit will take. It is what it is.

Bed rails seem like a great idea but most are a spring steel blend so they can be light weight but strong stay away the welds will break unless cooled properly and they drill like work hardened steel

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Wow, after all that I hope you'll have your wife's blessing.

Coldman wrote:Bed rails are notorious for this. Made (probably in China) from cheap triple recycled crap from all over. Can easily be hardenable and likely have poor weldability. They get used a lot in home re-purposing projects like shelf brackets and frames etc., cause they are always lying around waiting to be used for somethin. Keep your drill bits sharp and run them slow with as much force as the bit will take. It is what it is.

I agree with that, drill slowly with a lot of down pressure, and plenty oil to keep the bit cool. And if you do burn up a drill bit halfway through a hole, most likely you have hardened the steel there. So any bit aside from a carbide or other high end tool will burn up as well as soon as you try to finish drilling that hole.


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If it doesn’t have to be pretty you can just blow holes in it with your torch or gouge with an arc welder. That’s strange stuff sometimes. I’m just using some right now to reinforce the lower edge of my very old brush hog. Not the best stuff in the world but that works OK for a lot of things.
Bed rail might be pissed poor but it’s nowhere near as bad as some of the stuff that they use in places and some vehicle frames. That stuff just rolls up like burnt tinfoil.


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