Mild steel. Bright Steel.

[God mode restorations]

Evening guys.
What are the main differences between mild steel and bright steel. Am I correct in saying that Bright Steel is more machine orientated. Does Bright Steel weld the same as mild steel....

 

[Hood]

Bright steel means it has been machined/processed to some extent, ie the mill scale has been removed and it is usually within a certain spec on the dimensions.

 

[Hood]

Also should mention mild steel can be both Black or Bright.

 

[God mode restorations]

OK. So there is no difference in welding the two.

 

[nickk]

bright steel covers a broad spectrum starting with the basic GCQ[good commercial quality] which is a very low alloyed steel,thru to the heavily alloyed steels containing many different elements with differing properties,IIrc they all go thru a cold rolling process at the end of production giving them a bright finsh,some are unweldable as they contain lead ,many need pre-heat prior to welding,but can still crack as cooling rates differ,some especially the leaded are designed for high speed machining,& some are un-machinable.

 

[Hood]

OK. So there is no difference in welding the two.

As long as they are the same grades then they will weld the same.

 

[God mode restorations]

OK cool. I was curious as to what the difference was. Thanks guys.

 

[WorkshopChris]

Black Bar Mild Steel , will still have the mill scale on and normally have a rounded edge and may vary slightly in dimension.
Bright Mild Steel, will normally as well as been machined to a bright finish and machined to a higher dimensional tolerance with a square edge.

Just be careful Free Machining Bright Mild Steel- contains lead and while it will machine easily is a pig to weld to any decent standard.

 

[chunkolini]

Black mild steel in bar and strip is easier to form and bend, my guess is being hot rolled it is effectively annealed, Bright finish bar and strip is much harder to shape, I think being work hardened by the cold rolling process., it springs back after bending. Both weld pretty much the same.
Black and bright sheet have similar features to bar. Black is way cheaper than bright.

 

[rikrobson]

I seen to remember somewhere that "Mild Steel" is not the same material as it was back in the 50's or 60's and its just used as a name for a low carbon steel. The name we should be using in manganese steel, but there are a veriety of differing steels that fall into this catagory. It does get quite confusing, and I might be spouting complete tosh here.