Hot or Cold Rolled

[Jspece]

Which do you use for metal art projects? Cold or Hot Rolled Steel? What are pros and cons of each?

[steel 35]

Cold rolled, because hot rolled sucks.

[little blue choo]

Cold rolled!! Cold rolled doesn't have all the mill scale on it, it's more uniform in thickness, its stronger, it's surface is much smother than hot rolled and in my opinion I get better cuts with cold rolled. Cold rolled also seams to warp less when cutting. Hot rolled is cheaper and that's about the only advantage I know of when it comes to plasma cutting. If you are going to be forming parts in a press the hot rolled is more malleable and will form better but that's not plasma cutting!


Rick

[Scratch]

Cold rolled is more prone to rusting than hot rolled, but it accepts acid type finishes much easier too... I'm on the fence on this one.

[rons]

Cold, unless I get fancy and use acid to rip some mill scale off it leaves an interesting look, this flag only has the red and blue air brushed
Ron

[Bobkovacs]

Depends on what I'm doing. For signs that are going to ground and polished, cold rolled makes the most sense, since grinding off the mill scale on hot rolled is very difficult. Most of my signs, however, are either left raw with just a clear coat (and meant to develop rust/patina over time), or they're sprayed with acid and then with peroxide to rust quickly- so hot rolled is used

[Jspece]

Sounds like colled rolled is what I want...my motive behind asking was to see if I could get around using the acid to get rid of mill scale. Kids,pets,my safety, sub zero temps and acid just doesn't excite me.

How do you guys prep cold rolled for painting?

[steel 35]

I have used Vinegar, Inside in the winter but is smells and turn's pretty nasty, in a pinch but it works well.

[DXF]

I used to buy cold rolled until trying P&O a few years ago. P&O is now my favorite metal other than stainless steel to cut.

Dave Hanks

[abmetal]

Funny you mentioned that Dave. We've used P&O for years until about a year ago when our supplier offered the cold roll for slightly more than what the P&O was costing us so we switched. I have to say the cold roll really cuts clean, little or no dross, better than the P&O. But I also think there's a difference in P&O depending on suppliers. We bought a large amount of P&O drops years ago, all the same size and thickness, and it just didn't cut as clean as the other P&O that we normally used.

Allen

[little blue choo]

I used a lot of P&O and liked it but noticed I get a little better cut with the cold rolled and my acid doesn't get as messed up with the cold rolled. A lot of times I am in a rush trying to cut, clean and finish a piece and the clean up time in the acid is shorter with cold rolled. Also I get a better finish with patinas with cold rolled.

Rick