1008 and 1010 round bar

[Zhangliqun]

Been looking now for years for a source for some 3/16" roundbar stock, 1008 or 1010 since my source dried up (luckily I bought a lot). Any ideas?

[David King]

Search for "wire" instead of rod, material smaller than 1/4" is referred to as wire. It comes in 1000 foot spools and is used for step ladder truss rivets etc. McMaster Carr will have something close in straight lengths for more money.

[J M Fahey]

Good idea
Maybe your friendly local construction contractor can give/sell you a few yards for next to nothing.

[Zhangliqun]

Search for "wire" instead of rod, material smaller than 1/4" is referred to as wire. It comes in 1000 foot spools and is used for step ladder truss rivets etc. McMaster Carr will have something close in straight lengths for more money.

If it's in spools, it's bent and it's gotta be straight.

[David King]

You can straighten wire quite easily by rolling it between two flat boards, a concrete floor and a piece of MDF that you roll over the wire with your foot. There may be some 3/16" welding rod with very low carbon content and no flux. Looks like 7018 has .08%C.

[J M Fahey]

Agree on straightening wire.
FWIW lots of Steel products bought in bulk come in some kind of rolls simply to make transport possible, and are straightened when needed.

Two doors from mine there used to be a large through-the-block shop/factory which received cold rolled steel in huge 5 Ton rolls, they straightened it running it through reverse set rollers and cut it in 1 meter by 2 meter or 4 ft by 8 ft sheets and sold them in 10 sheet packs to other Industries.
The floor shook continuously from 6AM to 4PM

I am quite certain anybody selling straight steel wire in 20 ft lengths or less does something very similar , so you might do it small scale yourself given the small amounts needed.

You may even fine tune straightening with a hammer and a piece of hard wood or two.

Crude/primitive? ....... precision benchrest rifle barrels are straightened by hammering, go figure

[Zhangliqun]

I'm not afraid of primitive, I'm Mr. Hamfist-Low-Tech-But-Get-It-Done-God-Knows-How-I-Can't-Remember. That said I'm not trying to add extra steps to the process.

Looks like there's plenty of straight 7018 welding rods in 3/16 though. I presume it can be cut and machined easily? And is it easy to find flux-free and what drawbacks are there to not-so-flux-free?

[David King]

The flux is some sort of soapy crusty compound that the rods are dipped in. it melts at a very high temperature and displaces oxidation and prevents scaling at the weld. You can scrape it off or it might dissolve in water or something stronger. I'd try to avoid it. You may want to get dimensional tolerance specs from the companies before ordering as I doubt they worry too much about keeping it right at .1875".

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are other elements in this alloy and it may sound very different from what you're used to. I'd try a rod and see what it gives before committing to a 50 pound box of the stuff unless you want to build a ship in your back yard for kicks. I just linked the first rods i saw that had low carbon but there are undoubtedly others so do some research and don't take my word for anything as I have no idea what any of this sounds like or how it machines etc.