Advise for Galvanized Steel

[DELurker]

Originally Posted by jman4747

We recently got a local sheet metal company to donate their scrap metal to us. They have 3003 aluminum but not a large amounts. Most of what they can give us would be galvanized steel and I wanted to know what most people would use it for. I was also wondering about any suggestions on machining it and what other types of tooling to use as well as safety. From looking at the scrap I saw everything from angle to strips to sheets as big as 4'x4'.

Coming back to the original post...

Remember that steel is as strong as aluminum per pound. To accomplish the same task will require the same weight of either metal. With that said, aluminum is usually a better choice because (let's face it), we're building relatively low-weight robots compared to industry. Steel is (mostly) harder to machine than aluminum (slower feed rates, smaller cuts, etc).

For machining it, the machine is as important as the tooling. Although a drill press will work, I'd advise a mill for the improved control and precision. For safety, if you're not cooking it (see previous posts), it's (mostly) just like machining regular steel.

Personally, I'd advise my team against the galvanized steel in large quantities. We'd never go through enough of it to justify the hassle of storing it and machining it. Plus, we're always running close to the weight limits and steel would just make that worse.