[TowerTalk] Tack welding rebar, need howto

[Jim Lux]

On 1/3/14 12:05 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
>
> By the way, while I totally understand why you'd want to tack weld the
> bolts to the rebar, I've never thought much of welded rebar cages in
> general.  True weldable rebar (the stuff that is supposed to hold it's
> strength after welding) is expensive and harder to get.  The 40,000 PSI
> stuff you can get at Lowes and Home Depot comes from indeterminate
> source material (a mixture of washing machine chassis, old bed springs,
> car frames, salvaged rebar, etc) and almost certainly will not weld with
> consistent strength, although you can buy better 60,000 PSI stuff from
> construction supply places.
>

Yeah, but if you're using rebar from who knows what kind of metal, are 
you really concerned about whether it retains the strength when you weld it?

As I recall, about as weak as steel gets is 30-40 ksi.. Unless your 
welding physically damages the steel, I don't know how much lower you 
can go.