Tweet
I use a bench guillotine for cutting sheet steel. You can get those pretty cheap. I also use a nibbler. They wouldn't be any good for steel plate but you could try using a plasma cutter for that. Many companies have them now and the do perfectly straight lines with no need for any finishing. the other alternative is water-jet.
-
sigpic Dyed in the wool -
LOL, I see the "English" call it a gillitine......
Nothing is going to beat the 'SHears" for thin stuff. Avoid the small plier size hand shears at all costs as holding a piece wrong while cutting will slash ya bad- I know. A table top shear with a handle for about $80 will be great for what your building.Comment
-
Listen up folks, we are talking about 1/8" thick ferrous material here not tin cans. The bandsaw is the right tool and it will do a fine job if it's set up correctly (lots of info on the net about this). Scribe a line and follow it. Lay a line of cutting oil down the scribed line and use a vacuum cleaner hose to catch the dust before it gets into your eye and stuck on all your magnets.
Make sure the blade is bimetallic with some cobalt content if you want it to last. (2-3 times the price but lasts 10 times longer.)Comment
-
Get the "Table Shear" Possum! Its fast, easy and accurate- Much safer too. Spence and Johnson also recommended this. Hell, they even make bigger ones that are to mount to the floor with a big handle for huge amounts of pressure- Easy does it right??? : ) 1/8 inch is plato work for these....Comment
-
Lasers and water-jets will leave a very fine edge but there may be a slight 1-2º angle on the edges of thicker pieces as the exit will be ever so slightly wider than the entrance. EDM might be another method and there are a lot more EDM machines around, most welding shops will have one.Originally posted by Possum View Post
Try the yellow pages for water-jet, laser and edm.Comment
-
1/8 inch plate? You can use a plasma cutter very rapidly. Use another piece of steel as a fence. Clamp it directly to the piece you are cutting and just keep the nozzle tight up against the fence. You will cut a lot of material fast and extremely accurate.
I still wouldn't use the band saw unless you have plenty of time on your hands. The speed you have to run the saw at to make the cut w/o heating up or breaking the blade can take a long time.
I haven't used the bench shear so cannot give an opinion there.
Have used the band saw and the plasma cutter, hands down would use the plasma cutter if one is available.
Have fun what ever you do.
Later,
BobbComment
-
gillitine as Wade called it.
yeah we do call it a guillotine( note the o WADE ) and sorry but will e-mail you this weekend. Playing bad catchup here.
Think you guys over there call it a brake shear and what Spence has got prob a 4 0r 6 inch shear that is is fine for for those lengths but not sure you would cut 1/8 material mate.
A big floor standing long shear will cut 1/8 plus material with a slightly rolled but clean edge and will not cost a lot for a local company to do for you. I had some 3/16 wide by1/8 cut in a 3metre length a while ago to knock up some keeper bars for a friend and cost the material and a few £s so worth a call.
My stuff is lasered up to 1/2in thick in steel and stainless and doe's leave a slightly milled edge so water would be a cleaner finish.
Bloody laser won't cut nickel as it screws the lens up so that gets done by a cnc peirceall punch press using the same program and just thumps it out instead of burning it. so lots to choose from including Daves bandsaw which do'se work but a lot slower.Comment
-
I'd had the tops of a couple stainless steel beer kegs cut off with a plasma cutter (they make great boil kettle for homebrewing), had to repassivate the steel near the cut lines to make them stainless once again. The cutting left a bit of slag inside the kegs, too, but that might have just been due to sloppy work. I'd wonder what that kind of heat would do in terms of magnetic properties to Possum's magic metal.Comment
-
There's gotta be a sheet metal machine shop somewhere near you that will do the job right and quickly for a small fee, using those big bench shears. After university, I worked a job briefly cutting 12-gauge aluminum with them, but stainless steel also. As straight as you could want, and this was 4' x 8' sheets too. Bit of a burr, to be honest, but you'd likely have a burr to contend with using any other sort of cutting implement too.Comment
-
I've been working with a couple of machinists on keeper bars - the latest batch being laser cut. The holes are decent, but the sides are a bit sloppy. I don't know if it's typical or not. I had him mill one side to see how that worked out but the material is bowed now. I don't know exactly why, but at least I don't have a lot of money sunk into it. I really liked Andrew's keepers - dead square and flat with tight fit (50mm spacing, but I don't mind that). I told the guy if he can get me the bars with at least one flat side I'd be happy so we'll see how it works out. Next step is ordering flat stock and doing it myself which isn't really that appealing.Originally posted by Possum View Post
Anyway, if it's representative of most lasers cutting 1/8" thick 1018 steel it's a bit sloppy. Maybe these guys don't really know what they're doing though. You can easily polish it flat with 320 to 600 wet/dry paper on a good flat surface though.Comment
-
I did some checking today here at work with the metal guys, and unless the shears are very large, they probably can't cut 1/8" thick nickel steel. we've got a big shear here but that is beyond it's recommondations. A water jet was mentioned as the best bet, and plasma cutting sounds good too. I'd just farm it out to someone Dave.
GregComment
-
Another idea down the tube.
Try this link, i`m just guessing that this might be what you need.Originally posted by Possum View Post
I made a pickup using the 1/16" tool steel they have, the pickup I.D was 2" X 2" and had six steel blades all parallel with the strings, with two ceramic bar magnets underneath.
I thought i was on to something until i read a post from a newbie who had the same idea, jeeezz, there`s nothing new under the sun.
https://www.speedymetals.com/ps-4370...ound-flat.aspxComment
-
I had this same problem, and built a sled that slides in the miter slots in the bandsaw table. The stock is clamped to the sled and so cannot drift. It's impossible to hold the stock tightly enough by hand.Originally posted by Possum View Post
Probably, the Ryobi fed from a variac will not have enough torque to saw steel when slowed down to the proper speed, about 100 feet per minute. Wider blade doesn't solve the problem.Is it possible to use a wood band saw like a Ryobi and put a small toothed blade on it and slow it down with a variac and cut with a wider blade to get straighter metal strips?
Many bandsaws can have a fence and mitre setup. I have one on my bandsaw. It does not help with metal. That's why I made the sled.Is there such a thing as a table saw like blade and fence setup that will cut perfect metal strips?
Sled files:
http://metalworking.com/dropbox/Bandsaw_Sled.txt
http://metalworking.com/dropbox/Bandsaw_Sled_-_Big.jpg
http://metalworking.com/dropbox/Band...ed_-_Small.jpgComment
-
You could use a "cold saw" but you'd loose more material to the wider kerf.
It's a slow speed chop saw with coolant pump and carbide tipped blade. They turn about 500 RPM and use blades up to 14" dia, they are probably better for cut-off than for taking long slices. They are big, heavy and expensive.Comment
-
Originally posted by Joe Gwinn View Post
Damn good idea. Hmmmmmm ... This opens up a few options I hadn't thought of.Comment
Comment