Cutting square steel tube.

Angle grinder should be fine IMHO, the stand is a luxury. Obviously, a narrow, flat cutting disk not a thick dished one for grinding.

I would suggest Square Cuts. Cap the open ends either with Plastic caps or welded steel. Tidy up with a sanding disc.

Baz

Look at the fine kerf Norton cutting discs sold by toolstation and others. The fine kerf means far less heat generation and minimal colouring of the metal or paint damage. Care is needed free hand but set in your stand to a true vertical cut should be perfect.

Great - thanks.

If I was going to weld, surely I'd make the whole thing by welding?

The question is about getting a perfect cut every time without any faffing about.

Also Makita do 1mm kerf cutting discs which are good too.

indeed - making sure the stock is truly horizontal before cutting is important too...

Jim K

Cutting box sect with a hacksaw is easy if you have fine tooth blades, and apply a bit of cutting fluid (WD40 if you don't haver any).. much neater cut than with a grinder.

Engaging maximum pedant mode for a moment....

To get a cut without stressing the blade and risking breakage, the direction of feed needs to be in the plane of the blade.

If you want a 90 degree cut then the stock should be at 90 degrees to the blade in horizontal and vertical planes but even if it is not a safe cut will still be made.

Angle grinder with a pivoting stand will be perfect for mild steel especially with a modern 1mm disc which put a lot less heat into the job than the old 1/8" thick jobbies. Any ferrous cutting disc will do fine. Nothing fancy needed. Just take it gently because if you put too much pressure on the 1mm discs they can flex a bit and wander off true. A spare pair of hands to spray cooling water out of an old window cleaner spray bottle while you cut will speed things up and prevent the steel blueing or you can just go slowly, cut a bit, let it cool, cut a bit more etc.

This or anything similar should do you nicely.

Thanks - I'll get some of those. It's fairly important not to overheat the stuff when cutting as it comes in a paint finish.

I have the ideal machine. Cuts up to 8x6 inch solid steel! Not cheap though.

I just bought floor standing speakers ;)

On the other hand, I made my hi-fi stand out of 2-1/2" diameter, 1/4" wall thickness aluminium tubes and 1-1/2" x 1/2" bar. All hand sawn on a manual mitre saw and drilled, tapped and screwed together; then added wooden shelves.

SteveW

Let me guess, in the days before Micro Hi Fi systems?

:-)

I put my kit away when my eldest child was a toddler (he is now 10) and have only recently retrieved it from storage:

Mission 752 speakers Velleman K4000 valve amp Velleman pre-amp Arcam Alpha 5+ CD player Denon TU-260 tuner

and to bring things up to date:

Cambridge Audio NP30 streaming music player networked to our home server

I may, one day, dig out either my or my wife's old turntable and transfer the stack of vinyl that's in the shed onto the server.

SteveW

No you won't. It's *way* too much hassle. :o)

And, or 90% of it, it's available over the internet for less than your time would cost if you were being paid to do it. Allow about 2 hours per LP to do it properly.

You're probably right, but that hope is always there!

SteveW

It's still fun to drop a bit of vinyl, you keep wondering why there's silence every 20mins or so but getting up to change sides is welcome exercise.