Heavy Duty Metal Cutting

I have a small metal cutting bandsaw that is the ants pants, probably too expensive,similar to this.

I have an ancient reciprocating saw. Would do your job but, slowly. At least you can leave it to work while you do something else.

I have cut 8"x4" beam with a 9" angle grinder. Quite quick but you need to rotate the work as the depth of cut is only 3" or so.

You would be better to consider oxy acetylene and an angle grinder to trim the swarf. It can be hired but neeeds experience for accurate cuts.

Many suppliers will cut materials to length for a small charge.

If you are going to do quiet a lot of cutting of RSJ's and H sections etc, I would invest in a mechanical saw of some sort. I doubt very much that there will be a quicker method other than using a mechanical ripsaw, which can be very very expensive.

Yes, oxy acetylene will be the quickest method, and a grinder to clean up the edges.

A reciprocating power hacksaw saw is slow and is really only suitable for small lots. I would go for a horizontal band saw for the bar, which will give a cleaner cut, and oxyacetylene cutting for the RSJs. You can then use the oxyacetylene to join them up in the form you want after.

Ear plugs for the neighbours perhaps? grin.

Brian

That's the great advantage of the oxy method - it's so nice and silent. Plus you can swiftly slice through the most ridiculously thick chunks of metal. Sadly, an impracticably costly solution for home users, though. IIRC you have to have some sort of service contract with the gas suppliers. :(

Can one use electrolytic H2/O2 for that?

NT

This one seems pretty good value, I thought:

But it won't go through an RSJ in one cut, unfortunately.

Interesting approach. Are there no angle grinders larger than 9" without going to those ridiculous things the workmen cut the pavements up with?

No, finish IS important, but the same grinder can also tidy up the cut by replacing the cutting blade with a grinding one so I'm not worried. I'm knocking up workshop equipment items like hydraulic presses and mobile gantries for moving some of my heavier machines. I'll have to live with the results and can't abide uneven joints.

For fast accurate metal cutting at home, a plasma cutter is very good... tends to be better for flat plate and sheet though. You could probably do an I or H beam, but it might be a bit tricky at the point where the web meets the sides.

If you use the large angle grinder method be prepared for immediate, vociferous and violent protest from anybody within a mile. This happened near me a couple of years ago although I was in France at the time thank God. They were forced to reload all the stuff back on their lorries and take their operation elsewhere.

I've no experience of the other methods but noise nuisance should be a major consideration.

Another Dave

What you need is having a basement conversion done next door - all the rage in London, as despite the vast cost can be cheaper than moving to a larger house.

Compressor for the pneumatic drills running all day for a year. As well as the more intermittent noise.

Well, I don't live in France, but nevertheless, if large angle grinders make for bad neighbours, I'd sooner drop the idea and find a more silent alternative. They are:

1. Power hacksaw of some sort. But they're SLOW.
2. Bandsaw. Quicker, but expensive.
3. Oxy-Acetylene. Heavy, bulky, expensive and largely unobtainable on a non-contract basis (not suitable for the DIYer, IOW).
4. Plasma Cutter. Bit exotic. Expensive. Still needs one gas, but one that's much easier to obtain. Live in piece with your neighbours!

But can you cut through thick solid round bar with a plasma cutter??

On 19/07/2014 16:54, Cursitor Doom wrote: ...

These people will supply non-rental cylinders. You would have to contact them or one of their approved suppliers to find out costs though:

My power hacksaw cost 100 quid and was a sell off from a County Council workshop. Cutting an 8x4 might be 10 minutes but you don't have to stand and watch. I have fabricated steel *horses* to support the work at the saw jaw height so just leave it cutting.

Costs me around 240/annum plus refills:-(

Solid cut is cleaner than I beam or box.

You should be able to get things like this in the UK but even it would have problems with 8"x4"

From watching various youtube vids I would guess 1" thick is about the limit for a 60A machine.

Why spend time and materials pissing about making a hydraulic press when you can get them brand new, off the shelf, reasonably well engineered for less than the cost of the materials let alone the kit to fabricate them.

As for moving heavy machines with a gantry, is this some sort of shipyard or a heavy engineering workshop or just a bunch of machine tools weighing a few hundred pounds in a shed? For most circumstances a piece of 25mm solid bar, or scaffold pole and a lump of timber or preferably a roller pry bar works just as well and can be packed away in the corner of the workshop for the once in twenty years occasion that you'll need them.