In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes
Probably a 5" Bosch. As you may have guessed, this is not an everyday event. AFAIR cutting only progressed when the steel got up to red heat locally. The job was abandoned and the barrel went with other scrap.
regards
The message from Tim Lamb contains these words:
You weren't using a stone cutting disc (by mistake, of course!), were you? I've seen that happen before.
In message , Guy King writes
Too late to check:-)
Oxy-acetylene was interesting. The steel doesn't oxidise so just melted.
If somebody cares to float another from the Bull car park, I'll try again.
regards
>
I think the thing with the stainless is that the surface rapidly gets covered with an oxide of chromium which has a far higher melting temperature than iron and also doesn't float to the surface. Most of the cutting effect of the oxy-acetylene burner is in the heat generated by the burning iron propagating the cut. The chromium oxide prevents this.
Cast iron is similarly difficult to cut with oxy-acetylene as the oxidising sites in the matrix are occupied by an iron carbide.
AJH
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