The answer was - angle grinders!

Very impressive result.

Today's Technology students would not even be able to drill the 5/8" hole. If the Armageddon ever does occur they will have many problems.

I usually don't have the tools I want so have to invent solutions. Here's how I used the cutoff bandsaw to cut the slot. I used a drill press vice to hold the rod at a suitable angle:

In article , Matty F writes

you stop the blade from wandering on successive cuts?

Originally I just made two cuts for the slot, then drilled a hole near the bottom of the slot. I tried to file the end of the slot, but this steel was very hard and the files would scarcely touch it. So I made about 8 cuts with the bandsaw and managed to file the bottom after some time. The bandsaw didn't wander at all. I took it very slowly and used cutting fluid.

Hmm , could have done with a saw like that the other day - I had to cut a chunk off a 2" diameter bar of steel before turning it. Just as well I had some other tasks in hand and could multitask between sawing for 5 minutes and doing another wee job.

Rob

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Matty F saying something like:

Thanks, I thought of the hole bit just after posting but the flat bottom to the slot had me.

Indeed - well done!

Thanks. I've just discovered flap disks. I get the really cheap ones and use them for wood and metal.

should have used a diamond tile saw ;-)

Pansy! When I wasa first year app', if the instructor caught us using a m/c tool without goggles he would make us hacksaw through a 3" diameter steel bar. When I was 16 I was about

But I sure do miss the smell of a machine shop.

Arthur

I think that bandsaw would cut anything up to about 2 feet by 1 foot in cross section. It seems the steel I used was 4140 Chromium-molybdenum steel, just because there was some lying around, and no mild steel of the right size. It was very slow to file it or cut with a hand hacksaw, but the power bandsaw cut it OK. Now I'd like to buy or make some kind of swivel vise for the bandsaw. Something like what's on a camera tripod, so I can make other things out of steel using the bandsaw.