I'm installing a railing and need to cut the metal. I've got a hacksaw and a portable circular saw, so naturally which one do I grab? The circular saw.
I found out why they say not to cut steel with most blades. It throws hot chips all over and dulls the blade pretty quick.
Lesson #2: Safety glasses aren't the end-all of safety. A chip found its way past the glasses and while I'm ok it's a little sore there. I should have been wearing a full face shield but I didn't have one on site.
Learned something else... Sanders are awesome at deburring steel. I tried doing it with a file, then switched to the sander and wow what a difference! Got the piece deburred, rounded, and cleaned in a minute rather than taking 5 or more with the file.
I wish you had video...I would never have expected You to be the one reporting this! : ) A reciprocating saw might have been a good choice too--but evidently you were in a hurry! Glad you weren't banged up more than you were.
That is why some safety glasses come with side shields. In most manufacturing companies where I have worked, the standard issue safe glasses have side shields. As you said if you are working in a rain of sparks you should have been using a full face shield.
This applies to corrosive liquids also. For the routine handling of corrosive liquids you should always use safety glasses with side shields. Where you may get splashing, face shields are a must.
Many years ago when I was working in a lab, one technician was digesting an organic in a crucible. It did not go as fast as he thought and leaned over and looked into the crucible, Unfortunate just at that moment it splattered. Fortunately the tech had side shield safety glass, but for weeks afterwards had yellow spots all over his face from the nitric acid. All over except behind the side shields and eye glasses.
Safety glasses with side shields are required by federal government workplace regulations for these industries.
I've mostly cut metal on my miter saw using a metal cutting wheel. I don't recall if I ever tried it in a circular but it wouldn't surprised me if I did.
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For a railing, I probably would have grabbed my angle grinder with either a metal grinding wheel or cut-off wheel.
I was going to get rid of my old Delta miter saw when I bought the Bosch glider, but I decided to save it for cutting crappy wood and metal. Years ago I had access to a radial arm saw to cut through steel plates up to a 1/2" thick. Using slow, shallow cuts on a tightly secured plate, you can make some surprisingly smooth and accurate cuts.
On 1/17/2021 1:48 AM, Puckdropper wrote: > I'm installing a railing and need to cut the metal. I've got a hacksaw and > a portable circular saw, so naturally which one do I grab? The circular > saw. >
I've got a hand held 9 inch circular saw that is supposed to be for cutting steel. I have used it on stainless sheet. That is hard on blades. Its been used for pieces of aluminum plate to big to put on the horizontal bandsaw. For that it works a treat. I haven't yet used it for cutting plain steel. I'll report back when I do. I've got a 4x8 sheet of A36 on my welding table that really should be cut down to 3x7. Maybe someday.
For years I had a cheap Black & Decker circular saw from K-Mart. I kept an abrasive blade on it for cutting steel all the time. I don't know that I cut miles of steel with it, but it was my primary cutting tool for steel for a long time. Even after I got a torch the abrasive saw was often the better tool for the job. It cut the parts for hundreds of small satellite dish roof mounts.
Somebody mentioned a reciprocating saw. I've got two of those. An old Sears that I used as needed for 15-20 years. I bought it because I needed one to finish a job, was broke, and had a Sears credit card. Its cut a lot of things including a little bit of steel. When the blade holder broke I bought a Super Sawzall. Then I found a replacement holder for the Sears one. I never thought they were great for cutting steel. Sure with the right blade they do the job, but they are rarely my first choice if I can get another tool into the space. They are like the Swiss Army knife of cutting tools in my opinion. Capable of a lot of things, but not really the best tool for any of them. If I do use one for steel I often start with a fresh Milwaukee "Torch" blade and find myself finishing with one of my old Lennox bi metal blades. I really should throw those torch blades away, but I have a whole pack of them brand new still in the package. I hate to throw away new tools.
You know when it comes to eye protection I was terrible over the years. I was also pretty lucky. Most of my life I grabbed a tool and tackled the job. Its only since I changed from contracting to machining that I have become really conscious of the dangers. Sure I always kept a pair or 3 of the old Uvex safety glasses in my truck, but often that's where they spent the entire week.
I noticed some time back one of the industrial companies makes a table saw for cutting steel. I've got a big broken DeWalt out back that dwarfs my Delta. I've often thought about putting a steel slat table on and converting to some sort of slow speed drive.
Not chip related, but my most dramatic "Thank God I was wearing safety glasses" moment came when I was building my first deck.
I didn't need to wear corrective lessons back then, but I worked at a factory so wearing safety glasses was a practice that I followed at work and at home.
I was playing around with the railing for the deck stairs, trying to figure out what look I wanted. I attached a 2 x4 to the posts with some bar clamps and stepped back to take a look. Since there are 9 steps from the ground to the landing, one of the bar clamps was up pretty high. I should mention that I had grabbed a 36" clamp and attached it so that the bar was sticking out into the yard.
As I walked back towards the stairs, my vision was focused on the railing. The 1/4" x 3/4" end of the steel bar didn't even register in my brain. When I was about 30" from the stairs, my head snapped back as the end of the bar hit the right lens of my safety glasses dead center. The bar deflected upwards and put a nasty gouge in my forehead. By the time I realized what had happened, blood was dripping down over my eye and I was shaking like a leaf. It took me a few seconds to figure out that my eye was OK and that it was just blood that was obstructing my vision. The lens was cracked, but had held and had done it's job.
I have no doubt that the safety glasses prevented the bar from pushing my eyeball back into my head. 30+ years later, it still makes me a little queasy just thinking about it.
An acquaintance was hammering cut nails into his basement wall. Yep, one shattered sending shrapnel into his eye. After a half dozen surgeries they did save his eye but there is lesson in there.
Two big mistakes. 1) no eye protection and 2) using a hardened (claw) hammer on hardened cut nails. He won't do that again.
Or, in the "any excuse to buy a toy^H^Hool" category, you can get a plasma cutter on Amazon for about 170 bucks. Wouldn't recommend it for a production shop, or anybody who does a lot of metal work, but for once in a blue moon use, should be fine. Does need a compressor and a 35A circuit though.
Bill snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote in news:lhUMH.9253$ snipped-for-privacy@fx04.iad:
You wouldn't have seen anything anyway. I just realized I have access to a jigsaw, so finishing up this project I'll probably use that. Thanks for the suggestion!
Not to pick nits, but never heard of saw blade used for cutting cement. Concrete, yes, masonry most definitely yes... There is also a brand of saw system designed specifically for cutting steel with an electric saw. Evolution. I believe it is possible to bush the arbor down to fit a standard or worm drive saw.
My point precisely...cement is merely an ingredient in concrete, along with water, sand and aggregate...and occasionally super-plasticizer, retarder, air entraining agent etc... As a concrete contractor for many years, it has been a pet peeve of mine when the terms cement and concrete are used interchangeably... All good...
That would be great if 1) you were providing any information/education and 2) Anyone needed your information/education 3) If you weren't trying to show how "smart" you are with your information/education.
But feel free to be the newbie here who feels the need to be Captain Obvious.
My most humble apologies m'lord. Please provide the portal, and the names of the governing officials, to whom I should present any future comments for vetting/approval prior to posting. Surely my intention is not to offend anyone...Stay well...
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