flush trim on steel?

[FJ Shepley & JM Pfohl]

I need to trim some 30 gauge barn steel on the shed I'm building. Can I use a flush trim to trim the steel? Would it ruin the trim bit or the router?

Thanks, Frank.

[Morgans]

Bad idea! Get an abrasive metal cutting blade for your skill saw.

[ELA]

Something else you can try . . . Take a regular saw blade (no carbide tips) and put it in the saw backwards. This cuts steel like a champ. My fater-in-law used to cut the tops off of 55 gal drums doing this.

I just put my asbestos underware on so I'm ready for the flames this suggestion is sure to draw ;)

ELA

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Sat, 4 Oct 2003 21:16:30 -0400, "FJ Shepley & JM Pfohl" Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

25,000 RPM's of carbide spinning nicely in a router...now imagine those nicely sharp carbides touching some steel. . .

make sure you are using two pairs of safety glasses at worst. . . at best you have a 20-30$ bit that is now junk.

Traves

[Andy Dingley]

_Really_ bad idea on steel. It used to be a tolerable idea for aluminium, but proper negative rake sawblades are now cheap and commonplace.

No, it cuts it like a bad tinopener. On an oil drum you might get away with it, anything thicker and you're going to have real problems; a saw that needs to be forced through the steel by brute force and a huge risk of kickbacks.

Don't do it. Get an angle grinder and a steel cutting disk.

Damn right,

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[CW]

[Gene T]