OT: Wrought iron balusters?

Anybody ever install any of these? The newells and handrails will be oak. When I bid the job I bid for oak balusters as well. Now I've been told I'll have to cut each baluster to length. 200+ balusters sounds like I need to get my hands on a chop saw or should I just put a metal cutting blade on the old Makita mitre saw? Either way it sounds like the price is going up. Any advice/suggestions appreciated.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin L. Bowling
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There is a cheap chop saw which uses an angle grinder in a saw frame. They seem to work well from what I have heard. Available with 4.5" or 9" angle grinder.

John

Reply to
John Manders

"Kevin L. Bowling" wrote in news:3f8e7c61$0$52143$ snipped-for-privacy@nnrp.fuse.net:

Kevin, In the past year I've done this exact job. I bought the heavy duty 14" chop saw from Harbor Freight (~100 on sale). I cut each of the 200 forged steel pickets twice (once on each end) and I'm still on the first blade. This saw works well and is solid. Still, wear hearing and eye protection and long pants since the sparks will fly. Oh, forget about the mitre saw, it will just melt with all of the hot molten sparks. One more tip - I used the side of the abrasive blade to smooth out the cut ends of the pickets. This didn't seem to wear the blade too much so I wasn't worried that it would cause it to fail in the center of the blade, resulting in flying fragments.

-Matt

Reply to
MattH

Metal cutting bandsaw, or else hire a disk cutter with 12" disks.

I'd go with the bandsaw. They're cheap, and they're useful afterwards.

I've had some bad experiences with abrasive disk cutters, unless you have a large diameter disk.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Well, I can borrow a chop saw. Don't plan on doing much rebar or steel stud cutting any time soon so no need to buy one. I do like that $99.00 price tag though. I wonder if these wrought iron balusters are going to be a trend. They seem to be catching on around here.

They're a few dollars cheaper than wood. I don't think they're gonna save that much when I get through with the labor though. Any thoughts on this?

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin L. Bowling

First of all, they're not wrought iron, they're steel.

Secondly, the things are a damn nuisance for maintenance. Unless they're top grade quality when installed, the paint only lasts a couple of years before rusting through. Then you have one hell of a job to keep them looking good, as they're such an awkward shape to strip to bare metal for repainting.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Reply to
Andy Dingley

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