knots Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 I have a piece of 1/2" thick steel plate that I want to make a welding table out of. 2 sides are mill cut the other 2 sides are torch cut. I want to build a welding table using this plate as a top. What is the best way to cut this plate to size using limited small shop resources ? Has any one ever tried to cut 1/2" steel pate with a power hand saw and abrasive blade ? I have a good strong old industrial power hand saw. I should be able to jig it up and make a reasonably straight, square/clean cut with that se up. However have no Idea what to expect time wise. The only other option that I can think of using my available resources would be to set it in edge and grind then file the edge true. I want to avoid this option if possible. This piece of steel will require about 60" of edge preparation. It will supplement a nice piece of 1" thick steel which is drilled and tapped at 4" OC both ways for fastening jigs and fixtures in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurlyGeorge Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Dan, I suspect that you will use several cutting blades and a lot of time doing it with the hand saw. However, it probably can be done. You may want to contact a local welding/fab shop and ask them to torch it for you. It shouldn't be too expensive if all you want is to square it up. Let us know what you decide. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNewman Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 I have cut steel plate with a wood saw and abrasive disk. Don't do it, you will damage the saw with all the grit, it is nasty work and you will burn through a lot of disks. I would either sub out shearing it, cash money often gets that done cheaply. Or there are circular saws made to cut steel plate with carbide blades. I bought mine, a cheap Chinese one for less than $100 at Princess Auto on sale. Either way you should grind the torch cut area where you plan to cut as the hard torch cut edge will damage both a shear or the carbide blade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 There are carbide blades for cutting steel (not abrasive blades) that will work quite well in a skill saw... they are about $40 each, the ones I use are made by Bosch. They work really well but produce a very unpleasant spray of hot chips so use a full face shield and long sleeves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Call around to all the big fabricating shops in your area. 1/2" shear capacity is not uncommon. The second best alternative is a radiograph with tracks, or whatever type of mechanized torch cutting is common in your area. The third option is to have a practised hand cut it with an oxy-fuel torch, using a sraight edge. With the proper size tip and pressure it is not that big of a job. All of these options should be cheaper than the cost of the saw which you will surely ruin and the abrasives you will use, never mind the time and agony of doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavala Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Build your table and work off the clean edges till you get a torch kit. Abrasives are messy and loud, it would take forever. I bet you could find a torch kit for a 100 bucks on craigs and bottle rentals cheap. You'd be done in less than five minutes. Call a guy with a weld truck and your looking at 50 to 75 bucks for 5 minutes of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacock Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 What equipment do you have? Do you have a stick welder and an air compressor? If you do you might want to look at an air arc torch, it is not the best but a pretty cheap way to cut. If you need the welding table you need some way to cut also. Some of my guys can make nice cuts with a little pratice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..amazon blade info I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike-hr Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Just throwing this in to the pool, feel free to ignore it. Consider bolting your plate to the table frame, instead of welding it. Countersink the holes w/82degree countersink, and allen headed flathead machine screws will set flush with the surface. The first by-gosh real welding table I made used 1/2 inch plate with the frame set inbound 4 inches per side so I could clamp stuff with visegrips. I skip welded the top to the frame, 1-1/2 inches of weld every 8 inches. The whole tabletop warped toward the weld about 2 degrees, so I had to shim everything I needed straight, until I gave the table away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddog Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..amazon blade info I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins I had no idea they were capable of that. How long do those blades last? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 I had no idea they were capable of that. How long do those blades last? It really depends on how heavy of material you cut... You could hope to get maybe 20-30 feet of 3/4 plate but could cut hundreds of feet of 12 gauge.... They make special saws that use these blades.. I have a Milwaukee 8" saw and a Evolution 9" saw for steel cutting.. but the blades are much more expensive (the biggest advantage of the metal specific saws is they catch the chips which come off hot and tend to stick to any exposed skin They also spin a little slower and have more torque) I use a standard worm drive skill saw that I use the Bosch blades on and it works fine.. Harbor freight even sells a usable metal cutting blade but its not much cheaper than the Bosch and the Bosch is way better... I use them to split tubing, cut channel.. plate, sheet metal... all kinds of stuff... I buy the blades 10 at a time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knots Posted October 26, 2010 Author Share Posted October 26, 2010 You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..amazon blade info I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins OK - That is the ticket. Amazon - Hmm, that should be easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sask Mark Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..amazon blade info I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins Thanks for the tip. That sounds like a nice alternative to my shaky-handed O/A cutting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainely,Bob Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 So Larry,what do you use for lube on the blade?I`m assuming you would at least need to periodically wax the blade if not use some kind of high tech spray.Lubrication is the key to longevity,and not just with cutting tools. This is coming from someone who chalks or waxes files before using them. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstermetal Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Well... as a matter of fact GoJo hand cleaner seems to be the best lube for aluminum.. the kind with no grit obviously For steel I use Lenox lube tube wax... I have cut a lot with no lube though... But I think the wax helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Thanks, Larry. I've seen these types of blades on chop saws (they use one to cut stock to length at my Fastenal), but the blades I've priced in the past were pretty big money. This is much more reasonable, and it'll be a much more pleasant alternative to abrasive saws. Also a lot more convenient for me than torch cutting. Great tip! Have you ever tried these on, say, large tubing? (By "large" I mean too large for a blade this size to cut in one pass.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainely,Bob Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 From my experience with cutting pipe with a cold saw blade the best results are to clearly mark the cut before hand(like center punch the line rather than rely on soapstone which will just blow away)and set the depth of cut to just slightly more than the wall thickness of the pipe/tube. One thing these type of blades have in common with friction saw blades is they don`t take well to side loading and will fracture if stressed enough.Needless to say a steel blade will be FAR more dangerous than a friction blade when it breaks at speed but either can kill you given the right conditions. One really bad result I saw was when an operator was cutting Sch 40 pipe with the saw set at max depth and went off the line.He tried to muscle the saw back into line and shattered the steel blade which took out the aluminum guard and some of the saw.The blade,guard,etc ended up mostly embedded in the operator as he was hunched over the cut to better see what was going on. Stay out of the line of fire and don`t trust a thin aluminum guard to stop steel or carbide at high speed. The saws and grinders most of us liked to use were the pneumatic type as they could be dialed down with a regulator so they would stall if things got in a bind rather than either explode or start smoking like an electric tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fciron Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 I've cut hundreds of feet of 16 ga with a carbide tipped blade in a worm-drive circular saw. I wore my welding leathers, gloves, a hat and a face-shield in addition to goggles and earplugs. It was loud and flung hot blue chips everywhere. It was unpleasant, but certainly the fastest and cheapest way to get the job done. If you clamp a straight-edge to the work you can get some very nice looking results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knots Posted October 26, 2010 Author Share Posted October 26, 2010 It really depends on how heavy of material you cut... You could hope to get maybe 20-30 feet of 3/4 plate but could cut hundreds of feet of 12 gauge.... They make special saws that use these blades.. I have a Milwaukee 8" saw and a Evolution 9" saw for steel cutting.. but the blades are much more expensive (the biggest advantage of the metal specific saws is they catch the chips which come off hot and tend to stick to any exposed skin They also spin a little slower and have more torque) I use a standard worm drive skill saw that I use the Bosch blades on and it works fine.. Harbor freight even sells a usable metal cutting blade but its not much cheaper than the Bosch and the Bosch is way better... I use them to split tubing, cut channel.. plate, sheet metal... all kinds of stuff... I buy the blades 10 at a time.... The blade is ordered. Any advice on feed rates or other helpful hints. I routinely cut small heavy stuff in my wet and band saws but not plate that is to big to fit into one of my machines. This is a first for me and I really do appreciate the information and support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianinsa Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Hi All, I agree, these blades definitely are the 'way to go' I have drilled a small hole in the side of the blade guard of my saw and I fix an airduster(pencil type ie. no triger)to it with a cable tie this blows the hot chips forward and away from me and the cooling effect on the blade helps(if small)with tool life. One could possibly jerry up a oiler to dispence a soluble oil/water mix as a cutting fluid but as I don't do this that often(relying on our guiloteen)I have never bothered. Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWHII Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..amazon blade info I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins Larry are you using a worm drive saw or just a plan old skill saw? I have seen a demo using this type of blade but the saw was one with a slightly lower RPM. Sorry Larry after re reading your post again I ask the same question you allready answered. To early need more coffee. Alpha is still not talking to Beta. <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 That is a good item to have great blade. I have a friend who saves his shaving and adds then to his borax so when forge welding they melt first and he knows he is up to temp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 You guys are missing the boat here.. I cut lots of plate with a carbide toothed metal blade on a regular old skill saw.. I have a torch, and a track burner... heck I even have a CNC pattern torch... and I still cut most of my straight cuts with a skill saw.. its fast, easy, clean and cheap... You can cut 1/2" plate with a saw faster than you can torch cut it and have a machined looking edge... Dont knock it till you try it..amazon blade info I cut 4' of 3/4 plate with my saw just the other day.. took almost 5 min to cut the sheet in half.. but cutting 1/2" you could cut 4' in maybe 2 mins How many amps is your saw Larry? Worm drive? Afraid I really would have to see it too beleive it was faster than a torch with the correct tip and pressure and a good operater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 How many amps is your saw Larry? Worm drive? Afraid I really would have to see it too beleive it was faster than a torch with the correct tip and pressure and a good operater. Makes all the difference. I have cut 1/4 inch with an abrasive disk in a regular circular saw with good results. Putting a fan to blow so you are cutting into the wind helps keep yourself and your equipment clean. It is a filthy job. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBower Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 I've done that, too. And you might not believe the stuff I've cut with a 4.5" angle grinder. Eventually I got smart about the black boogers and started wearing a respirator. I'm psyched about Larry's tip. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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