Cutting 2"X 2" Steel

[ParCan]

Hi All.

I have a rather large bit of 2" square Brite steel. Like 6' of the stuff.

How do I cut it to managable lengths ?

Manual Hacksaw - er no thanks.
Chop saw is not the answer - we just glazed the blades.

Band Saw ?
Wil the lower cost ones cope with this ?

If not I know a Power Hacksaw will do the job well and can be picked up at lowish cost.

Comments, ideas and suggestions welcome.

Anyone in the Chelmsford Area care to loan me a Suitable tool or allow me to use one ?

I'll probably want a mix of 4", 6" and 12" lengths.


Thanks

Alex.

[ChrisC]

Hi Alex,

The common 4 1/2" bandsaws are easily capable of cutting 2" Bright steel bar.  I have a 1980's vintage Warco saw, and is the most used tool in my workshop.  In the UK you can get them new from Warco, Machine Mart etc.  They sometimes need a bit of playing about to get them to cut straight, but in my experience, they work well for the price.

I cut up some 1 1/2" Bright Steel round bar a couple of days ago.

Chris

[loply]

As above, got my cheap bandsaw second hand for £50, it will cut that into 50 bits without breaking a sweat.

Set it going and walk away.

[ParCan]

Hi

Thank you both for your replies.

Looks like i'm off shopping tomorrow

Alex.

[ParCan]

Axminster MCB1155HD band Saw bought.
Shop Refurb from a Custommer return.

It arrived on their own Brand New Truck a week later. Machine was fully assembled and had obviously been adjusted.
I literally plugged it in checked the speed was set to slow clamped up a lump of metal and ran it up.

I now have a nice selction of managable lumps of 2" X 2" steel.

May be not quite Knife through Butter.
A Cut takes ~5 mins, but I have to say compared to the Chop Saw i tried this is 100% the correct way to go.
Also got some spare Blades with it so I may put one of them on and see how we get along.

The Tool Itself is of Chinese origin and will need the usual tinkering and bits replaced.

An All round excellent buy and top service from http://www.axminster.co.uk/ Axminster Machine Tools

Thanks everyone for your advice.

[Brass_Machine]

Good job. I have found that the blades these things usually come with aren't worth anything. Buy yourself some aftermarket blades 

Eric

[PekkaNF]

There has to be some instructions somewhere, but I bought my long time ago and here are my two eurocents:

Five minutes on 2" sections sounds a lot. I have same blade size, but yours is nicer and you have hydraulic downfeed retarder.

1) Choose blade coarsest you can. You need max. amount of space for swarf between teeth. Don't go too coarse though. Least three teeth has to make always contact, othervise arm will drop between teeth and this will strip teeth...My favorite is 6/10 Tpi blade, but I have some finer ones for thinner sections.

2) When cutting pipe/channel/profile. Mount it such way that Least three teeth will make contact with web any given time. Sometimes you need to turn material such way that it is not intuitive. Like thin L-section should be put like inverted V. If you mount it like L you might first strip teeth trying to maul thin web. And second blade wanders all over place when it tries to plow trough long bottom web.

3) Lower blade carefully. You Don't want to nick a tooth everytime you start cutting.

4) Use coolant if you can. I use emulsion, makes nicer cut and blades last way longer (I use mainly iron metals). I use "Sport" drink bottle and adjust between drip/flow.

5) Clean the gearbox. Mine had been filled tablespoon of sand/rust/grime and a little of yak-oil. Scooped grime and washed it. I filled it with boat gear oil and it has been fine ever since. Mine has some bronze or such gear, didn't want to hypoid or such oil that has amonia or whatever it is that attacks bronze but is great on all iron gears.

6) I tend to loose blade tension after every day and retension when I need it, but I'm not really 100% sure if it is necessary, but I do it.

Check electrics just to make sure that everything is under control and then you don't need to worry about it. Mine had bad terminations and cables were not mounted at all. Acidental pull or triping on cable could have caused hazard of electrocution. I felt better after I changed NVR.

The bandsaw I got was definately best bang for money. After going trough compulsory points I have had it in working order around 15 years and it has cut much metal, often as big as I can mount there.

PekkaNF

[sshire]

Good luck with the saw. A few adjustments and a good blade will have it running well.
Here's a 30 minute video on tips and blade alignment.

Best
Stan

[sshire]

Almost forgot. The 4x6 bandsaws are almost identical so the manual from Grizzly.com should help. It's much better than most of the manual which are 3 pages of legal disclaimers and 1 page of instructions.

[Pete49]

When I got my 6"X4" bandsaw I purchased a bi-metal blade on the advice of some other owners. Best blades for home shed/shop users as it handles all the wierd stuff we tend to use  both ferrous and no-ferrous.
Pete