The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest General Fab Work - Cutting Tubing and Flat Iron

Advice from you fabbers please. For general fab work around the ranch and frame mod's what are the most versatile tools? My old standby is a chop saw with a 1/8" blade, great for tubing but not great for small pieces of flat iron, like for shock or motor mounts or 4 link suspensions. Cutting torch is just too rough. Too many guys on here have said they never use their plasma cutter. I'm contemplating a portable band saw that you can set on a stand like this link or a stationary band saw like this link what have you guys found to be most versatile?

I use a portable band saw for cutting small things. I clamp what I am cutting in a vice. That way I can see what I am doing and my fingers aren't in danger. I have a large horizontal oil cooled band saw that we use all the time for cutting large things. But we could live without it on anything that needs cutting on a pickup. The band saw table looks pretty neat, but for cutting small stuff it wouldn't be much safer than a chop saw. And its not big enough to tackle big jobs. If I had only a chop saw, I would look at buying a portable band saw next and take the big stuff to someone who has a big band saw. If you find yourself needing a horizontal band saw, I would save money for a horizontal band saw next. The attachment looks nifty, but I just don't think its very practical. As far as around a ranch, you would be surprised how clean you can cut with a torch with some practice. If I need to cut something straight, I clamp a piece of square tubing to it and use that for a guide. And freehanding is a lot like welding. Watch the cut and move the torch at the right speed.

After getting my plasma, I'll never light a torch again,
unless I need to heat up something or cut a gate off in the
south pasture. Even then, I could load the 5000 watt
generator and plasma in to the pickup.
But around the shop, cutting steel, aluminum, SS, thin, thick,
straight, curved, compound curves, odd shaped parts you can't
beat the plasma torch for a lot of the projects.
If I'm fabricating something that will fit in the saw from
tubing, channel, angle, bar stock then generally it goes into
the horizontal band saw. Small pieces or pieces that need a
bit more precision than a cutting torch can offer get notched,
trimmed or shaped in the vertical band saw.
Actually a well equipped shop needs dozens and dozens of metal
cutting tools dedicated to specific tasks.
But if you're one who is working with a low budget, limited
space and only occasionally need to cut something, then a
hack saw and grinder will suffice in most cases.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have lots of cutting options in my shop.
If you want one tool that is very handy and capable and not terribly expensive... Then you're on the right track with the portable band saw and table for it.

I have the portable bandsaw and for years have turned it up under my right arm with thumb on the trigger and used the left hand to hold and guide small parts to be cut off, or cut shapes to a line. Basically I use it like a bandsaw with a table but I don't have the table. So I can certianly see how handy the table attachment would be especially if this is your primary metal cutting tool.

The portable bandsaw to me was one of those tools.... "Why didn't I get one of these years ago!?"

For the items you mentioned like motor mounts and etc. the 4 1/2" angle grinder is absolutely the best, smallest, portable and powerful tool for small jobs. Get a good one. Cuts quickly thru anything. You can clamp any part in a vise and cut. These will also fit into places that a portable band saw will not if you are cutting something off in a tight space.

Good input fellas. My 30X50 shop is so dang crowded, I don't have enough room to function, so really sensitive to adding more stuff that doesn't get a lot of use. I'm leaning toward getting a really good portable band saw and getting one of the tables from swag. With the miter gauge and slide should be much easier and safer to cut angles and smaller pieces of heavy iron. Really good comments.

A cold saw is really good but expensive,
horizontal band saw with the right blade works good for many things very versatile.

and then a plasma is really nice it will cut just about anything
need to cut that pain in the butt flex conduit plasma make short work of it.
with some practice with a straight edge clamped you can get a neat cut

I'm with bart on the angle grinder. I use the biggest one that HF sells and use 6 inch Slicer@ cut-off wheels (the thin ones) available at most welding supply stores. This rig cuts like butter, and the large diameter wheel helps to keep the cuts straight. Make sure the piece you are cutting is secure, and avoid binding the blade on anything on the other side of the cut, as these blades blow up when that kind of binding occurs. Wear a full face shield.
Carl

I've been using a Makita 4" angle grinder with 1/16" cutoff wheels for years to do all sorts of cutting chores. One precaution- - - -that thin little blade will go bone-deep instantly on any body part that gets in its way, so have a firm grip on the tool as you cut and pay close attention to what you're doing.

For big projects I use a Craftsman 2-speed stationary bandsaw with a tilting head that will cut any angle up to 45 degrees. An 18-tooth bimetal blade and low speed will cut up to 1/2" thick steel as long as you don't crowd it. Aluminum and any kind of wood I've tried is no problem at all. I'm debating whether or not I need a portable bandsaw.
Jerry

I have a couple nice angle grinders and good thin cutoff wheels...
I reach for the portaband just about every time. Only occasionally does the angle grinder have better access and is then tool for the job. Or for something hardened.

In comparison the portaband is quiet, calm, controlled, and easy to cut to a line. The angle grinder is loud, throws sparks and sometimes chunks of disc, and takes more skill and control to cut carefully with.

Also portaband blades last and last, months if not years depending on use, and cost about $10-20 each. Cutoff disc last more along the lines of how many cuts/jobs and cost about $1-2.

Both are good tools and have varied uses that overlap only slightly. If you have not tried a portaband I expect once you do you'll add one to your wish list.

Can you cut a rusted area out of a body with a band saw? Can you cut the repair piece for that from a sheet without drilling a hole? Smooth out a weld? Cut thru welds? Deburr your cut edge? Reach up under a chassis and cut off an old bracket one handed? Those are some reasons I like an AG. I don't like the sparks from it though.

Those are good uses for an angle grinder.

This thread title is
"General Fab Work - Cutting Tubing and Flat Iron"

Good point. Don't know exactly what he is going to cut. He says short pieces at one point. I would cut longer tubing and flat iron with my chop saw and short pieces in vise with AG. Never had a band saw so don't know what it can do that I can't so far.

I've got 2 angle grinders on my welding table. One has a cutoff wheel and the other a grinding wheel. Both indispensable and handy for all the things Bart mentioned. Where I'm struggling is cutting small 1/4" pieces, like for example I buy 6" sq. plates from my steel supplier, and cut them diagonally for gussets. I usually use the torch for things like this and any curves. By the time I get it all clamped and setup then grind the edges smooth it's a chore. A portaband saw on a table with a miter guide would make quick work of that. The chop saw isn't good for short tubing pieces or angles, again band saw will be quicker and safer.

Tell them to shear a few of the 6 x 6 @ 45deg? Sounds like you need a band saw for the other cuts you mention. Let us know what you get and how you like it.

One of my more favorite tools for tubing and flat stock is my horizontal band saw. I believe it is a 10" capacity? I can set it and walk away to do other fabbing. Where a cutoff wheel must be manned the whole time. When I need exact production / reproduction work, that is the go to saw. I also have my hydraulic clamp, 14" cold saw which, once set up, doubles my production. The cold saw also does angle work easier than the band saw. For weird shaped stuff, the vertical band saw. And for stuff that doesn't fit in the vertical band saw, the plasma with various guides. The plasma can make very accurate and straight cuts when set up properly.

Best to just buy the gussets pre cut can't beat a shear for that
many place just cut them from left over plate rems.

for everything else horizontal band saw.
change your cut order cut the angle first then cut to length
for a short angled piece of tube.

it's a mater of using the right tool for that particular job.
then you can get into the good stuff like a cnc plasma table
you can really do a lot with that

Ditto on the Porta Band. I got the DeWalt version and the Swag Offroad Table. The two together just work like they belong that way. Nice cuts through everything thats small, but remember you only have about a 4 inch throat. The Makita with thin wheel works well too. The Makita 12" Dry Cut Saw is awesome for cutting up to 4 inch square tubing, but the blades are about 100$ each and if you dont keep the work oiled during cutting, they wont last long.

The other advantage of the Porta-Band with table, you can take it off the table and go anywhere with it. Even if I had the desire to get a bigger band saw, and I do, I would still purchase the Porta-Band with table.
http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Portaband-Tables-Accessories_c_35.html

I have the 4. There might be cheaper ones out there. All I know is, it really does double the usefulness.

Well all those tools are just dandy. But what about us poor hillbillies and Arizona ranchers (you know who you are) who can only afford HF grinders and cutoff wheels? I feel we should receive some sort of subsidy!
Carl

If I could afford a band saw I would have indoor plumbing.

$250 HF bandsaw is a good deal and can usually be found on sale for less than $200. Not to bad for a 4x6 band saw.

May need to be tweaked, but google will show the you way.

Not sure why a grinder gets so much hate... 4.5in cutting wheels are cheap and cut metal. My HF grinder was $9. Cuts just like the $100+ ones.

Cutting a straight line takes practice with a AG but can be done almost straight with practice. Short "touch" cuts, connect them to make a groove, then follow the groove deeper. When done, Kiss the cut with side of disc to square. When you really get good you can follow the line in one pass to make a groove or cut. You have to man handle the thing though or it will bite you. Real men take off the shield. But I do use googles and face mask.

You have to take off the safety shield if you want to see what you're doing.
Carl
Real man, but no rancher.

No AG shield here. First thing that gets tossed. The shield really gets in the way. I learned that from the old man.

I have seen a few bad AG cuts but I have only been nicked.

The cuts I've seen were nasty. They do go right to the bone.

For those of you who don't care for a guard with your cutoff wheels check this picture out.
http://i.imgur.com/zOAyZxU.jpg

You know they're fragile and likely to break and you still don't want the guard???


(If you do use a guard you may not want to look at the picture... ouch)

Wow he really got tattooed! That's a 6". I wear safety shield and googles.

Yeah, I have had a few explode on me too, be careful out there!

Biker chicks dig scars.

The old man died with all his digits intact. And no zip scars. Actually, he did have an axe scar from carving lobster buoys. Almost lost a good chunk of his hand.

But I digress. Risks abound.

I do wear a full face shield.

For cutting tubing, flat (not plate), angle (in other words long stuff), I will go to horizontal band saw over anything else first.

Next for this long stuff probably is chop saw with abrasive blade. Horizontal band saw will cut the "wider" things at a right angle, chop saw blade wants to walk slightly away from the piece. But the chop saw is pretty affordable.

(Tried the HF horizontal bandsaw way back when and was not impressed, JET works much better out-of-the-box.)

Now I will digress:

Electric angle grinders have their place, so do pneumatic cut-off tools (angle and straight with rotary brasive blades).

An air-powered body saw is much handier than I thought it might be...especially around sheet metal. Close in function here is electric jig saw with metal blade.

Every once and a while the old elbow-grease powered hacksaw is handy.

Last things I pull out are reciprocating saw, plasma cutter and torch. Usually they are more for "demolition" than building back. Don't know how you would get stuff like front crossmembers out of old trucks easier than plasma cutting it out. (I also prefer to avoid the heat, sparks, and flames plasma and torch produce.)

Bottom line with cutting tools is that there is no one kind that will do many things well. (I thought when I ponied up big-bucks for a big 220VAC plasma that it would be the do-it-all, but I was wrong.)

For cutting plate, unless you are blessed by the Lord with a big shear, then plasma/torch with straight-edge will work but you will still be grinding kerf of in either case, just less for plasma.

My .02 on the metal cutting business.

Agreed. The type of cutting tool varies with the circumstance involved.

Here is a good example of that very near to me.

Might be a tad hard on the blade....

A whole lot better than the 2 shear pins I broke today tackling this issue.

I used to use a chop saw (the abrasive wheel type) then broke down and got the dry cut saw. It fills that hole where you need a chop saw that doesn't wander, and does any angle you want. It's the perfect solution for cutting up to 4 inch square (or round) tubing. But, there is a cost. The blades are not cheap (about $100 a shot) and it costs 1/4 that or more to have them sharpened. My experience is having them sharpened isn't as good as a new blade.

You HAVE to really spray that cooking oil on the blade alot and make sure you take it slow. But, to give you an idea on how long a dry blade will last, check out: http://devestechnet.com/Home/SuperJigPlans
I used one blade to do this entire project and a little bit more. Was it worth it? That's just a matter of opinion, but each cut was precision with no sparks to speak of, and at any angle I chose. I got the Makita 12 incher, but the Milwaukee 14 incher is also highly rated. The reason it is not THE PANACEA for this, is the cost of the blades, AND if you have a gorilla chomping down during the cut, its toast almost right away. Finesse is the key to success when using it.

I bought a JET wet horizontal bandsaw, for cutting a lot of material any size up to 7x12" overall its the quietest, cleanest, and fastest for mass amounts of cutting. I go through a couple blades a year with average amount of use, and I dont have to babysit the thing while it can cut 8x of the same thing in one pass. Its paid for itself over and over.

Chopsaws I find are good "on the fly" tools in a small setups or wherever you need something portable, though it can be obnoxious when I cant finish a cut on something a little oversized

Plasmas are great for cutting thick or thin shapes from sheet, though I find the torch a more universal item aside from cutting if all I do is steel work

Most of all I try and use whatever tool can make the cleanest cut with the least amount of me doing the work

Just got my monthly Eastwood spam...

..interesting technique, no guard, but maybe a face shield and some gloves would be in order at least...

Ay Carumba! Hard on the shades..

Well at least they are hacking up a Ferd product...

http://www.grizzly.com/products/7-x-12-Metal-Cutting-Bandsaw/G0561

I had one of these for a couple of years to get me started. I ended up building a stand that got it up to working height and put casters on it. I purchased a much nicer pivot head band saw and sold the one above...

Well, we got busy and needed another band saw, but needed it to be portable. So I bought another one and built the same stand for it. It gets used about once a week were my pivot head saw gets used a couple times an hour.