Has anyone used the cold cut saw to cut unistrut ?
I’m wondering if the clamping force is enough it damage the strut material.
The stuff I want to cut is the half thickness version, BTW.
I don’t think it will be an issue. Put the back of the material to the back of the saw.
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I personally wouldn’t use a cold cut saw on something as thin as unistrut, it is pretty good tolerance dimensionally, but if one side was slightly taller than the other and it wasn’t clamped tight, it could chatter and take the tips off the blade. Unistrut cuts easily on an abrasive cuttoff saw, I use a bandsaw just cause I don’t like the noise and there are fewer burrs to grind off.
Hacksaw or vertical bandsaw, coldcut is not good for such thin material as others have mentioned.
Does the bandsaw have a usable blade ? More often than not it doesn’t. And actually, that won’t work. I need to cut long pieces. Don’t think there’s enough clearance.
I wanted a clean square cut, so the chop saw is not my first choice. And every time I’ve tried to use it the disk has been less than half the initial diameter.
I will NOT be using a hacksaw. I have several pieces to cut. And as noted, I’d like the ends to be reasonably square.
Once again we’re trending towards “just do it at home - none of the shop full of tools will work.”
Rather frustrating.
What happened to the horizontal band saw ? That would seem a good choice.
The Wellsaw, if that’s the horizontal bandsaw in question, is alive and well in the Metal Shop. Of course, folks still seem immune to common sense and/or learned behviour to preserve the function of the blade and often ruin them by “helping out the feed rate” (hanging off the lowering arm instead of letting it do its job at the appropriate rate). So it may be in the same boat as the other tools; wishing we could work/spend fast enough to keep it working every time for every customer.
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Last I checked the horizontal bandsaw was still operational.
as others have mentioned, people like to try and push the blade down. As long as you just let gravity do its job and try try to force it should be fine and work well for this. Our new chop saw blade should be at the space by now, but I haven’t been by to install it. You can check the package queue and, if you put the blade on, go for that as an option if you would rather use a chop saw. We’re trying to stay away from abrasive blades because people keep shattering them from forceful use, so we order diamond edge metal blades.
Cheers,
-Jim
Todd, How thin is your uni-strut?
Will have to find my calipers. It’s the version that Home Depot sells. But not the square version.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Superstrut-1-5-8-in-x-10-ft-Metal-Framing-Channel-ZB14HS10PG/100183826
Description says 14 Gauge.
That should cut ok. I would do a test cut, out the slots to the back of the vise.
I suspect I can find a piece to use for a test, and if it deforms that piece that’ll be a bad sign.
What about the chatter worries expressed above ? Ruining a test piece of strut is no big deal, but as I recall, the blades for the saw are not cheap.
Unistrut is shorter sections between bends than some of the 14 ga square steel tubing that has been cut before. So unless policy on square steel tube has changed, I think this should be fine.
Sorry Todd, I meant to do some test cuts tonight. (I have unistrut on my truck) But Machine shops condensate AC decided to get clogged & overflow.
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No worries. And thanks.
It’ll be tomorrow or Sunday when I get to this part of the project. Mad scramble to finish up things before we set up for FenCon on Thursday…
Just an FYI the metal chop saw is currently down as well; someone offered to make a harbor freight run in the morning and get some replacement motor brushes. If those don’t work a second run will be to replace the saw. The motor armature is a little wonky on top of the brushes being bad and the power cord being damaged, so we’ll see.
I did just check the horizontal band saw and it seems good to go if you want to end up using that. Not a perfect blade but it’s running and has most of it’s teeth
Cheers,
-Jim
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Do we use namebrand bimetal blades, like Starrett or Lenox? I have a small horizontal bandsaw and an old walker turner vertical bandsaw. I’ve only been a member since Feb I think, and haven’t needed to come in that often, but everytime I have looked at the Welsaw there were teeth missing. Might be nice to have a log book on it for when the blade is changed, blade partnumber, maybe what people are cutting with it in order to figure out why there would be any missing teeth.
It has been many years since I have wiped teeth off my horizontal saw, I think once was trying to cut something that was hard, and second was not having the piece clamped tight and it chattered. Also when cutting thinwall I lift slightly to slow the feedrate down. I use a Lenox Diemaster 2 10/14 tooth blade and cut mostly 1/4" or less wall. I think I should be using a 18 tooth blade for really thin stuff like unistrut but 10/14 works fine if I slow the feedrate
If there is space it might make sense to get a small horizontal bandsaw in addition to the Wellsaw so new people can learn how to run a bandsaw with a less expensive blade. I have an old saw pretty similar to this that I took the legs off and put on a plywood base with wheels so I can store it under my welding bottle shelf. You could easily store a saw like this under the Wellsaw.
these are the blades I use from MSC.
2 months ago it was replaced. We do have a spare blade for it, or did. It is name brand.