Cutting Steel Plate.

Inviting in strangers to your property is not a good idea. Other items may ‘disappear’ later.

Cutting discs, not grinding disks, are the way to go with an angle grinder - but needs good ppe. Grinding away welds will be slow and difficult with ‘good penetration welds’ on that thickness of steel.

Hi John, yes flame cutting would be the best way of doing it, especially if the gussets are welded right into the corners between the base and the tube. Cutting with a 9" between the tube and gussets will be the easiest bit but if you could cut between the base plate and the gusset on one side at an angle above the weld and into the base, a good few clouts with a sledge might break the weld on the other side, but getting a cut right in the corner near the tube will be difficult. I suppose you wish to keep the tube as long as possible, otherwise you could cut through the gussets higher up where you ca get a full cut and then cut the tube off at that level. I hope you are allowing the 9" to do the work and not forcing it to cut harder by putting too much pressure on it, putting a lot of weight on a cutting disc slows it down, which actually makes cutting slower and wears the disc away faster as well as over heating the grinder and does make for harder work, it is a mistake quite a lot of so called professional make that I've work with during my working life. Hope you manage your task safely.

Regards Nick.

Thanks Guys,

Some good advice there ! Fortunately I only want to remove one of the four gussets, though removing the front two would be an advantage in giving me a clear area. The rear two gussets can be left alone since there are large water storage tanks on either side catching rain water off the building roofs. The column is being used to support the wife's washing line, so woe betide me if I disturbed it.

I'm going to make enquiries at a tool hire place in town and see if they have anything that can help !

These happy Finns might give you inspiration...
**LINK**

If the plate is galvanized forget the gas axe or plasma. Vaporized zinc or zinc oxide should not be inhaled.

Is the wife’s washing line 75 feet up in the air then? 🤔 Dave W

I use 115mm x 1mm blue spot stainless cutting discs to cut steel plate up to an inch thick

remove the grinder guard and wear sensible ppe

You do it in stages, cutting an approx 0.5 to 1cm deep trench for the entire length of each pass until all the way through

NEVER force the disc, ever, let it do the work, and stay clear of the kickback zone

If you are going in too deep it will start to pull so stop and come in from a different direction

With a bit of practice it's actually pretty easy, so do the easiest part first to get a feel for the job, you need a steady hand, cut straight lines to minimise kickback/pulling friction, and stay focussed

Edited By Ady1 on 19/09/2021 09:13:26

If you're looking to make it neat you will probably need to do two jobs, one to get the maln plate off and one to make the welded sections look nice

No ! The tower base and 8 ft support post is all that is left. The actual tower was scrapped some time ago.

I have some people coming to cut the gusset plates away ! They are aware that its galvanised and said that its not a problem.

Thanks for the advice guys, its appreciated !

Hi Ady1, no disrespects, but you should Never use an angle grinder (or any other type of grinder) with the guard removed, nor should you advise anyone else to do so, I agree about PPE but this is a secondary defence not a first one, all other forms of safety should be considered and put in place first and the guard is the first defence, the correct and undamaged guard fitted and correctly adjusted properly will prevent burst parts of a disc, being flung onto the operator, the only parts that may hit the operator should only be any that may bounce back from something else and these will have less force for your PPE to deal with. My advice is to wear full face protection and a leather welders apron whenever using an angle grinder, even for a job that takes only a moment. A moment is all that is needed for a part of a flying disc to cause a serious or even a life changing injury.

Regards Nick.

P.S. if however you like playing Russian Roulette, that's your own choice, I guess.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 19/09/2021 12:31:53

The most dangerous part of any angle grinder is a locking trigger

Lockable triggers on angle grinders should be illegal

Hi Ady1, sorry I have to disagree with that, unless you have a very old seven or nine inch grinder or some horrible foreign piece of junk, you are unlikely to have one of those with a locking trigger. I've used angle grinders all my working life almost every day and I'm afraid the most dangerous part I've seen, is some operators of them and I've never had any problems with the locking (or rather latching) triggers with any of the five inch and below ones, nor have I known anyone else in my working environments having problems with them. Using them correctly and safely and with due confidence will reduce accidents considerably, all usage of angle grinders should be assessed, and any pitfalls taken into account and only when a safe method of doing the job safely, should allow you to continue, if a danger of injury is perceived, then reassessment is needed or a different method employed.

Regards Nick.

Plasma cutters are becoming quite cheap now:

Lidl plasma cutter

Don't know if they will deliver to UK now following Brexit.

Russell

I'll pop down with my facemask and 'Swag for Life' bag to grab one of those before I pop round the bank.

Neil

I believe there's a little rubber boat cross channel service which is very reliable

French submarine yards are also moving into rubber boat production as of last week so there should be no shortages