Need to cut long thin strips of steel (& plastic) - e.g. with an angle grinder?

Possibly it is worth looking on Ebay for a guillotine similar to that shown below. I accept it is floor mounted but you could possibly move it around.

Colin

This one really needs bigger pedal but I have not got round to it. You could set depth stop at front and feed in from the rear.

Colin

Yes fwiw, they now have been:
- Dykem blued
- scriber marked
- hacksawed (to 1mm over-size)
- hand filed to size (large/rough file) to roughly square off
- hand filed to size (small/fine file) to slight over-size (c. 0.25mm)
- 45° chamfered on one edge by large/rough hand file
- 45° chamfered on one edge by small/fine hand file
- 45° chamfered more accurately on diamond hone (rough)
- deburred all edges (deburring wheel)
- 45° chamfered precisely diamond hone (fine)
- deburred again diamond hone (fine)
- corners rounded diamond hone (rough)
- corners rounded diamond hone (fine)
- rough brush finish applied to both large surfaces (diamond hone rough)
- fine brush finish applied to both large surfaces (diamond hone fine)
...and endlessly measured...
==> Fitted. Phew!
 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slam%20dunk


@Colin Heseltine
Do you own that? Roughly how much twist & curl does it put into full width c.1mm thick steel sheet cuttings, in practice?  (Assuming that it can handle it...).

With thanks

J

Edited By John Smith 47 on 20/01/2022 16:21:11

It gets even more intriguing with each post.

What kind of desktop item needs such awkwardly finished parts?

Sheetmetal parts are supposed to be cheap and easy to manufacture(cut, bend, paint, install) for when you can't make them out of rod.

.

I stand corrected, Bill and therefore partly withdraw my approbation

It still looks a nicely made machine but [inevitably?] is not ideal for John’s use-case.

MichaelG.

.

John,

This is not meant to come across as insulting but have you tried getting a finer, new blade for your hacksaw and then taking your time in daylight. And by the way, I agree with you regarding daylight. I have an eye defect (corneas) and I find daylight far better for doing this kind of work.

You will whizz through thin steel or anything else in no time. By the time you have read all the answers on here - it would be done.

Phil H

John,

Yes it is mine.

Up to now I have only used it for brass and steel shim stock. Originally the foot pedal would have been like a brake pedal on a long arm and would give much more leverage that the step type pedal fitted by previous owner.

To be able to try 1mm material I may need to bolt it to floor temporarily. I am a bit stuck for space so cannot put a large plate on the base to stabilise it.

There is a slightly smaller version of it for sale on Ebay at the moment item#125110115176 (£90 or best offer)

Colin

They aren't that complicated, they really aren't. Certainly not a patch on what clock & watchmakers go through!

But since you ask, I am reassured that the parts won't be hard to manufacture in volume. You just get a die made and stamp them. At as you probably know, high pressures stainless steel becomes pretty malleable. If you want to scale up I am told that you could have multiple such die tools in action side-by-side to make say x2 or x3 at once. They can then be deburred & given a finish in various ways. Easy-peasy.
But making them accurately by hand for models is a bit time-consuming.

Yes I have been replacing my fine-toothed hacksaw blades from time-to-time. Currently I gave been using these:

"Eclipse 71-132R Junior Hacksaw Blades 32tpi"

But your suggestion is a good nudge to do so again... next time I'm cutting.

J

I haven't read all the posts... but has anyone mentioned Mike Cox's sliding angle grinder holder in MEW 112?

With a 1mm cutting blade it seems ideal for this job. You probably would need to use a few clamps to keep the small cut off part from being whipped about or bent.

The Dremels are lovely, smaller than normal angle grinders, well-balanced and much more pleasant to use. The wheels are a lot more costly though!

Neil

Also, using a wooden fence the dremel could cut many parallel slots in a sheet of metal... plunge cut, leaving an uncut section at each end. Nice, even, undistorted strips ready for you to remove one at a time by sawing through or using snips at the ends.

N.

.

I don’t think so … but I was wondering whether to mention the one in MEW 312

MichaelG.

.

Seriously though … I don’t think John has the tools to make it ‘as described’ 

and probably wouldn’t have the time to adapt the design.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 20/01/2022 23:26:34

Ryobi sell a 18V Cordless Multi-Material Plunge Saw which accepts 3 3/8" dia blade blades for cutting wood up to 1" thick, ceramic tiles and thin sheet metal.

I recently used one for cutting 20mm MDF and 3mm plywood and is recommended. Comes with an adjustable width edge guide. Often on sale for the tool only (if you already have a battery) from Aus $79.00. It needs the larger battery for bigger jobs.

A "sliding angle grinder holder" is a promising concept, particularly if it had a reasonably long length of travel(?)

However it sounds like something DIY that one would have to make, rather than a commercially available product, yes? If the former, Michael is right... i.e. No, I'm not up for making my own tools.


Is it anything like this?

£182 on eBay:
**LINK**
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313605782476


￡18.86 on AliExpress
**LINK**
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002481335644.html
(if you dare to trust the build quality of anything from AE!)

[TBH, I have bought a few things over the years off AliExpress, but almost without exception, I have regretted it because the build quality was so low.]

From what I can see the length of cut is rather limited (8cm) but if properly well made and able to cut straight lines properly I guess it could be useful. ...Particularly if I bought that Dremel angle grinder to go with it (??)

J

Edited By John Smith 47 on 21/01/2022 03:35:25

I’ve skimmed through all the posts so may have missed it, but has anyone mentioned the Gabro guillotine? Their main advantage is that they give a distortion-free result.
Second choice (because it is slightly slower, but has the potential to be far more accurate) is a slitting saw in a milling machine -I think Jason has already suggested this, and there is an excellent Stefan Gotteswinter YouTube video on this very topic.

My third choice is to clamp the work between two pieces of ply/mdf and cut with a hacksaw, which I see you already do.

Last choice would be a Dremel - way too slow, not good with stainless, razor sharp edges to clean up, etc etc.

Good Morning to all,

I have been a casual storker on this thead and have nothing to add to the many solutions offered. I believe I read that this a secret project so you may not want to answer John, but I was just curious as to how many of this strips you need to produce, if this question is not out of order ? The number required may well dictate the method to use?

Pete

@Steve Pavey

Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions.

Re the Gabro guillotine, they also seem hard to find, but I did come across this video:


To be fair they seem rather large for my home workshop area (and probably expensive) but they certainly look like they would work pretty well!  In effect they are like giant nibblers that cut both sides at once, yes?

Hmmm... OK, I might have to think again about a slitting saw on a milling machine. My first problem is my milling machine (MFF70) is about the smallest machine that money can buy. Also (if I understand correctly) the sheet would need to be aligned vertically, and one would then be constrained by the length of the table's travel.

To get clear, when I said "Dremel" I meant their angle grinder not a multi-tool that people often seem to mean.
Do you still think that this would be slow. Once set up with clamps (+ straight edge?) etc, surely the actual cutting at least would be much faster than a hacksaw, no?

@Pete White
I have a sheet of 1m x 500mm 430 stainless steel, that is 1.4mm thick that I need to cut strips off. I want to do might do say 2, maybe 3 strips at once.
To recap:
- Yes it can all be done with a hacksaw.
- Yes I could outsource the job (but that is a hassle, takes time, costs money... plus isn't as much fun!)
- Last time I did full width cut, my hand nibbler died half way across. (It doesn't do very clean cuts though in any case...)
- In the end I made the full width cut - to what was originally 1000 x1000mm sheet - using a metal cutting blade on an electric jigsaw, but it wasn't pretty. (Noisy as hell, blade kept getting red hot despite load of lube...)

With thanks

J

Edited By John Smith 47 on 21/01/2022 10:58:22

As well as the F.J Edwards guillotine I pictured above, I also have a Gabro 3M2 guillotine and the Gabro BF620 folder. They are both very good machines. I could really do with the blade being sharpened on the 3M2 as previous owner tried to cut rod or similar and put tiny notch in the blade. (it will not stone out). Luckily it did not affect the material I was cutting to any significant degree.

Colin

how are feeler gauges cut and fettled?

H.

That Gabro guillotine looks like an idea candidate for making lathe tool packing.

I would say stamped out & then barrel rolled or similar to de-burr.

Tony

Better than a hacksaw, No. The Dremel Angle Grinder isn't a precision tool. They're good for fast hacking not accurate cutting. Mine is the same size as Dremel and I use it on paving slabs, to chop lumps of metal into approximate shape, and demolitions! Based on earlier answers, an Angle Grinder isn't fit for purpose. Could be used to rough out metal which would have to be considerably cleaned up by other tools.

The Dremel multi-tool is slow, but used carefully it's capable of accurate work. Based on earlier answers, the multi-tool is a runner.

In summary:

• Angle grinder: fast, noisy, messy, broad rough cuts. Inaccurate.
• Hacksaw: slow, quiet, narrow cuts, accurate in skilled hands, or with a jig.
• Dremel Multi-tool: slow, slightly noisy, versatile, good for fine cutting, delicate grinding, polishing, and small diameter drilling. Much favoured for delicate accurate work, skill required.
• Not available: a small cheap tool for unskilled users that quickly makes precision burr-free straight steel strips!

Compromise or buy a big expensive tool.

Dave