How do I cut 6" dia bar?

I have a 6" dia aluminium bar I need to cut up into 1" sections. I cant part it off and it wont go in the bandsaw, hand saw is out of the question! Any ideas or anyone in NW UK got a big saw?? Thanks

How many you looking at?
If buying it often adds 50p to the raw material cut to length may be worth thinking about.

Last 6" had cut to size at 16mm thick worked out £5.75 each but did order other sizes from 30 to 100 off.

This is a bit like the parting off 130 ali bar thread. I use a local stockholder here in the Midlands who will cut to length for me. I have a good working relationship with them and recently gave the saw operator "A Drink" £5 and he cut 8 pieces off a 50 mm bar and 8 pieces off a 45 mm bar both EN16T. A pleasure to watch the saw auto feeding the correct amount and stopping at the selected number off, cuts square as well ! This would have taken me around a day on my old reciprocating "Donkey" hacksaw and cost me a blade.

I don't know which sort of bandsaw you have but I have one of the standard Chinese type that are rated as doing up to 4.5 by 6 inches rectangular, or about 4 inches round. I have cut much larger sizes by means of a couple of bodges. The sensitive should avert their eyes about now!

Ok, for doing about six inches diameter, you can cut until the saw frame is just fouling the job, then turn the job in the vice to cut through the rest. Obviously the cut must remain aligned with the saw.

For an even larger job, eight inches diameter, I have managed to set things up with the bulk of the stock out to the right of the saw, and only the slice being cut off on the side with the frame. So long as the slice is not thick enough to foul the frame itself this will work fine. It does mean coming up with a way of holding the stock so that it does not move relative to the saw.

For cutting pieces where the stock is too short for the vice, you can sometimes get enough grip by putting a piece of similar thickness at the left end of the vice so that the jaws remain parallel.

These sort of tricks only work because the cutting loads with a bandsaw are quite low. Don't try to get too tricky with a reciprocating saw.

John

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How long is the stock you are cutting it from.? - Holding the stock of that dia may be problematic as it gets shorter.

I have a mate with a workshop (and a big saw) that is between the St Helens and Burtonwood area that I could ask for you if you are in that area of the NW ................ He likes beer.!

Nick

Put in vertical mill on a rotary table an run round with a slitting saw to cut 1 in deep all round. Now you only have a 4 in bar to cut by hand and the existing cut acts as a blade guide.

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I like the inventive way your mind is working and I can see the direction.

But I 'think' he has a length (unknown) of ali stock to slice up. - By the time a rotary table and some way of holding it to the rotary table (presumably a chuck) has been placed onto the mill table he will very quickly run out of headroom unless he has a giant mill.

But maybe he just has a short length of stock and just wants 2 x 1in pieces.?

Nick

A decent power hacksaw would deal nicely with that.

Get some good quality hacksaw blades, paint blue spots on them to make them look 'special' and go along to a ME show. Set up the bar and hacksaw on a stand advertising 'Superfizz' blades. Start the cut then invite customers to try out the blade for its super cutting ability which they will really appreciate if they get well stuck in to the rhythm of the cut for 15minutes or so.

EDM - see MEW 254

Neil

I did a 5" steel bar and it took weeks with a powered hacksaw system, and the cut wanders

The only way to go with big stuff IMO is a bandsaw

Why? It's only aluminium.

And it's round so at no point do you have to saw through the full 6" thickness if you work your way around the job in increments.

Has manual labour been outlawed?

Edited By Hopper on 09/04/2017 13:01:41

Edited By Hopper on 09/04/2017 13:02:09

On one of oxtoolco's vids he cut a large diameter brass or bronze bar by parting as far as he dared and then hacksawing on the lathe at low speed with the item wrapped in tape near the original parting groove just in case the hacksaw jumped on him - to avoid marking the piece.

A little musing here but I think years ago you simply accepted that situation was you had no choice but to approach it with nothing but what you can wield in your hand. So you just got on with it.

With the advent of widespread power tool usage, we've realized we can afford to be picky and choose how we want to go about it, and once you lose the habit of using it you find it difficult to get back into it, or even just accepting it in your own head.

I mean, when was the last time anyone cut a keyway onto a shaft, the old fashioned way, by bluing up the shaft, mark it out, cut the vertical lines, then divide it up with short horizontal cuts and chisel out the waste and file it smooth.

Nowadays we're just thinking about what endmill or woodruff cutter we can have at it with.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 09/04/2017 14:51:00

A bog standard Manchester Rapidor power hacksaw will cut 6 inch dia easily,use a coarse blade, suggest find someone in your area with such a saw,offer them a good drink and a contribution towards the blade cost,best to use soluble oil coolant.I have had one for 25 years and it has cut loads of material, blades are getting expensive,I usually buy mine at auto jumbles, The saw takes a standard 14 inch blade,I often buy 17 inch blades as they are cheaper as nobody wants them, cut them to length and drill a new hole with one of those tipped drills that will go through hardened material.

I am in Huddersfield and your welcome to come and use our bandsaw.

Hi Bri - I sent you a pm, did you get it?

Thanks everyone

I had 4" X 6" bandsaw. For oversized work I took off the movable vise jaw and jury rigged a clamp. I cut until the saw frame hit the work, then rotated it, reclamped, and continued sawing.

Alternative 1: find a friend with a big enough saw.

Alternative 2: Use a parting tool in the lathe. Go as deep as possible. Finish with a Sawzall (reciprocating saw)

Alternative 3: Find an excuse to buy a bigger saw.

I have in the past resorted to a wood saw

I now have one of those twin saws with the counter rotating carbide tipped blades and it just loves aluminium !

Do you have a mitre saw that is big enough ? Just use a fine pitch carbide tipped blade and take it slow

When I had a 1" lathe I parted as deep as I could then finished with a Sawzall. Now I have a 16" lathe and I am curious how deep I can part without sawing. I plan to use a lantern toolpost so I can keep cutting forces over the center of the cross slide. Previously I used an Aloris style parting tool and I didn't like the way the tool tilted left under load.