Thread: Best way to cut lathe stock?

A good tool for this is a horizontal bandsaw. I have a small cheap one (about $300) that looks like rubbish but has been surprisingly effective for many years. You can just let it cut as it turns itself off, so you can get on with other work. Always have a spare blade.

Jordan

The Bandsaw would as it appears be your best allternative.
Not sure about the mitre saw blade never used one.
The friction saw will take time,with cutting material of that thickness try not to exert to much pressure on the cutting wheel,just resting your hand on top with slight downward pressure will do,sometimes the more pressure you apply the longer the cuts take.
The hacksaw is cheap and quite,wouldnt say easy.
You have mentioned how much of this you need,have you considered asking your stock supplier to cut it to length for you.In Australia there cutting fees can range from $1.50 to $4.00 a cut depending on material diameter.
If you dont require the diameters on a regular basis that could be an allternative,you would have to do your calcs,number of bars x number of cuts to see if the Bandsaw would suit.

I'll second that. they are the best 300 odd $ you can spend. It would be the last machine to leave my workshop. The Starret brand blades from H&F are the best to use IMO. After owning one for decades I find they perform the best. Because of the small dia. wheels the blades will fail of stress cracks but at around $12 each they go very well.
I even get wood cutting blades made to suit mine, while not as fast as a wood drop saw, they are surprisingly good, for certain jobs.

Also you can leave it cutting the next piece of work, while you are using the lathe, if its nearby.

Originally Posted by loply

So I gave up on that and bought a used abrasive metal chop saw. It works but it's noisy as hell and heats the metal to within an inch of it's life, and takes ages to cut 30mm or 40mm rod. I don't know if I have a bad blade but it's just generally a nightmare and I feel like the machine is going to explode if I try it again. Doesn't help that the blade is a good 3/4mm thick meaning it's removing a lot of metal.

3/4mm thick is extremely thin for a chop saw I think you mean 3 to 4 mm?
It sounds like you have a glazed wheel. A touch on a devil stone will help speed things up.

Also tried cutting them using an angle grinder by hand as the disc is much thinner, worked quite well but again generally hard work and slow and used about a full 115mm disc to do one 40mm rod.

This sounds rather odd to me. This means you are getting ~1259 mm^2 per disc where as when I cut 12 mm thick flatbar I usually get 3200 mm^2 per disc my guess you are trying to cut straight thru it whereas its better to make 1/4 cut then rotate the bar and make another 1/4 etc. Since you'll be facing it off on the lathe it won't matter if its a bit crooked.

All that aside, a metal cutting BS is still by far the best way to fly with this stuff and I find it's often quicker to drive the big stuff to work to get it done on the metal BS there than mucking about with grinders at home.

Power hacksaws are another option if you come across one. I'm very happy with mine.

Originally Posted by Bryan

Power hacksaws are another option if you come across one. I'm very happy with mine.

I love my Parkanson power hacksaw .
I get stock cutting jobs from the local engineering shop on occasion , no payment ,just the privilege of raiding his off cut bin.

kev.

Another vote for the 300 buck horizontal bandsaws. They look like crap but at the end of the day they work perfectly well. Draining the oil that comes in the gearbox as new is generally regarded as good advice, and immediately throw out the blade they come with. However with a Starrett blade you'll wonder why it took so long to buy one! Many people also upgrade the stand they sit on, it's very flimsy.

Pete

I have a little Lotze power hacksaw, most probably a third the size of Kev's Parkanson but for a hundred bucks it's saved me a lot of elbow work. There are times though when a Sandvik hacksaw can't be beat.

There's always the parting off in the lathe option

BT

Now if you have plenty of cash and want to really get to the top in the tool gloat stakes you could buy one of these. Fast, relatively quiet, and super accurate.
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Pr...tockCode=S108S

Of course you would have to have it on the optional stand and also with the 2 vice option.

Top of my list for when the lottery office calls me.

bollie7

Originally Posted by bollie7

Now if you have plenty of cash and want to really get to the top in the tool gloat stakes you could buy one of these. Fast, relatively quiet, and super accurate.
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Pr...tockCode=S108S

Of course you would have to have it on the optional stand and also with the 2 vice option.

Top of my list for when the lottery office calls me.

bollie7

While I love my Steelmaster version of that saw (free but with a blown motor!), and wouldn't be without it, they fall down if you need to cut a big chunk of something (even the 350mm only handles 110mm round, and mine is only a 315mm). Although I suppose with square and round stuff you can rotate it in the vice to finish the cut, but if you wanted to cut the end off a casting or something as awkwardly shaped, or perhaps slice a piece of bar lengthways, you're out of luck.

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

While I love my Steelmaster version of that saw (free but with a blown motor!), and wouldn't be without it, they fall down if you need to cut a big chunk of something (even the 350mm only handles 110mm round, and mine is only a 315mm). Although I suppose with square and round stuff you can rotate it in the vice to finish the cut, but if you wanted to cut the end off a casting or something as awkwardly shaped, or perhaps slice a piece of bar lengthways, you're out of luck.

You are absolutely right, but I wouldn't let that stop me from buying one if I was cashed up.
Of course if I could afford a new Brobo, I could afford a power hacksaw or bandsaw as well.
I'm starting to suspect that the lottery office has lost my number.

bollie7

Where do you get the 300 buck bandsaw from?

Originally Posted by rfurzer

Where do you get the 300 buck bandsaw from?

https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Pr...stockCode=B002

and
http://www.machines4u.com.au/view/ad...Capacity/8000/

and
http://www.machines4u.com.au/view/ad...-SG4012/14955/

I am going to look at a hardly used one this after noon so I have been doing a bit of research on them. The cheap ones all look pretty similar.

Originally Posted by bollie7

I'm starting to suspect that the lottery office has lost my number.

bollie7

Yes, I think they've lost mine too - or filed it under serial pest, more likely.