Metal Cutting
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From: Canada
Metal Cutting
OK, here's the deal: I'm making a stand for my new bench grinder, its bigger and beefier and needs to be held down. I need to cut a piece of 1/8" thick steel pipe but I need the cut to be perfectly straight. i.e. 90 degree angle. I've got a Delta Miter Saw an was just wondering if I could buy a metal cutting blade for it and use that. Its not huge - 8 1/4" diameter, 9 Amp motor, but I'm just looking for reasons to not do this. (and if there's none, thats even better). I could always use my angle grinder, or even a plain hack saw, but I need this cut to be almost perfectly straight. Thanks guys, tips and info is appreciated.
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From: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
What are you doing after you cut the pipe, are you welding a top plate on or not? 
When the weld is done to the top plate on that is when you can make it perfectly true to the pipe by using a square. By doing it this way the cut doesn`t have to be perfectly straight. Of course the better the cut the easier it is to weld it up.
When the weld is done to the top plate on that is when you can make it perfectly true to the pipe by using a square. By doing it this way the cut doesn`t have to be perfectly straight. Of course the better the cut the easier it is to weld it up.
Last edited by Fomoko1; Jan 28, 2005 at 01:26 PM.
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From: Canada
Sorry, yes I am welding it to a mounting plate. I was basically more curious as whether I could put a chop saw blade on a miter saw without doing any damage. For this, and for future projects. If its not a good cut, I'll have to "build-up" a weld to fill the space and I rather just have good contact all round to begin with and get a good solid bead around it.
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Originally Posted by jacque_strap
Sorry, yes I am welding it to a mounting plate. I was basically more curious as whether I could put a chop saw blade on a miter saw without doing any damage. For this, and for future projects. If its not a good cut, I'll have to "build-up" a weld to fill the space and I rather just have good contact all round to begin with and get a good solid bead around it.
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From: Canada
Originally Posted by beano
i would just cut it with the saw. i dont think you would end up with a 1/4 to 1/2 inch gap in the end. unless you have a tractor supply saw. just cut slow and you should be fine.
Beauty, Thanks!
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Tuned
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 268
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From: a little S/E of Nome
You could also torch cut it and grind a chamfer around the pipe edge for good weld penetration. Most bench grinders that I see are sitting on a 4 - 6 inch pipe welded to a disc blade 16 to 24 inches or a half of a truck rim sitting on the floor. The grinder head is usually on a piece of channel iron proportionate to the base of the grinder. Why complicate things?
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 2002
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From: The Big, Oregon
Many miter saws have plastic in the guard, and some of the high end ones have magnesium alloy guards. If you cut steel in these, you are risking a huge fire. I looked into this before, and you can get a metal chop saw for pretty cheap, about $60. I am sure you will find tons of other jobs for it if you get one.
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Joined: Mar 2004
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From: calamus Iowa
You can buy metal cutting blades to put on to the mitre saw, but he is right you have to remove all the plastic peices and replace with metal. I build custom frames and I bought a saw and made some aluminum gaurds for my mitre saw. Now i can use it for for metal and for wood.
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From: Bothell, WA
I've used my 10" wood mitersaw for cutting steel angles. After that job I took the saw apart and cleaned all the bushings supporting the miter. I was amazed at all the metal particles that had found their way inside the bushings and how much damage they had done in just a few hours of usage. For the next project I bought a metal cutting miter saw.
