Cut structural steel?

[lloydsp]

If anybody needs large structural members cut, I just SCORED (gloat!)

There are still deals out there.  I just nailed down an 8" x 22" Kalamazoo bandsaw for $900!

(it's over 40 years old, but maintained and fully working to spec -- takes 144" x 1" blades)

"Just fell into my lap" (as it were).  Pick it up tomorrow.

FWIW, this relates, because I've just put "out tables" on my R2E4, so I can handle stock much longer than the table.  The goal was to put precision rabbetts and holes in 8" x 8" structural I-beams.  Of course, I couldn't cut them myself (only, now I can!  )

Lloyd

[Bob La Londe]

Makes my little local score seem pretty lame.  I bought an old HF RF-30, and they threw in an 8.5x18 HF lathe a couple vises, and a bunch of tooling, chucks, collet holders etc to sweeten the deal and get me to bite. 

On an on topic side...  I do plan to CNC the lathe. 

Probably going to leave the mill manual for a while. 

[kvom]

The guy I bought my lathe and mill from a couple of years ago gave me an old Johnson horizontal bandsaw for free.  New blade and wiring and it's all good.  Haven't tried cutting anything bigger then 3" round though.

[lloydsp]

Bob, your score doesn't sound so shabby!  I was just very happy to finally find a saw I could both afford, and would cut an 8x8x25lb I-beam in about 20 minutes.

Johnson saws are good ones, too; especially the older ones.

Lloyd

[Bob La Londe]

Is this one of those metal band saws with the saw assembley going up and down like a chop saw?  Some guys are making their own pneumatic cylinders to support those so they are never resting the full weight on the blade.  Not sure about all the particulars, but I imagein you could check around if you are interested. 

[lloydsp]

Is this one of those metal band saws with the saw assembley going up and down like a chop saw?  Some guys are making their own pneumatic cylinders to support those so they are never resting the full weight on the blade.  Not sure about all the particulars, but I imagein you could check around if you are interested. 
----------

Bob, I've seen the counterbalancing done with pneumatics, but that's not usually the purpose of the hydraulics/pneumatics on the saws.

The actual weight on the blade is ordinarily controlled by a counter-balance spring, the force of which is user-adjustable with a handwheel or wrench.  The hydraulic/pneumatic cylinder (when present) is to control the rate at which the blade can fall. 

Say you're cutting an 8x8 I-beam, and it's lying so that you cut first through one flange, then the web, then the other flange.  If you apply enough force to the blade to cut properly through an 8" wide flange section, when it finally cuts through to the 3/8" wide web, the blade will hog into the narrow work much too aggressively.

Come the hydraulic rate cylinder... it won't allow the blade to fall any faster in the 3/8 section than whatever maximum rate you set via a bleeder control.

LLoyd