Jivemaster Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 All my local (London Docklands) Scaf suppliers will supply to length if asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pumphouse Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Try the Evolution Fury chop saw - one blade does it all - wood, steel (cold-cut), ally, plastics etc and will last much longer than a grinder-based chop saw. We have one on a bench with endstops that makes getting all the legs exactly the same length much easier! Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddison Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Depending on how many leg you are cutting either one of these or one of these The Record 102 cutter is a very very nice piece of gear, and great if you are anywhere where you don't have access to power. The Makita abrasive saw is also worth looking into, and if you want to cut hundreds then it, with a simple jig, will produce many legs in no time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drsound Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 You might find if you purchase the stock through your local steel or ali stockholder they'll cut it for a nominal sum and get you a useful discount on the material cost in the first place. This of course depends on what you mean by a large number of pieces - your definition might vary wildly from theirs! We cut some this week using the tried and tested method of an apprentice with a hacksaw due to the failure of our chopsaw. Turned out cheaper than buying a new one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 ....Turned out cheaper than buying a new one! chopsaw, hacksaw or apprentice??! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drsound Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 ....Turned out cheaper than buying a new one! chopsaw, hacksaw or apprentice??! ;-)Good question ;) I'd say a decent hacksaw was worth more than some of the apprentices we've had in the past! I'd just about trust them not to remove vital parts of their anatomy with a hacksaw but I always cringe when I hear a power tool starting up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 we've got one of the makita abrasive saws, not too expensive, good for multi cuts etc, we seem to get a decent number of cuts per disc, cutting steel and alloy scaff and square section. Have used the oil-cooled saws before in the past, they are very good but messy, wood probably consider one to fix to a workshop bench, but not for portable use. Hacksaw very boring. need to have a good book to keep you interested while making the cuts....(only joking) my experience of having lengths pre-cut is that sometimes they forget to mark them up. Not too much of a big deal if the raised level is flat or stepped, and the legs are all matching lengths for each level, but a right royal pain in the backside if it's for a raked floor, and there may not be more than a couple of mm difference in length, (difficult to guess with the naked eye) but of course that difference is crucial. Especially if being cut by someone in the building trade, where the use of shims and filler for corrective purposes is prevalent, and acceptable deflection may be measured in centimetres... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AV Ian Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 I've always had them made by my local fabricator who supplied the tube too. I think it was 50p per cut last time. Please be wary of grinding ali with a normal grinding disc. I did the ROSPA abrasive wheels course a few years back and I remember it being a big no-no. If I recall, the ali swarf clings to the disc, heats up, melts in, expands and explodes the disc. There may well be specific discs for this purpose but I suspect they need to run at a much lower speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drsound Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Another danger of using powered grinding on ali, even with the correct tooling, is that you can easily take off too much material. A file is the way to go, it really isn't much hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Can you (suppose you can) get ali grinding wheels? I'd have thought that "normal" grinders would be too fast and they'd be inclined to clog. Never looked into it though.] A quick wipe around with a bastard file should clear swarf. flap disc? leaves a nice finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRisdale Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Try the Evolution Fury chop saw - one blade does it allI'd second that. I bought the Fury sliding mitre saw at Christmas as they were selling some off cheap (uses the same blade as the chop saw). It'll cut a compound mitre cut in scaff life a knife through butter, with a laser guide that actually works...! Not up to the build quality of the bigger brands perhaps, but it certainly does the job... Gareth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathanhill Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 I used to hire a Jepson chop saw with a TCT blade from my local tool hire place. No sparks, clean cut, just a little noisy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 My dad owns a company that has made (in its long history) those full-height crowd barriers (temporary mesh fence panels) made from galvanised tubing, and in production they use a cut-off saw with metal disc, it turns very slowly compared to a wood mitre saw and has a cutting/coolant fluid pump. If that's any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thiswayup Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 A grinder to round the edges after cutting is probably a good idea too, the swarf (sp?) from ali is nasty. Simon Flints have a quite exciting sounding gadget to deal with this on their product of the week http://www.flints.co.uk/acatalog/Tube_Reamers.html (and no, they're not paying me for this!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 de-burring tool round the inside flap disc on a grinder round the outside. its the best way imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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