I use my plasma cutter. Quick and nice clean ends.

 

14in Abrasive chop saw works good.

You can find them all day on CL less than $100.

 

i never noticed any additional wear on my saw after cutting re-bar. it's the welding of re-bar that could cause problems.

 

A dry cut saw blade has carbide teeth. The speed of any cutting edge is limited according to the hardness/toughness of the material. Regular rebar has hard spots and is not consistent like other grades of steel. Imagine a speed limit on the cutter. High speed steel is around 100 feet per minute, carbides are around 300 fpm. High end ceramic cutters are over 1000fpm... All for cutting mild steel. Even if you submerged the cutter in coolant you would dull the cutting edge.

Rebar is not a good choice to cut with any type of saw.
Much better to use a chop saw that uses a gutting disc and grind your way through or cut it with shear on an iron worker. Cutting rebar on an ironworker also shortens life of the cutting edge and sometimes chips the edge.

 

I agree with the abrasive chop saw. A saw blade with teeth is way too much money to screw up. Use a torch too.

 

thanks for the info guys (and any gals :waving
i've messed with metal for a long while, by my standards, but still consider myself a newb. the consensus seems to be what i'd though, it ain't good for the saw blade. i don't have a plasma cutter...yet. :real mad: i don't think i want to drop $100-ish on a chop saw, i'd rather put that towards the plasma cutter so i'll try a cutting disc on the grinder if i need to cut any rebar. i'm currently shopping for a plasma cutter so i may have one by the time i actually have time to get back into the garbage and mess with it.

now, what's tough about welding rebar?
i make a couple little speaker stands with some 1/2 or 3/8, don't remember the size. was i doing something stupid or dangerous that i had no knowledge of?

thanks for engaging.

j-

 

Little grinder and a Zip wheel. It's rebar = No biggie.

Welding? Ezy Peezy ............ for garden art

and Miss Cleo approves this addition to Gram-ma-ma's landscape.

Designed & TIG welded by nephew

 

Little grinder and a Zip wheel. It's rebar = No biggie.

Welding? Ezy Peezy ............ for garden art

I've been making tomato cages out of 3/8" rebar. For that size, I used very large bolt cutters to cut it (which made it a 2 person operation, while a proper rebar cutter would have done a better job with just one). Some pieces would snap when the cutter was only halfway through. Some would smush and a few I'd have to rotate and cut again to get the cut to fully separate. Rebar is like bedframes. It's the sausage of the steel world. There's a reason it's cheap, but yeah, it can be quite a good deal for lawn art.

 

Do it on chop saw. At first, I actually thought that probably a porta band can do it. But on second thoughts, it wouldn't be effective.

 

In making 15 tomato cages with five square rungs, I needed 300 identical pieces. The bolt cutters made sense, as the biggest ones HF sold (42" at the time) were cheaper than a handful of porta band blades, and the pinched end they left made welding the mitered corners easier.
The problem was that I needed one person to work the cutter, and another to hold the rebar.

For a few pieces I was making by myself late at night, I used the porta band with great success.

 

The frowning on welding rebar, is that it is a weak, easy to crack, cheap metal.

You don't want to hang stuff over head, or anything strength critical...

It is great for all kinds of stuff though.

~John

 

ah!
thanks much.

j-

 

If you have a tool rental place near you see if they rent one of the portables shears made for cutting rebar. just put it in push down an it is cut.No fuss no mess.

 

I cut thousands of pieces of rebar to 3/4" on my store's construction site with a Makita 7" skillsaw and metal abrasive blades. Leaned most of them over my leg. Not a big deal.
Jerry

 

There are a lot of people here that don't know any thing about rebar. There are several grades of rebar requiring different rods for the different grades. Grade 2 is soft, bends and cuts easily and can be welded with mig or stick with 6011 or 6010. Grade 6, the hardest is higher carbon content, harder to bend and to cut and requires 7018 rod but can still be welded well with mig. Consider the grade when you are cutting and welding and you will be fine.

 

I guess I can count you among those people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebar#Grades

There are weldable rebars and non weldable.

I've cut a lot of rebar with bolt cutters. It's quick. The technique I use is to do it on the ground or floor. Before cutting, open up the bolt cutter and insert the rebar into the jaws. Bolt cutter is on the floor and you put your foot on one handle and use both your hands on the other handle. It's a one man job this way.

The rebar around here is harder than mild steel. It's 75000 psi yield strength which I think is called grade 75 in the US. With a pair of 30" quality cutters I can cut this grade of rebar up to 1/2" but 1/2" is the limit. 3/8" is OK and smaller than that is easy. With larger bolt cutters it will be less work of course and also easier with a grade that isn't as hard.

Basically, that is how a mechanical rebar cutter works (except the lower handle is meant to screw to a board and stay on the ground, the jaws are rotated so the rebar lays in them, and they shear more than they pinch, so they make a cleaner cut with less effort).

LOL. My bolt cutters happen to be 42", and with the jaws fully open and one handle on the ground, my arms are not long enough to hold a piece of rebar in the jaws to keep it from popping out before I manage to cut it (since used this way, the jaws are facing downwards). It's an effort in frustration. Yes, with QUALITY 30" cutters (better cutters have sharper jaws; mine are crap), this is easily a 1 man job, but when you're cutting hundreds of pieces, having one person to work the cutter while another moves the rebar can get you moving at a serious pace.
Now if I had a pair of pneumatic bolt cutters ...

 

I've cut a lot of rebar with bolt cutters. It's quick. The technique I use is to do it on the ground or floor. Before cutting, open up the bolt cutter and insert the rebar into the jaws. Bolt cutter is on the floor and you put your foot on one handle and use both your hands on the other handle. It's a one man job this way.

The rebar around here is harder than mild steel. It's 75000 psi yield strength which I think is called grade 75 in the US. With a pair of 30" quality cutters I can cut this grade of rebar up to 1/2" but 1/2" is the limit. 3/8" is OK and smaller than that is easy. With larger bolt cutters it will be less work of course and also easier with a grade that isn't as hard.

For thicker rebar like 5/8" I use a 5" angle grinder with the thin 0.040" cut off discs.

 

Used to cut it all the time at work with stihl saw with cutoff blade. Cutting a couple hundred pieces a day. The blade material is the equivalent of the cutoff disk on a grinder, wouldn't really over think it. I probably wouldn't do it in my dry saw, just because I baby it and am dreading buying a new blade lol.

 

When you're talking used and scrap rebar I don't think you can really talk 'grade'. It'll likely be a bit of everything. Assume the worst.

 

madduck

Courtesy of Bob - this is a long recommendation.

"There are a lot of people here that don't know any thing about re-bar". . .

I agree . . .

When welding re-bar: in industry/construction, you have material
certifications, and merely apply the weld processes/procedures.

Then all of that good welding is shrouded with concrete - never to be seen.


Generally: in industry/construction, fabricating anything with re-bar is
looked down upon; because you always have the appropriate/superior
material on hand.

Now: that I work in a more lacks-critical welding sector - I still, will not
fab anything from found re-bar - this regularly upsets clients.

On point: when the weldability of surplus re-bar is unknown - it is only
suitable for yard art.

I have literally dropped: a 3' length of #6 and it snapped in half on impact
from 4' off the concrete, virgin length - no welding.

When: you go to the 'Big Box' for your re-bar - you are not getting welding
grade re-bar - you are getting R.R. grade.

I would never put R.R. grade re-bar in my dry-cut saw; because you might
get up-lucky; and fillet all of your teeth.

There are no dentures for carbide blades.


Opus


ps

Cut re-bar: with a re-bar shear or a hot-saw - and weld it any way you want;
as long as you stick your product in the dirt.

 

I have literally dropped: a 3' length of #6 and it snapped in half on impact
from 4' off the concrete, virgin length - no welding.

When: you go to the 'Big Box' for your re-bar - you are not getting welding
grade re-bar - you are getting R.R. grade.

I would never put R.R. grade re-bar in my dry-cut saw; because you might
get up-lucky; and fillet all of your teeth.

There are no dentures for carbide blades.

I too have seen rebar as brittle as glass. It's surprisingly common.
I don't think box stores are the issue. You'll get crap rebar from a steel yard too. There's a reason it's cheap.
Agreed, I wouldn't kill my carbide on it.

 

I wont cut it on my dry saw. Just use a cut off wheel or other method. I have run across super hard and super soft rebar. It is not worth the risk to cut it in your dry saw.

 

thanks for all the info folks, got a whole lot more info on rebar than i'd planned, which is great. and, as i suspected, it consensus seems to be NOT to cut rebar with a toothed blade...so i won't.

thanks for everyones time.

 

If your made of money and going to be cutting tons of rebar.

Lobster Cordless rebar cutter

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