Best Way to Cut Test Coupons?

[nate0520]

I'm looking for a solution to cut test plates with "unconventional equipment" (i.e. not a band saw, pipe beveler, etc.). In the past I've used angle grinders and porta-bands. They suck but they're better than nothing -- they're quite slow and difficult to make a consistent bevel on, say, 3/4" plate. I'm asking for plate coupon methods since I don't do pipe, but I'd be very interested to hear if someone's come up with a way to bevel pipe in their garage!

[Gamble]

I used to buy 1" stock from the hardware store and cut them in the bandsaw. For 3/4" plate I'd use plasma

[DSW]

Unconventional and slow? How about a hand held hacksaw?

[motolife313]

heres how I do mine with a 4.5" grinder.

[CEP]

You could always go old school.

[nate0520]

Unconventional and slow? How about a hand held hacksaw?

My freshman year on our high school's robotics team, first weekend I was there they had me hacksaw a bunch of 3/4" round rod stainless, probably about 30. Once I finished I was finished, I watched the upperclassman take them over to the lathe and use a parting tool to face each end. That's when I discovered we had a lathe, with a parting tool -- next to the horizontal band saw.

Edit: Motolife313, is that aluminum? And do you cut it on the bench just like that? (Well, with some sort of sacrificial plate instead, presumably)

[motolife313]

Yes there AL and with one cut they can out close to that. Then I had to had file it with a really rough file to get it nice. Took maybe 10-20minutes. If you wanna try and bend some 3/8", of your choice of metal ill bend a few for you for free. It's set up right now for 3/8" but can bend 1/2" also. I'm in portland OR

[mikecwik]

You could be using the wrong abrasive,

http://www.fischerengr.com/Testmatls.htm

[Tailored]

I'm looking for a solution to cut test plates with "unconventional equipment" (i.e. not a band saw, pipe beveler, etc.). In the past I've used angle grinders and porta-bands. They suck but they're better than nothing -- they're quite slow and difficult to make a consistent bevel on, say, 3/4" plate. I'm asking for plate coupon methods since I don't do pipe, but I'd be very interested to hear if someone's come up with a way to bevel pipe in their garage!

I don't know if this is unconventional enough, but you could strap a cutting torch onto a piece of wood or steel. Take a peice of mdf and route a slot down it, then attach some bolts to the wood or metal you have the torch on, and provided you angle the torch where you want it, you'd get pretty darn consistent cuts.

This isn't an original idea, my welding class has big torches setup on a sliding sled much like I described, aside from not being homemade and involving no wood. Though I suppose you could make some kind of trolley for an I beam, or something that rolls in a piece of C channel, or maybe one of those square tubes with a notch in it. Whichever you did, a simple angle (think protractor, not angle iron) lock to let you set some common bevel angles, or just a set screw to let you set it to whatever angle you like.

If you wanted to go a different, different route, popular mechanics has an old plan for a motor driven hacksaw, that I built with a friend years back. It was extremely consistent, and once we had everything dialed in, switching blades was the only time cut consistency dropped below .05 He's a machinist, I couldn't even tell there was an inaccuracy.

That said, it wasn't that fast, but did make very nice clean cuts.

[VPT]

Everyone seems to be using a circular saw now days for cutting anything. That might work too.