Plasma cutter would be best.

 

I bought a Northern Tool metal cutting circular saw for less than $200 and use it for 1/4" x 2" square tubing. Cuts straight and fast with clean edges. Expanded metal would be easy for it. The metal cutting blade in a circular saw should do fine for you if you use angle iron or square tubing as a straight edged guide. I think dedicated metal cutting circular saws have a lower rpm but for a one-shot job the blade should do fine. Watch out for the metal chips though. They're hot!

 

That's a nice hand drawing for its purpose.

You said you already know about being able to use a grinder, but I'd be going with a 6" zip disk on an w14-150 ergo that has the rotating rat tail style handle for cutting.

I'd say you could get Eastern Steel to shear it to size for you but unless you stood there with the shear guy, it might not be cut accurately enough. He always hit the tape measure numbers measured on two sides, but they have generally not been square to each other, leaving the remaining two sides different lengths.

 

I should have probably specified my limited number of options here...

Plasma cutter is not available to me. I weld as a hobby at home and have an ad on craigslist just to support my tool buying habit. (I paid for all my equipment and a few extra dollars) Very rarely a job comes around. This job is for $1000 in labor and I don't want to spend much of it to get the job done...

Using angle iron and the diablo blade sounds like a great idea actually. I'd much rather buy a $40 blade than to spend hours on end doing an inch at a time with an angle grinder. In theory I suppose I could do the same thing with the grinder tho, and just attack the edge where the angle iron and metal i want to cut meet at an angle.


For the amount I am charging for 15 of these, paying someone to shear them is not worth my time. Its taken me about 8 hours to cut and drill all the pieces as. It was 60 cuts (mitered) on my little dayton 7x12. I made the stupid mistake of telling him it would look better mitered... Could of left his design alone...

Have to weld the squares together and just cut and tack on the expanded metal and be done with it.

 

I would think if you cut the expanded metal with any type of saw blade even a metal one the grill would get caught up in the blade and bend, if you welded the the frames to the expanded metal, the frames would act as a stiffener to hold the expanded metal in place and the frames would be a good guide to follow and then just grind any rough edges smooth to the frame...if you use a angle grinder with a cutoff blade or standard circular saw with a cut off abrasive blade...

 

Would '' FLAT '' SHEET PERFORATED metal l be a option instead of the expanded metal ? I think it would look nicer and cut much easier.

http://www.metalsdepot.com/products/hrsteel2.phtml?page=perforated steel sheet&LimAcc= &aident=

View attachment 1319941

 

Negative he provided all materials and delivered them already.

That's another good idea... I could weld it to the frame and just chop off the edges and grind...

 

Don't cut it with a carbide toothed blade, you'll end up mangling the blade and material. Never cut anything that will fit between the teeth.

 

yer gonna have fun tack welding the expanded to the frame :cool2:

 

I built a headache rack for my F-350 using expanded metal and learned a few valuable lessons:

1. 4 1/2" angle grinder using a decent abrasive wheel is actually fine, mark the cut with soap stone or silver pencil/sharpie. It won't take long to cut that.

2. Watch out for distortion. Tack welds at EVERY joint add up to a significant amount of drawing force. It will work hard at torquing the channel so be conservative about how much heat you put into the welds.

 

He asked me to tack it every 6". He wants it tacked to both sides of the channel which I honestly think will look stupid but its what he wants. Every joint would take me forever that aint happening...

I told him he should of done it out of angle iron, since you will never see the backside and I can overhang the metal into the width of the angle but they wanted this C-channel for some odd reason. Also the C channel is only 1/2" legs with a 1/8" wall, its harder more sturdy than a piece of flat stock...


This was my proposal. Aside from being worlds easier to make for me.

View attachment 1320031 View attachment 1320041

 

measure,mark with soapstone,crank up the torch, cut and leave the marked line,job done.

 

Circ saw with an abrasive blade.

 

IF you aren't willing to pay for a plasma or shearing, then an angle grinder is your best option. I prefer the grinder over plasma just because of the ready to weld edge.

 

For a home shop guy making stuff to sell out of his garage a plasma sure is handy for all sorts of projects and artsy stuff.

 

I put a $9 abrasive blade on a yard sale circular saw and went to town. Worked like a charm on the one sheet l needed to cut up.

 

BrooklynBravest

. . . the design is honestly awful but its what he wants.

Need to cut them pretty dead accurate.

Its 1/8" thick expanded metal in 4x10 sheets. 1.5" diamonds.

Burglar Bars are a low-tech weldments - not Precision Sheet Metal - just say no . . .

There is no weld/fabrication design - the specified jointry is impulse driven by someone
that is unfamiliar with rudimentary steel fabrication.

If the girth of the channel is for looks - substitute flat bar - I cannot imagine why the
concavity of the channel is necessary.

Flat bar allows a broad weld surface, sloppy grill tolerances, and the exterior edge is
not defaced by short-tacks.

If the expanded-metal is flattened - you can order it sheared. Whether flattened, or
raised, 10 gauge cuts nicely in Ox-Acet. with an O't minus cutting tip. You can slit the
long co-joins, and still have good weld section.


Opus



PS

This construction-concept presents ridiculously redundant weld/fab
operations - and is: the thirdteenth chapter in What Not To Do.

 

BrooklynBravest





Burglar Bars are a low-tech weldments - not Precision Sheet Metal - just say no . . .

There is no weld/fabrication design - the specified jointry is impulse driven by someone
that is unfamiliar with rudimentary steel fabrication.

If the girth of the channel is for looks - substitute flat bar - I cannot imagine why the
concavity of the channel is necessary.

Flat bar allows a broad weld surface, sloppy grill tolerances, and the exterior edge is
not defaced by short-tacks.

If the expanded-metal is flattened - you can order it sheared. Whether flattened, or
raised, 10 gauge cuts nicely in Ox-Acet. with an O't minus cutting tip. You can slit the
long co-joins, and still have good weld section.


Opus



PS

This construction-concept presents ridiculously redundant weld/fab
operations - and is: the thirdteenth chapter in What Not To Do.

as someone who works with expanded metal and burglar bars/gates on a daily basis for the last 30 years i agree.

 

Not going to comment on design, etc. I'll leave that to the more qualified members here

Only on what you asked.

6" cutoff wheel. I've cut thousands of feet of sheet metal, expanded and solid with one and prefer it over just about any method save for a shear, which would be my go to if it were available. We're talking straight lines here, not curved....

The cutoff wheels are relatively cheap, can be purchased at any weld or industrial supply and make very accurate, clean cuts if you set up well and pay attention to what you're doing. A quick hit with a sanding disc to knock off the burr and good to go. If you don't already have one, you may want to consider the investment in a quality 6" grinder such as a Metabo or DeWalt, or other high quality brand. I have three of them and hardly ever use anything else.

Just a thought, but the cutoff wheel will be the least expensive way to go with the best results for the money spent

IMHO of course

 

6" cutoff works really well. On long straight cuts, where you have meat on either side of the cut, metal cutting circle saw is the way to go. If I have to trim a piece down, cut an angle across or cut any shape the cutoff wheel does wonders. Before I had the circle saw, cutoff for all of it. Done the torch or plasma thing, too much of a pita for me.

 

I find the quickest way is a hand held bolt cutter

 

Like previously mentioned even a weld every six inches on both sides. Distortion is going to be an issue . May have to use oxy to heat back side when completed to straighten again .

 

can you first make your perimeter frames out of the C channel then lay the frames on top of the 4x8 sheet of expanded metal and weld them in place. Then use the cut off wheel to free the frames from the parent sheet and flap disc/blend the edges down nice and pretty?

You do good work and I'll be glad when you grow to the point when you can tell these whack clients who tell you how to do your work, "my way or F off". In a nice way ofcourse. Seems this is the second client who tells you how to do something against your better suggestions.

 

A torch and a steady hand will cut it faster than any thing else.

 

This! I cut a bunch yesterday. I turn the torch kind of sideways and drive forward. When you get it right, it's blazing quick. And if you have a good eye , you don't need any mark lines on expanded metal, the metal gives you the lines already, just stay on in and don't vear off onto the next row...lol

 

I sure like my old gas powered chopsaw for expanded.

 

This is the most miserable job.

Putting the expanded metal on is just a chore and I hate the design so much I called the guy to come by and see one I finished. Its so ugly to look at. To my surprise the guy thought it was pretty good and he thought the way i made it sound on the phone it was going to be awful. I told him I personally am not proud of this and don't appreciate the design whatsoever but I started it and if he wants it the way it is I will keep going and he said sure.

So, while its going to take me a while, I am going to suck it up and do a couple a day until wednesday. I have 15 to do.

This entire thing should have been made from 1/8" angle. Would have been infinitely more practical.

 

I would build all the frames, then lay 2 frames down of flat surface, bench or floor. Position full sheet of expanded over 2 frames, tack weld in multiple spots. Cut the excess off with torch. Finish the tacking and then run the grinder around edges. Done.......

 

Personally myself, I like to tack every spot of the expanded metal but whatever the buyer wants is what he gets if he specs the job.