cutting railroad rail -plasma / band saw? need some advice

[bfastwelder]

You line the track up on the edge of your table and tack weld hangers from the bottom of your table out past the table were you will be able to sit the rail lower and parallel to the the track. Lower obviously to get height adjustment out of the torch head. Parallel so you can cut it long ways. I do it all the time when I split 5*5 Solid hex bar for jobs. I will try and set it up so you can get a visual.

[denrep]

You line the track up on the edge of your table
. . . Parallel so you can cut it long ways.

I think that Gator wants to cut perpendicular to the flange, not parallel.
Which of course the perpendicular cut brings up lots of issues for any "hot" cut method.

. . . I need to cut an 8" railroad rail in half (two 4" sections). I am making book ends. . .

[gator9329]

OK here's an update. I tried to do it on my 14 inch chop saw. tried: (verb) not sucessful at ... I got half way through it and hit the thick webbing. It was taking a long long time time. I am going to the steel ditributor down the road with a case of beer a pocket full of cash. hopefully they will just put it on the big band saw for me.
Thanks for the advice guys, will post pictures when done.

[houseoffire]

Call your closest welder I'm sure they will be glad to cut it for a couple bucks!

[Boostinjdm]

OK here's an update. I tried to do it on my 14 inch chop saw. tried: (verb) not sucessful at ... I got half way through it and hit the thick webbing. It was taking a long long time time.

You probably got the blade too hot and it glazed over. You need to cut thick stuff in short spurts. Lean on it, back off, lean on it, back off....

[TozziWelding]

I did a big RR track scrapping job a few years ago, oxy propane, with a bulldog tip, and it was like cutting butter.

[DSW]

You probably got the blade too hot and it glazed over. You need to cut thick stuff in short spurts. Lean on it, back off, lean on it, back off....

That's my guess exactly to what happened. If the blade gets loaded up and glazed over, some times if you pull the material out and cut some thin vertical stock or even a brick it will "clean" up the blade. All you want to do is get the top layer of the blade to wear off and expose some clean material. After that you will find the blade cuts fine as long as you don't glaze the blade again.

[Xtreme Fabrication]

I regularly cut railroad track. I run the amada (ellis bandsaw brand blades) blades in my 1974 rockwell bandsaw. Just put the blade on slow with a slow feed rate. Coolant is a must. I can cut 115lb rail in less than 3 minutes. I probably have cut at least 50 pieces of track this way.

[walker]

You may have gotten your track cut already, but for future reference, you can cut track surprisingly easily with zip wheels. It takes 2-3 wheels, but for a single cut, very little cleanup afterward, and very little equipment, it is a very good way to do it.