can I use a chop saw to cut 304 stainless?

admin

I am putting together a turbo project out of 304 stainless steel.I will be tig welding it all together and think the easiest way to cut straight cuts would be using a chop saw that I got.I read that heating up the tube too much will deplete the chromium and lose all the qualities of the stainless.thoughts?
Reply:Yes, it's completely fine.Welding/Fab Pics: www.UtahWeld.com
Reply:Band saw would make a cleaner job of it.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720
Reply:If by chop saw you mean an abrassive wheeled saw like you can get from Home Depot, it will definitly 'work' but on 16 gauge 304, you have to understand that the saw cuts through to some extent by melting.   The rate it melts at is proportional to how thing the metal is and how hard you push on the saw.Walter 14" abrasive blades seem to do better for me than the Home Depot ones.Cut it slow - leave you with less sanding to get the joints flat.Note that mandrel bent tubing is better than most on tight bends, but it still isn';t perfectly round.  Plan on spending some time rounding the tubing if you cut in the middle of a bend.  Or buy a Millwaukee dry cut saw (no blade, Milwaukee charges too much) and grab an aftermarket blade (about $50)..Look at Coneeng.com for some neat tools/ideasAlso, if you run accross a vertical, metal cutting band saw, it makes life easier.  You can try a porta-band saw and look at swagoffroad.com.Con Fuse!Miller Dynasty 350Millermatic 350P-Spoolmatic 30AMiller Multimatic 200Hypertherm PowerMax 1000G3Miller Maxstar 200DX
Reply:Originally Posted by con_fuse9If by chop saw you mean an abrassive wheeled saw like you can get from Home Depot, it will definitly 'work' but on 16 gauge 304, you have to understand that the saw cuts through to some extent by melting.   The rate it melts at is proportional to how thing the metal is and how hard you push on the saw.Walter 14" abrasive blades seem to do better for me than the Home Depot ones.Cut it slow - leave you with less sanding to get the joints flat.Note that mandrel bent tubing is better than most on tight bends, but it still isn';t perfectly round.  Plan on spending some time rounding the tubing if you cut in the middle of a bend.  Or buy a Millwaukee dry cut saw (no blade, Milwaukee charges too much) and grab an aftermarket blade (about $50)..Look at Coneeng.com for some neat tools/ideasAlso, if you run accross a vertical, metal cutting band saw, it makes life easier.  You can try a porta-band saw and look at swagoffroad.com.
Reply:Originally Posted by dvoHave you cut any 304(tube,bar,round) with the standard dry cut blade? I see stainless blades out there but at $200 a pop I'm not buying. I would try it but I have only one blade that came with the saw (Northern Tool) and new. Don't want to destroy the blade before it did much cutting. Where are you getting $50 dry cut blade? assuming it's a 14"
Reply:I built one whole set of turbo headers with a chop saw and a grinder and here is the advice I have to give from that experience1, spend much of your effort on work holding... weld el's that violently shoot across the shop are really not fun2 stainless weld el's are a total bitch to cut with an abrasive chop saw. it will start out as a cut and progress into being more of a chewing and then finally burning/melting through by the time you get all the way through each cut3, forget about the thought of making  a nice cut and then welding it... your cuts will be way to rough and crude for this... you will def need to grind and dress after the cut, you will also have to regrind redress and tweak many of the cuts to correct angles and get stuff to actually line up.I found one of the best ways to face a cut and also tweek angles is to grind the cut end with the side of the chop saw blade, but this is dangerous and will also thin the chop blade enough that it too becomes dangerous to continue cutting with. I eventually came up with a scheme of mounting worn blades on the arbor along with a full sized blade to cut, this way you can cut and then side grind without thinning out your cutting blade... this too is dangerous...overall I look back on that job and say never again, so much so that I winded up having to redo the headers and I really hated the chop saw method so much and it's so dangerous that I refused to redo it the same way second time around... instead I winded up going out and buying a cold saw and really made huge efforts to avoid ever having to do it the chop saw way again... think safety first because this is a really fooked up way of doing it, doable for sure but not a great way to do it really. all of what I said here is 100% based on the assumed use of schedule 10 weld el's... if you're talking about using thin wall stuff then this may not apply nearly as much, although even thin wall is tough with a chop saw, weld el's just really suck to do this way but again is very doable if your determined and I can't stress this enough, CAREFULL...miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:also be sure to use chop saw blades made specifically for stainless, they work much better than just universal "all metal" type chop saw bladesmiller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:Sensitization of austenitic stainless steels occurs around 1200F, so you shouldn't have trouble with the temps reached during cutting.  Welding will be another animal.  Prolonged time above 1200F will allow the chromium to bond with carbon and reduce the anti-corrosion properties in the weld zone.  Some things you can do to reduce this are:- Use a low-carbon-alloy (L-grade) base material and filler material.  The proper filler for 304L base material is 308L.- Use low weld heat inputs and low interpass temperatures to increase weld cooling rates.
Reply:Sorry for the slow/late reply.I picked up a new, Milwaukee dry-cut for something like $200 from Ebay.  At that price it was without a blade.Based on some advice I got from either here or Miller's web site, I found a place selling Freud "Metal Devel" blades.  I bought 3, 2 for steel and one for aluminum.  I know MK Morse makes a "Metal Devel" that is actually stainless steel but runs about $400 a blade.I could have sworn I paid significantly less that $100 per blade.  It might have been from a store that looked like they were selling surplus inventory (no special orders, they have what they have and that's it).That being said, I have cut 2" and 3" schedule 40 stainless with it.More recently, I started using a Dewalt power band saw.  I did my research and bought the Dewalt over the Milwaukee.  Milwaukee cuts faster, but my understanding is that optimal blade speed is more like 300ipm vs. Milwaukee's 450.  I went to www.swagoffroad.com and bought a table and turned it into a mini vertical band saw.  I had to flame bend the table to make it perfectly straight/flat (they have redisigned the table, might be better now).  I added a guide (a grove on the edge of the table).As for cutting bends.   You want to see this:http://www.icengineworks.com/icewtools.htmYou obviously don't need to spend that kind of money, but it should get the ideas going.When I bought the table from Swag, I made sure I put two 'runners' on either side of the table.  A large aluminum plate fits on top...  Bottom line I can pie cut any bend up to about 3.5" diameter.  Maybe 4", haven't tried.Con Fuse!Miller Dynasty 350Millermatic 350P-Spoolmatic 30AMiller Multimatic 200Hypertherm PowerMax 1000G3Miller Maxstar 200DX
Reply:I started using the chop saw and for 16ga stainless tube I don't see a better way of doing it.  It cuts super fast, square, and I got 6 blades and the saw form harbor freight for less than $100...works for me.
Reply:Originally Posted by turbocad6also be sure to use chop saw blades made specifically for stainless, they work much better than just universal "all metal" type chop saw blades
Reply:I sell and service lawn and garden equipment...not pushing any of it here.However a year or so ago we took a gas powered cut off saw in on trade.It had a diamond wheel on it, was for cutting concrete.Well we had some 6 inch pipe that was 3/8 wall and that old wheel did an awesome job. We then cut up a few 200 gallon oild drums and other assorted bits and pieces. If you could get a similar blalde to fit your chopsaw I think you would be good to go. Regards Chris
Reply:Originally Posted by OscarI'll need to look into these....wonder how much faster they cut?At any rate,  I agree with your 'experience' about using only a chop saw and a grinder.  The cuts have to be dressed to cure the roughness.  I bought a small belt/disc sander specifically for that in order to not wear out the side of the blade.