The Armour Archive

So i thought to myself
"i have a few hours I'll make these splints for my arms... hmm here is some stainless i bough as scrap a while ago... its about 16 gauge maybe 14... should be fine"


WRONG
that stuff is so damned hard!! it melted the teeth off of my brand new metal cutting jigsaw blades and i only cut 4-5 inches.

anyone have any ideas?

so much for a sunday arvo project

Are you using any sort of cutting oil or anything like that?

I just recently cut some 16 gauge stainless using my Black and Decker band saw. I think it's 54 inches.

I managed to cut about 5 feet on a half dull blade without too much trouble. It's just loud.

Very, very loud.

The edges don't need too much clean-up, unless you try to rush the cut. Just let the blade do the work, and you'll only have to make the edges un-sharp, and bingo, you've got yourself some splints.

I've found that "paint thinner" is the best cutting fluid for S.S. It makes drill bits last forever. TRY IT!

paint thinner!?!?!?! well i'll try it!

i havnt had this problem before... and an angle grinder looses too much material and cant do inside bends so i was hoping to use the jigsaw.. i'll bus some more blads and give it a whirl....

Try the 1mm cut off blades that you can get for your angle grinder, they cut a straight line or outside curve fairly nicely

yeah i thought of that but these splints are "J" shaped... so there is an inside curve

cutting fluid of some sort is very important with stainless it will harden in a heartbeat. plus it can get gummy on machine tools, leave mile long razor sharp cuttings, etc etc etc.

You can always just cut em out with a hammer and chisel. It'll probably take less time than a hand held jigsaw (which is what it sounds like you are using). There is a tutorial on how to make cuts like you are talking about somewhere here on the archives.

That is why I don't buy scrap anymore. I never knew what I was getting. Some stuff I could cut with ease and other stuff would dull my tools just bringing it in the same room. You could try normalizing it before cutting. That may help. Otherwise the chisel method is probably your best bet.

Chris

If you look around, maybe do a net search, you can get carbide jigsaw blades, not the carbide dust/resadue ones, but a full strip of carbide teeth, they tear through SS. I have used them and there great.

like these the 2 at the bottom.

http://www.londontools.co.uk/acatalog/Specials.html

It all depends on the GRADE of stainless you have. Check it with a magnet. If it is mildly magnetic you have a heat-treated 400 series and should probably give up unless you have access to carbide milling bits, a plasma torch or abrasive water cutters.

Even some of the better 300 series stainless steel will eat common jig-saw blades for breakfast and still be hungry for more.

If the stainless isn't magnetic turn down your lights and put a corner in your grinder wheel. If you get a bunch of low orange simple sparks you will probably succede in cutting it with the right tools. If you get only a few white hot sparks and even worse if the sparks travel and then fracture into more sparks you will not be able to cut it without the afore mentioned tools.

If you can cut it: I just use basic motor oil, mostly because it's what I have but also because it's cheep. The difference in performance between custom machine lubricants and basic motor oil is minimal in my experience. I get better mileage out of using good bits and blades instead.

Good luck,
Sean

I've got a HF electric metal shear, and it cuts thru 16G
stainless like butter

Is ther anywhere online where the results of the spark test are described for different grades of steel, including high carbon and Stainless?

I understand the concept of the spark test, but have not seen a comprehenzie guide for it.

Actually, i think it would make a great article for the AA.

Kindyr

whonew wrote:I've found that "paint thinner" is the best cutting fluid for S.S. It makes drill bits last forever. TRY IT!

That sounds kinda...dangerous. Anyone else think so? Seems like one spark thrown from the blade would ruin your day.

Kindyr wrote:Is ther anywhere online where the results of the spark test are described for different grades of steel, including high carbon and Stainless?

I understand the concept of the spark test, but have not seen a comprehenzie guide for it.

Actually, i think it would make a great article for the AA.

Kindyr

A quick search on google will turn up the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_testing_metals
http://shopswarf.orcon.net.nz/spark.html
http://www.cknife.com/educational_mater ... sparks.pdf

Here is one that includes stainless:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ident ... d_383.html

There are others if you want to poke around.

Sean

i was also thinking something a little less flamable would be good... i have some lanolin oil that i usually use when drilling tough stuff... i may try that... we will see

sean you have scared me because the edge of 1 of the pieces looks like its been cut with a plasma cutter.... hmmmm


Torum

I just started working in stainless, and am using a hand jigsaw as well. 20g I've been using cut without a problem, but when I went to cut 16g for the helmet I got about two inches before the blade burned up. I remembered this being talked about on this forum long long long ago, grabbed the first lubricant I could find (outboard motor oil) and cut out both halves on the helm with one blade.

Oh, and using cobalt blades really helps.

Louis de Leon wrote:

whonew wrote:I've found that "paint thinner" is the best cutting fluid for S.S. It makes drill bits last forever. TRY IT!

That sounds kinda...dangerous. Anyone else think so? Seems like one spark thrown from the blade would ruin your day.

I dunno....

Mineral spirits and acetone evaporate fairly quickly. I'd think that keeping liquid on the piece would be more bothersome than flamability. If I have particularly dirty or oily steel, or if I change my mind about layout and need to clean off the sharpie marks, I wipe with acetone.

The evaporation rate may well be why it works (if it does, I dunno), just like being sweaty doesn't cool you down, but rather your sweat evaporating does the cooling.

Otherwise, unless you were ridiculously sloppy with it, even if it did spark, it shouldn't be much more problem than lighting brandy on a flambe desert.

Otherwise, unless you were ridiculously sloppy with it, even if it did spark, it shouldn't be much more problem than lighting brandy on a flambe desert.

Well obviously you have hand eye coordination