How to cut patterns out of steel?

mtallman

mtallman

Regular
Super GunNutz
Rating - 100%
127   0   0
Location
MB
Hello,
I've got an old antique remington pistol, and as you could guess its not easy finding parts for these.

How can you cut patterns out of pieces of sheetsteel?
I know that high tech factories use water jets, but I'm sure there is some type of saw that you can use on steel (1/8" - 1/2"). Is there anything that uses the concept of a scroll saw (wood), but with steel?

Thanks.
 
Thanks for the responses.
Would you have any links with details? Or know places where you can buy them?

Thanks
 
Hmmm.. your cheapest water jet or EDM type machine is prolly in the area of a few hundred k. Unless your significantly wealthy you might not want one of those. A plasma cutter is cheaper, about $800. You need an air source usually and they can leave a less than perfect edge when cutting freehand. I woulds take it to a machine shop. As for a scroll saw that cuts steel... dunno. never seen one.
 
Hmm...I'm thinking mabye there are special blades that can be used with a scroll saw? I know that you can cut think copper easily. Mabye with a heavy duty blade you could.

I already have a scroll saw, so I'll look into it.

Thanks.
 
well i have cut steel with a bandsaw and it requires constant lubrication and cooling and it is pretty slow. I can't imagine you want to put cutting fluid all over your band saw! Copper can be a ##### to sowrk with because it is a good heat conducter and your cutting medium wil heat up fast.
 
Wow. Wire EDM? Laser cutting?

Holy f**k. You guys are very wealthy, or drunk. Or both.

Dude, if you are one offing parts out of plate steel all you need is a jeweller's saw and some coarse blades.

Lube it with oil or Rapid-tap or something. The coolant doesn't matter. It will take a while, and you will break a lot of blades but it can be done.

You will then have to grind or file the parts into spec and harden them. Again... not too tough.

If you have any problems, let me know and I will try to help you out. Like - if you have a busted part, mail it to me and I will show you how to remake it from scratch as best I can with my crappy digital cam.
 
Last edited:
A metal cutting blade in a jig saw works too. Very noisy and slow though. An abrasive wheel will work too. Very dusty.
You'll also find that regular sheet steel, no matter how thick, will likely be too soft for firearm parts. The finished parts will require heat treating and not all steels take heat treating well.
Try a net search for the parts you need before you try making them.
 
There are specific metal bandsaws that seem to work well, however I'm not sure how they work on 1/2" steel.

Plasma cutters are pretty slick but a base model won't give you a nice cut on 1/2 inch. Plus they arn't cheap. I think my Miller 375 was about $1800.00. They take a little practice to use effectively.
 
Wow. Wire EDM? Laser cutting?

Holy f**k. You guys are very wealthy, or drunk. Or both.

Take it to a machine shop that has a Wire EDM. You may be suprised at the price to get small parts done. Some places will be outragous while other places will be reasonable. With a Wire EDM the blank piece of steel can already be hardened and ground to thickness.
 
What is the thickness? A dremel tool is useful when it's not too thick. And then a jigsaw, of course! Anithing thicker than 1/8" should be milled if the cuts are not straight.
 
For small parts, cutting them roughly with an appropriate metal cutting handsaw is easy. There is nothing a good set of files can't fashion into shape (with a lot of patience)...
Choice of steel is important if you want to temper the parts later on.
One good way to begin is heating the blank to be cut on a bed of sand till dark cherry red then covering the part with that hot sand and letting it cool.
This will anneal the metal and give you a chance for cutting and filing into shape before the final tempering.
When heating small parts for tempering, be careful and watch the edges because it is very easy to overheat the thinner zones and making them brittle.
Good luck!
PP.
 
maynard said:
Take it to a machine shop that has a Wire EDM. You may be suprised at the price to get small parts done. Some places will be outragous while other places will be reasonable. With a Wire EDM the blank piece of steel can already be hardened and ground to thickness.
Click to expand...

Depends on your idea of reasonable - at the last place I had EDM work done I could have bought several jeweller's saws and a few gross of blades for the price of the small trimming die I had cut. However there are some circumstances in which the expense was justified and this was one of them.

I suppose, to offer better advice we should know precisely what type of part is being repeated here?
 
If the part is not too large, lay it out on the piecce of steel toi be cut.
Carefully drill 1/8 " holes nearly touching each other all around the outside of your part outline ... then connect the dots with a cut off blade blade on a foredom tool. Has worked for me before. ( Jim Carmichael method )
 
Laser works well if you want a good edge finish without secondary operations. Any CNC machine operation such as laser, plasma or EDM requires a CAD file for generating code to allow the machine to cut. For one part, you’re better off using hand tools or a manual milling machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom