08-14-2012, 11:43 PM
(08-14-2012, 02:40 PM)Rickabilly Wrote: Hello Walter,
I have made similar tracks previously using very similar track dollies, and in the first instance I decided to mill the slots, mine were a full inch wide, in 1/4" wall thickness 4" x 4" tube and the slots were not all the way to the ends of six foot long tracks, Long story short 5+ feet of 1" X 1/4" milling takes time and for my money is just tedious, I was making ten of these beams for a customer, luckily I was also the design engineer on the job, A quick amendment to the drawing and I was free to use a Plasma cutter to do the slot, and by judicious use of a powered straight line cutting jig the last nine beams were cut in the same time as the first one was milled.
My point; if it isn't critical for dimension or finish it is often preferrable to go with a good clean plasma cut rather than spending weeks and a load of cutting tools trying to mill structural steel parts.
I hope this is of some value.
Best regards
Rick
Rick
Amazing how there are no new thoughts, just ones that have been modified a bit. also there are many ways to skin a cat. LOL
I have a few options to choose in cutting these slots. First is the track burner, I have both Oxy and Plasma torches for my track burner, but my track is only 6 feet long, and the beams to be cut are 24 feet long. I had the steel supplier quote out having the HSS tubes precut before they supply it, but they wanted way too much and even at that they spec'ed +/- 1/8" from centre of tube and I want to be closer than that in tolerance.
Second option is to cut them with a metal cutting circular saw. I have the Milwaukee 6370-21 Metal cutting saw along with some extra blades, but need to see how it will work cutting 3/8" thick material. Should be able to jig it so the saw runs parallel down the length of the tubing and if cut from each side should be nicely centred.
Milling is my last option and although it would give a nice clean cut, I would have to re-arrange the mill in the shop to handle the length. this is a task that a horizontal mill would be ideal for. Oh well, mine is a vertical mill and I do not have the horizontal adapter so onto other ways of skinning this cat!
The Chainfall arrived a few days ago. 2 Ton, and seems to have a small size that will work well in the space required.
Walter
starlight_tools, proud to be a member of Metalworking Forum since Apr 2012.