Railroad rails.

muddstopper · Jul 30, 2013

I will agree with using care. Just to clairify why I am against using a grinder for cutting metal. I had an employee that removed the cutting guard from a angle grinder so he could specificly cut a piece of railroad rail. He let the grinder get away from him and it ran up his hand and into his arm. He lost 3 fingers and thumb immediantly. He had used a grinder with cutoff wheel to do this job before and this time it bit him. When I get home I can supply pictures if you like. Pretty gruesome. Not only did the guy lose most of his hand, but he lost his job in the process. Could of been worse I guess, at least he's still alive.

Pa Pa Jack · Jul 30, 2013

My plan is to cut through the ball with the porta-saw Then score the other side and Then use the sledge. With a good blade, it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes with the saw. I've cut through I-beans a lot bigger, but they won't break when scored.

PhysAssist · Jul 31, 2013

Pa Pa Jack said:
My plan is to cut through the ball with the porta-saw Then score the other side and Then use the sledge. With a good blade, it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes with the saw. I've cut through I-beans a lot bigger, but they won't break when scored.

Thanks to everyone for the info.

I may have a 15' section I can cut up, if I can get it home

Thomas

muddstopper · Jul 31, 2013

Let us know how the portaband work for you. I suspect cutting thru the ball might be hard at first because of the hardening process from rail wheels running across the top of the rail. I think once you get thru the workharden part of the ball, it should cut similar to any other metal.

Gale Hawkins · Jul 31, 2013

Anyone used a sawsall? I cut off some old fork brackets out of 1/2 plate on the FEL that were all bent up with a corded Sawsall. It shakes a lot but got very nice clean straight cuts somehow.

300UGUY · Jul 31, 2013

I cut a 2.5 inch solid steel toolbar with a sawzall. Used old oil for a cuttting fluid. Took less than 10 minutes per cut, did several cuts.

bcp · Jul 31, 2013

Rail cutting with clamp-on cutter:

Longer video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoYBFrJDrlI

Bruce

muddstopper · Jul 31, 2013

Done enought of that, I didnt need to watch the video. A few rules for cutting rail with a gas powerd cutter, besides the usuall safety gear. Never tilt the saw upward in order to cut thru that last little bit of the bottom side away from the operator. Those 16' abrasive blades wear pretty fast and sometimes they wont quite reach that last little corner at the base on the opposite side. the temptation is to just filp the saw over the top and reach the bottom that way. Gas leaks out of saw, sparks ignite gas, then fire, maybe explosion and then a trip to the hospital. If you start the cut with a new blade, most times it will last thru the cut, might even get 2 cuts out of one blade.