Cutting railroad rail with a bandsaw

Yeah, it's certainly worth a try. I think it's pretty clever of Iggy to think of selling those pieces. Now we'll see how practical it is to do at a reasonable cost.

I've been really impressed with the "ultra thin" slitting wheels made by Diablo, but they are spendy. The HF ones come in second place, and are a lot cheaper so I usually just buy those. The thin wheels not only last longer but they cut quicker as well.

I go really slow and make sure everything is lined up straight and square, and make sure I'm covered up really good (safety glasses + faceshield and a leather apron at a minimum).

Jon

As someone else noted you can cut them with a bandsaw set up for friction sawing or you can use one of the abrasive cut off wheel machines that are small enough that they can be moved around. Local shops that sell random lengths of steel routinely use them on a daily basis so I assume that wheel life is reasonable..

There as a lot of well annealed rail over in Lac Magentic Quebec.

If you succeed in this, I want one. Keep us updated.

technomaNge

Plenty of scrap metal as well. I don't know if Iggy has the appropriate paperwork together for international scrap metal dealing though...

OK I will let you know. Thanks.

What are you figuring in to the cost of plasma cutting? I consider compressed air pretty much free.

I haven't tried it myself but 65+ years ago my grandfather cut his 2' length in half with a hand hacksaw in order to share it with a neighbour.

Soft anvils are preferred by coyotes by a ratio of 9:1. :)

How about, if it's hard enough to be rough on bandsaw blades, cut into the top surface with a chop saw, just enough to get through the work hardened surface.

RogerN

Isn't ALL Acme stuff soft?

Everything except their patented STUPID PUTTY ®©?, which becomes harder than a diamond within 63 picoseconds of opening the package. ;-)

NOT the Anvils!!

and they are Heavy too!!

You're forgetting the consumables - electrode, nozzle. There is a fairly well defined cost per inch of cut.

I have one friend with a plasma cutter and he says costs are negligible. I offered to buy him new electrode and nozzle when he cut and welded my winch platform, but he said he gets a year or two out of each, and he had a decade's worth now. He said he uses 5x more consumables on his TIG machine than he does on the plasma. Then again, he's not cutting RR track...

Acme know questions and I'll tell you know lyes. ;-)

Wile E. just told me that pun hurt more than the anvils.

He told me you'd tell that lye...