cutting largish rods/wire?

RS components sell a wire cutter that will do this.

John

Thank you. I was tempted by Straight jaw compact bolt cutter,9in L RS Stock no. 539-069

which look very nice, but (despite the size and leverage), it says "Suitable for cutting soft steel" unless the littl'uns, which will manage all manner of nasty hard materials.

BugBear

I meant "unlike" of course. damn these fingers!

BugBear

OK for a few occasionally, but you could end up with serious wrist/tendon strain if you want to do a lot. We use crimping tools a lot and have that sort of problem, just a different tool.

One of the little bench shears we use has a hole for shearing bar up to 6mm, and its big daddy which we have at home can shear up to 1/2".

Blade life might be a consideration on stainless as well.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

How about an angle grinder in a stand (Lidl had the stand for =A34.95 last week)?

Makes a useful chop-saw.

I bought the stand and the only thing I had to do was to turn up a new pivot because the original pin was undersized so it twisted a bit. Now it is fine and probably would work for you.

Tony

Thanks to all for the suggestions; just to expand the detail on the requirments, the mudguards are fitted to the bike while it's hanging in the air (from hooks).

Only once the mudguards are fitted is the correct length of the (now fitted) stays known. So the stays are cut "in situ" on a bicycle.

This (of course) precludes some of the bench mounted proposals.

The wrist injury point is well made, but fortunately, only 1-2 bikes per day are being done.

BugBear

Bolt cutters can be found on market stalls for peanuts, they won't last forever with stainless but at those prices who cares!.

Greg

I'd look for something like the cissors used for cutting brake cables. There should be bigger ones. They cut very good, the part can't snapp out and they make little burr.

Nick

Strange how things come around:

No1 son bought in a big box of tools from one of his neighbours, the tools belonged to her husband who was in the Forces.

Amongst the bits and pieces are somne Maun geared cutters, not unlike the sort of thing you were asking about.

Bacuase they are end cutters not side cutters they may not be suitable for your purposes, but there are 2 pairs in there and they look in pretty good shape.

We are selling the tools for the neighbour, so if you're interested, drop me an email off-list.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I have a racketing cutter, designed I think for armoured cable cutting on sight. it has the name BAUDAT on it. it could well be what your friend wants...

If you wanted to borrow my cutter for a test I'm near Guildford.