I'm looking for a source for 11/16" (ideally .67" , but 11/16" would work) x 3/8" mild steel bar stock to be used for table saw miter gauge bars. The usual suppliers offer stock sizes by 1/8ths. I need 24" lengths. Can these be obtained or customized in quantity for "low" cost? I can get stock 3/8" x 3/4" x 24 " in quantities of 100 for less than $4 each.
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unusual sized stel bar stock
- Thread starter woodguy2
- Start date
- Replies 17
- Views 1,052
Limy Sami
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2007
- Location
- Norfolk, UK
For that sort of thing I look to water jetting, or (depending on tolerance etc etc) possibly a big laser (not in my area) or plasma.
sfriedberg
Diamond
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2010
- Location
- Oregon, USA
The grinding shop should know this, but if you are starting with cold-finished bar ("cold rolled") you might want to specify that they take half the excess off each edge, to avoid stress relief bowing/warping.
cyanidekid
Titanium
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2016
- Location
- Brooklyn NYC
fiber laser should get you +- .004-5, lot cheaper than AWJ.
Thanks for these replies. i don't think any of them will get me what I want affordably in the quantities I'm thinking of (a few dozen to start--then maybe a few hundred). Didn't realize there could be warping issues as well. That would be very bad.
My idea is to make a custom or user-customizable miter bar for a table saw miter gauge product I'll be producing. The woodworking accessory industry offers a few "solutions" to the problem of table saw miter gauge grooves being inconsistent from saw to saw. Range is about .745" to .78". You really want a bar within .002" of optimal. Most use some sort of adjustable nylon inserts in one or both edges, or another expandable thingie of some sort. These aren't great solutions, as the nylon wears fast, and between the expanded areas you have a sloppy fit. Some designs even use spring loaded balls or Woodpecker makes a $70 miter bar with nylon leaf springs. That introduces friction, or if the friction is not extreme, slop....
My idea, since I'll be direct marketing one at a time, is to offer a custom width bar to within .002" accuracy. I start with undersized bar stock-5/8", and tape a piece of 5/32" thick plastic to one edge, and plane to width. It's a little hair-raising sending a steel bar through my thickness planer, but the plastic cuts like butter, and my nice helical carbide head leaves a perfect finish with thickness very consistant. But it's tricky getting a good glue bond to the plastic. Easy to get a good enough bond to plane, but I want the plastic to stay stuck long term.
Industry makes UHMW plastic wear strips (http://crownplastics.com/products/durasurf-eta/) with the perfect transfer tape attached in perfect conditions meant for conveyers and other glue to steel applications. But they only go to .125" thick. Thus my question about 11/16" x 3/8" steel bar. Actually I'm getting decent results using good 3M transfer tape meant for "low energy" surfaces (plastic), wide belt sanding the UHMW with coarse grit immediately before gluing, but I'm sure the Durasurf stuff would be better.
Now I'm wondering if I might be best off taping a 1/16" shim piece to 5/8" width to create 11/16' and then the 1/8" durasurf-eta?
My idea is to make a custom or user-customizable miter bar for a table saw miter gauge product I'll be producing. The woodworking accessory industry offers a few "solutions" to the problem of table saw miter gauge grooves being inconsistent from saw to saw. Range is about .745" to .78". You really want a bar within .002" of optimal. Most use some sort of adjustable nylon inserts in one or both edges, or another expandable thingie of some sort. These aren't great solutions, as the nylon wears fast, and between the expanded areas you have a sloppy fit. Some designs even use spring loaded balls or Woodpecker makes a $70 miter bar with nylon leaf springs. That introduces friction, or if the friction is not extreme, slop....
My idea, since I'll be direct marketing one at a time, is to offer a custom width bar to within .002" accuracy. I start with undersized bar stock-5/8", and tape a piece of 5/32" thick plastic to one edge, and plane to width. It's a little hair-raising sending a steel bar through my thickness planer, but the plastic cuts like butter, and my nice helical carbide head leaves a perfect finish with thickness very consistant. But it's tricky getting a good glue bond to the plastic. Easy to get a good enough bond to plane, but I want the plastic to stay stuck long term.
Industry makes UHMW plastic wear strips (http://crownplastics.com/products/durasurf-eta/) with the perfect transfer tape attached in perfect conditions meant for conveyers and other glue to steel applications. But they only go to .125" thick. Thus my question about 11/16" x 3/8" steel bar. Actually I'm getting decent results using good 3M transfer tape meant for "low energy" surfaces (plastic), wide belt sanding the UHMW with coarse grit immediately before gluing, but I'm sure the Durasurf stuff would be better.
Now I'm wondering if I might be best off taping a 1/16" shim piece to 5/8" width to create 11/16' and then the 1/8" durasurf-eta?
gustafson
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2002
- Location
- People's Republic
WEll, if you are going to make metal parts, you will need metal cutting equipment. If you are making a product that may or may not have potential to be high volume, one needn't make the first 10 the way you plan on making the next 1000
eKretz
Diamond; Mod Squad
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2005
- Location
- Northwest Indiana, USA
Overland
Stainless
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2017
- Location
- Greenville, SC
If you needs hundreds of pieces 24" long, that's a lot of bar.
In those quantities, maybe worth talking to a cold drawn steel bar producer.
I'm guessing the dies are a fairly simple carbide insert. However maybe need more than one, depending on how much reduction per pass.
Maybe worth talking to some suppliers.
The "bar" on my Delta table saw looks like it was milled on one edge, from the factory.
Bob
In those quantities, maybe worth talking to a cold drawn steel bar producer.
I'm guessing the dies are a fairly simple carbide insert. However maybe need more than one, depending on how much reduction per pass.
Maybe worth talking to some suppliers.
The "bar" on my Delta table saw looks like it was milled on one edge, from the factory.
Bob
EmGo
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
17mm would put you at .669" but in the other direction, seriously doubt that you're going to find 3/8"
EmGo
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
Yeah, there's suppliers here that would but I didn't think he was ready for a mill run yet.
But his description was kinda inexact so I thought possibly 17 mm x 10 mm would work. If they make it. Something to keep in the back of one's head these days, sometimes a metric size is close to what you want that's not available in inch.
Homeshopblob
Aluminum
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2021
There is also Double Disc Grinding. An oversimplification is that they pull oversize material between 2 grinding wheels to take it down to size, and can hold close tolerances on size and squareness. I had it done at New England Grinding and Machine, and a couple other places, they ground 1/4 X 3/8 1018 to .220 X .360 then cut it to length and ground the ends to length and shipped the finished parts to us. I thought it was cheap compared to processing it here, when doing a few thousand parts
Scruffy887
Titanium
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2012
- Location
- Se Ma USA
Re inventing the miter gauge? You are swimming in a big pool with loads of people doing the same thing or having them made off shore and bringing them in. A skilled craftsman can make very accurate cuts with a crappy miter gauge. Skill committed to mussel memory. Not so easy for long or wide parts and that is where the cutoff sled comes in.
There are a handful of companies that supply "ready to machine" blanks. Don't remember any names though. And they have sources for over size stock.
There are a handful of companies that supply "ready to machine" blanks. Don't remember any names though. And they have sources for over size stock.
memphisjed
Titanium
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2019
- Location
- Memphis
A quick and not so dirty way is to side mill the two easy edges of a piece of hr flat bar in one pass. Not as exotic to find a milling machine as a grinder for onsee work. No burned plate warpage, less waste, and available.
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