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cutting out welds in tight places

K

Kracin

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what does everybody use for cutting welds in tight places?

at work today i was hittin' it hard removing some parts of an old machine we are sending to another plant. the boss wanted to keep the old motor mount and cut it off so it can be welded back on (shipping prices for that extra 2 ft of height the motor mount adds about 15k).

it was a pain in the ***, things i threw at it.

6" metabo grinder with slicer discs in the spots i could easily get to.

2" milwaukee corded die grinder with 1/2" burr bit

4.5" angle grinder behind the metabo to get rid of spots that didn't get cut too straight and knock the welds down more

and of course oxy/acet torch to get into the tight spots that i couldn't fit the metabo or die grinder.

overall.. pain in the ***, fire, burned a hole in my shirt from sparks, burned a hole in the fire blanket because the apprentice wasn't paying attention on fire watch.

i've done a lot of work involving cutting and torching, but figured i'd toss the question out there to GJ and see what everyone else uses for these jobs. maybe i haven't gotten a golden tool yet that can knock down 5/8" wide welds on 3/4" plate steel.
 
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Z

zkling

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Depending on their equipment and acceptability of smooth surface I'd look at a gouging setup, either plasma or carbon.
 
T

thinmac

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Kinda depends. I've had some small spaces where the easiest thing to use ends up being a hacksaw - sometimes it's 15 minutes of sawing rather than an hour of trying to get in with a power tool. Probably I would have decided that the bottom inch of the mount is sacrificial. Then you can thrash the bottom of the mount, make a clean cut an inch up from where the welds used to be, and rebuild it with 1" flat bar.
 
T

Tronyadorable

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^^^ Sounds serious heavy duty so yeah. Carbon arc setup and blow that **** outa there. It's not big money.
Similar scenario here .
 
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wild cowboy

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yes, with the correct blade, it will cut welds no problem, but it is not built like an 80 pound industrial grinder (or even that Metabo you want from El Bimbo), so I wouldn't want to go and try to cut up an entire ship with it!
 
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K

Kracin

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zkling said:
Depending on their equipment and acceptability of smooth surface I'd look at a gouging setup, either plasma or carbon.
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carbon arc sounds like a good idea, i'll have to pass that thought on. although we've got some cutting rod, the air-arc would make short work of a lot of thick welds for sure. i forgot about this method.

Mohawk Dave said:
Ye, what Z said. Also, someone just posted a new Metabo that has a low profile head made specifically for this situation. I'll find thread.... found it...http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269645
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saw that also. good idea but expensive for a niche tool that i would have to buy myself, plus it wouldn't fit in more than a few of the places i was able to get the torch head.

thinmac said:
Kinda depends. I've had some small spaces where the easiest thing to use ends up being a hacksaw - sometimes it's 15 minutes of sawing rather than an hour of trying to get in with a power tool. Probably I would have decided that the bottom inch of the mount is sacrificial. Then you can thrash the bottom of the mount, make a clean cut an inch up from where the welds used to be, and rebuild it with 1" flat bar.
Click to expand...

15 minutes of sawing? on welds with more than 1/2" of cap? plus the type of hard to get to is not something that is in the open. think cutting inside corner welds out from the backside of somthing. a hacksaw wouldn't touch even the exposed welds on a lot of machines this size.

ez-duzit said:
Didn't see a Sawzall listed.
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because a sawzall is useless for cutting anything that isn't a pipe or a short zip through some angle iron

ez-duzit said:
You just have to be smarter than a Sawzall. ;)
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oh jesus. please make a video show us how quickly you can cut through 50+ inches of 7018 built up more than 1/2" on a 1" plate.

wild cowboy said:
I use a Bosch MX30EK oscillating tool - it cuts metal in tight places where I cannot get other things in
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.................................... no words here... none. ok well a few.... oscillating tools are good for very specific jobs. a few things i would not use them for... cutting anything 1/4" or greater, and longer than 6 inches. they don't make blade good enough to kill good professional welds for longer than a few inches of cut.

wild cowboy said:
yes, with the correct blade, it will cut welds no problem, but it is not built like an 80 pound industrial grinder (or even that Metabo you want from El Bimbo), so I wouldn't want to go and try to cut up an entire ship with it!
Click to expand...

hence why you need certain setups to take down certain projects. an oscillating tool is not one of those tools.

fj5gtx said:
My Hypertherm plasma makes things go very quickly... however it is not a cheap option....
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we have a nice hypertherm, actually a few. the issue with this is blowing welds out at an angle without slicing through too much material. you can certainly cut material out fairly quick, but plasma cutters seem to do far better work when you are cutting all the way through material and you want nice straight/neat lines without firing a torch up. with a torch you can heat the material first, then blow it out any which way, a bit easier IMHO to cut welds off in tight areas without gouging your material or machine too much

motofool33 said:
Plasma if its fairly thin stuff, Carbon/Air Arc makes short work of anything metal

90* die grinder with shaft extensions could be useful
Click to expand...

all good options.
 
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K

Kracin

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creativecars said:
Well Duhhhh, you need tinsel... Its not just for decoration.


Tis the season;)
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hah, i remember that... that would be some awesome stuff if it worked like that!

welder4956 said:
How about an oxygen lance?

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looks like a solid system right there. easy and portable.

used to use carbon arc lances to cut through 10-12" of steel at the pipe foundry. the operators would spill so much iron on the floor it would build up and cover everything. would have to sit and cut it out after a few weeks of buildup when the cleanup crews were short handed and didn't get to those spots before it got bad.

solid looking system, but it looks like it cuts super fast. little less controllable than airarc... i'd take that oxylance system for some big *** **** that needs to be torn up though.
 
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