anyone have any good ideas on making a CLEAN cut on some large rubber bars? I have about a 4"x4.5" cross section with a rounded top.

I was thinking of the saws all but need a really clean, straight cut. Band saw seems like it would just bind and cause problems plus my saw is kind of a POS and tends to throw blades if it catches stuff hard.

I tried my miter saw with a carbide blade and it worked OK with, lots of smoke but a nice clean cut however it tended to bind like a mother and the kickback was a little scary... OK, a lot scary, that's why I am asking here.

Put the bars in the freezer for awhile, then try the mitersaw again.

Put the bars in the freezer for awhile, then try the mitersaw again.

Sadly they are like 12 foot long but that i an excellent idea.

i always wondered if an electric turkey knife would cut rubber?

Anyone you know have use of a waterjet buy chance???

JOSH

Anyone you know have use of a waterjet buy chance???

JOSH


i have not used one but just got a quote back from a waterjet cutter. it was way more pricey than i had expected, something like $285/hr. they were slow the day i came in and gave me a quick tour around their shop. i think he said that rubber was one of the things they can cut. i know they can cut just about anything else, like wood, plastic, titanium and granite.


it would be worth calling someone with a waterjet and ask. sounds like a good idea to me.

Pretty much anything will cut rubber. The problem is the binding and friction once the cut starts. Try bending the piece into a slight arc and then put it through a band saw or a table saw cutting from the outside of the arc in. This won't work if you are trying to make the cut lengthwise but if that's what you want to do try wedges once the cut is started. Blades for rubber look kind of like meat saws so find someone who has one of those. Mixed oil and water will make a nice lube to prevent the smoke from friction.

I've cut 2" diameter rubber boat rollers in my HF band saw, cut like butter.. might work for you..

I've cut rubber dock bumpers (3x4" hollow, 1" thick walls) with the chop saw. Just make sure you do it outside.

I know a machinist who uses liquid nitrogen to machine rubber parts, but I doubt that's really a practical option for you. Maybe pack the part in a blanket with dry ice and then use a portaband? My local grocery store sells dry ice at about $5 for a pretty decent sized bag and I use it for dent removal occasionally. I'm guessing Beeswax would probably be your best bet for blade lubricant.

Edit- you could use a hot wire to cut it but it's gonna smell pretty bad. Hot wire cutters are easy enough to build. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4968914/tm.htm

Sadly they are like 12 foot long but that i an excellent idea.

You are in Chicago, right. It won't be too much longer and you will get some more cold days. Give it a few days and you will have the "big" freezer out your back door.

Thanks guys for all of the suggestions. Lots of good ideas in a short amount of time; I never would have gotten this worked out so fast if not for the advise.

Waiting for cold is not really an option for me, this beast has to be out of the shop sometime yesterday.

I tried the chop saw idea but it was crazy slow and the smoke was just about unbearable. After looking at some of the suggestions I decided to give it a shot with me POS band saw and had binding issues but a squirt of some food grade silicone (who has beeswax in their shop? I mean seriously?) lube I had lying around and holy-chit that thing cut like butter, I could not believe how good it worked.

The only odd things where that the saw needed me to add a little bit of down pressure to cut the rubber well when it normally does a great job on steel just gravity feeding. Also I found that the rubber has enough drag it makes the blade try and pull the rubber around and skew the cut, I had to add a bigger 'fence' to my saw for the rubber.

just for reference it's all going on the deck of this:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2181/1816841078_83db31ea9b.jpg

It came from the factory with out a bunch of options and somehow that became my problem...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2061/2176969816_8af43738f1.jpg

That's an odd forklift.. what is it used for?

We have swingmast forklifts at work were the the forks can either be in the front like normal, or swung around to the side. Handy when bringing in long stuff through a narrow door.

That's an odd forklift.. what is it used for?


This one is going to a refinery to move large pipe sections and these cooling bundle things. 26,000 pound lift capacity, the truck wasn't even working hard for it.

Mostly they are used by the lumber and steel industries to handle long loads. Crane manufactures, chassis manufactures and oil drill rod depots also use them a lot. You also used to see some used in container yards and a slab handlers at foundries. Smaller ones like in these pictures are used in a lot of steel service centers. Monsters like this are a dying breed and are being replaced by 4-directional and swing mast units in all but a few industries; I am lucky enough to specialize in weird material handling equipment so I get to deal with them all. The best part is that almost every unit is a custom application so I got to do a ton of modification and fab work.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2104/2179115356_cfb52e4496.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/2178324845_af907da165.jpg

That is cool as shit... I never knew there was such.....

On a note back to the water jet I have seen one cut a tomato and a banana and it looked better than could be done with a razorblade... Very cool

JOSH

(who has beeswax in their shop? I mean seriously?)

I do. You just rub the bar on the bandsaw blade ocassionally when cutting aluminum. It's less messy than using liquid blade coolant and it keeps the heat down and the teeth from clogging up. Almost all jewelry makers use it with scrollsaws on metal and some old-school machinists still use it for bandsaw cutting on soft materials.

On a side note: It's usually the main ingredient in cast bullet lubricant. Can you think of a more demanding application asking a product to work for lubing a metal-to-metal interference fit at 1200 f.p.s?

I do. You just rub the bar on the bandsaw blade ocassionally when cutting aluminum. It's less messy than using liquid blade coolant and it keeps the heat down and the teeth from clogging up. Almost all jewelry makers use it with scrollsaws on metal and some old-school machinists still use it for bandsaw cutting on soft materials.

On a side note: It's usually the main ingredient in cast bullet lubricant. Can you think of a more demanding application asking a product to work for lubing a metal-to-metal interference fit at 1200 f.p.s?

I never knew it was used for any of that... I may need to try some for AL.

i always wondered if an electric turkey knife would cut rubber?

That's how the monster truck guys cut their tires down for weight reduction... electric kitchen knife and lots of water to keep the blade cool. My local offroad club works as the floor crew for the Thunder Nationals every year and there's a lot of down time to shoot the shit with the crews and drivers.

Yup small metal shop near work has an older model side loader like that. I seem em use it all the times unloading long I-beams and steel off the truck trailers, then drive it to the field to store it or inside to work on junk.. Seems like a perfect fit for that type of job..