My previous rails were made on a milling machine. The cutoff disc was a demo to show that method could work (and has worked for others since).

I got one of my staff members to finish cutting all the rails down with the circular saw. Then I ground one rail to height with the modified skate shown above. That was a pain because the circular saw left some divots that were quite deep and the whole length of the rail had to be removed to repair the divot.

Re-investigated sending the cut down rails to a knife-grinder (Roemers) and was quoted $18/meter to take out the divots and put on the bevels. That price was accepted and 3 days later the job was done.

Yesterday I cut the steel into manageable pieces so I could carry them to my backyard where the workshop is. Good thing I got them off the driveway and inside. It's raining today.


Here's the Mikita Metal Cutting Saw with the jig I made to guide the cut. A little about the saw. It's the Makita 4131. When the discussion about Metal Cutting Saws was raging on the forum and the discussion turned to the Mikita saw, I happened to see it on Amazon for $140 with free shipping. I bought it. I'm afraid it's about twice that now.


I made a wider base. The one it came with was only about 4" wide. I made two guides to attach to the base. The one on the right in the picture is fixed and held with small clamps at 28 mm from the blade. The one on the left has springs between the guide nearest the blade and the fixed piece furthest from the blade. The springs help hold the fixed guide on the right tight against the steel. Good thing I used the springs and not just two fixed guides. The steel width varied nearly 1/8th inch.

The cutting went very well. It only takes about 5 minutes to cut the larger pieces. I cut them at 28.5 mm to allow for clean-up. After cutting them down, I used the belt sander to smooth them. It only took a lite sanding to get them smooth. I only took off less than .25 mm and they were smooth.


I'm sorry these pictures are a little fuzzy. I was trying to show the forum how the Metal Cutting Saw cut. I'm afraid I didn't do too well.

You learnt a lot from us guinea pigs! I made the mistake of handing the saw and the rails (for 5 big tables) to one of my staff and told him to get on with it. At the end of the day he was wandering off the line. A spring loaded guide would have prevented that.

To paraphrase Newton, (and this IS a loose paraphrasing), we who follow "stand on the shoulders of giants.":D

When I read about your experience, I started thinking about how to control the path of the saw. The jig is the result.

Regards,
John

I am thinking of buying this for my rails it is available on amazon.com for 110.00 for the tool and one blade but looking at the manufacter's website www.kwiktool.com they also have blades available for chopsaws. evoulution rage blades are also available for chopsaws in 10" size, I think that I read somewhere that the evoulution blades only fit their tools though because of the arbor size.