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Cutting Stainless Steel Pipe

OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
We had clothes line poles in our yard that we quit using. The vertical poles were 4" stainless steel, maybe 3/16-1/4" thick. When the excavator pulled them out he mangled them all up. But I'm going to scrap them out one of these days. There is concrete at the bottom about 10" diameter and 20" high. I want to cut the bottoms off and bury them. But what can I use to cut the pipe? I have at my disposal a sawzall, a porta-band saw, 9" grinder (might be 7") and a 4" grinder. I also have a welder and I have seen some cutting electrodes before.
What would you use given the above tools?
 

DaveNay

Klaatu barada nikto
SUPER Site Supporter
Porta-band saw at it's slowest speed setting with a nice sharp blade should do just fine.

The grinding wheels will probably just gum-up.

The sawzall will probably work too, but you might go through a lot of blades.
 

AAUTOFAB1

Bronze Member
SUPER Site Supporter
Bust the concrete of with a sledge or the back side of a splitting mall it should bust into big chunks and bury the remnants of the concrete. then no need to cut the pipe,PS wear safety glasses. stainless is tough to cut without a carbide blade , sawzall will work if you lubricate a carbide toothed blade , but try busting the concrete off first,might save some time.:hammer:


hope it works:biggrin:
 

OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
Bust the concrete of with a sledge or the back side of a splitting mall it should bust into big chunks and bury the remnants of the concrete. then no need to cut the pipe,PS wear safety glasses. stainless is tough to cut without a carbide blade , sawzall will work if you lubricate a carbide toothed blade , but try busting the concrete off first,might save some time.:hammer:


hope it works:biggrin:
Maybe I'll have the boys over for a "swinging party". LOL
However there is a 6"X6" square plate welded on the bottom. It is rusted so it may not be stainless and might have be cut off anyway.
 

tommu56

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Bust the concrete of with a sledge or the back side of a splitting mall it should bust into big chunks and bury the remnants of the concrete. then no need to cut the pipe,PS wear safety glasses. stainless is tough to cut without a carbide blade , sawzall will work if you lubricate a carbide toothed blade , but try busting the concrete off first,might save some time.:hammer:


hope it works:biggrin:

My vote too!

slug away and take some frustrations away and scrap the pipe SS is cash!

air arc 2nd choice

tom
 

OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
But I'll still have to get the iron plate off the bottom. That will decrease the price of the scrap.
 

AAUTOFAB1

Bronze Member
SUPER Site Supporter
you won't know how well the plate is secured until you get the concrete off the pipe...you may just knock the weld loose by busting the concrete off...... can you get at the welded plate or see the weld now?:weneedpic
 

OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
No the weld is hidden by the concrete. It will be some time before I attempt this. Maybe later on this summer. Just wanted some ideas on what to use.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.
 

Cowboy

Wait for it.
GOLD Site Supporter
Have you tried to break the concrete off yet ? Might be easier then you think as it wont stick to stainless like it will old rusty porous metals . I busted some off of a couple that it only took 10 or so hits & it split in half perty easy and it was a much bigger chunk of concrete then that . :unsure:
 

2810guy

New member
Many years ago I worked building machines from Stainless Steel, did this for some 9 years. Stainless is not really a hard metal per say just hard to work with. I have sawed many a mile with a sawzall with good results. Blades are cheap compared to a portaband. When cutting if you can find some black Sulfur oil thats the best cutting oil i have found but . . .I built a machine for a leading skin care company and believe it or not found hand lotion with lanolin worked really good and smelled good when it got hot. Remember Slow speed and heavy presure cuts stainless. Good luck. . . John
 

Lia

Banned
We had clothes line poles in our yard that we quit using. The vertical poles were 4" stainless steel, maybe 3/16-1/4" thick. When the excavator pulled them out he mangled them all up. But I'm going to scrap them out one of these days. There is concrete at the bottom about 10" diameter and 20" high. I want to cut the bottoms off and bury them. But what can I use to cut the pipe? I have at my disposal a sawzall, a porta-band saw, 9" grinder (might be 7") and a 4" grinder. I also have a welder and I have seen some cutting electrodes before.
What would you use given the above tools?

I had the same problem when my late husband and I moved here... What to do with the metal poles? Well, I don't know about cutting tools, saws and such, but as AUTO said, why do you need to cut the poles? I know you're gonna sell them for scrap, but do they need to be 'bite-sized?' We actually buried ours whole, intact. We had the room out there, and needed to turn over a lot of ground anyway. In fact there's a veritable harvest of scrap metal and other unwanted items, that we found in sheds and around the grounds, buried way out back, lol.
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
Fresh frost teeth on the 580 case and it is not an issue anymore! Or buy a carbide grit sawzall blade. You can cut cast iron with them.
 
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