Rod cuttin

[chipmaker4130]

Bob, at work we shear thousands of 304 rods, from 1/8" - 1/2". We use a hydraulic shear designed and built by the boss. The hydraulic power pack is the type typical of an auto lift, the ram is a generic 3" short-stroke. The shear is two 2" X 12" X 3/4" bars of D2 hardened to RC62-65 with appropriate holes for each size. One plate is fixed, the other is operate by the ram. You just set the stop to the length you want, stick the bar in and push a button. After shearing the ram automatically resets via springs. It does deform the end a little bit, but for our use that is very quickly fixed with a single spin on a belt sander. You can cut as fast as you can feed. The whole thing is quite simple, very sturdy and has been working great for around 12 years. We only last year replaced the shear plates.

[dian]

like this:

the setup is self-adjusting and even self-leveling (if the jaw lifts and cocks).

[old mart]

I think dian has beaten me to it, I was thinking of bundling the rods to bandsaw them with a fine tooth blade.

[jmm03]

bundling and using a Milwaukee portaband

[J Tiers]

I checked the other thread....... Stanley 84-205 bolt cutters.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/425660602262517871/

https://www.rustmag.com/gear/2017/9/19/stanley-84-205-84-205a-bolt-cutters

[BCRider]

Did you see the Joe Pie video on cutting multiple bars at the same time? For the really small sizes perhaps you can bundle it in a piece of channel made from a cutting of square tubing sized such that it takes something like 10, 20, 30 pieces to fill to where the vise will just squeeze the bundle into the square "U" shape?

How to Safely Cut Multiple Round Bars in a Horizontal Bandsaw - YouTube

Edit- just noticed that dian beat me to this as well. But the idea of replacing the lock down stop with a piece of square tube with one side cut off for smaller sizes is still up for grabs.

[Bented]

Make a multi size turret rod shear.

A tool steel disk with the desired sizes, mill the rod holes with appropriate clearances, I drew the holes as 1/2 the diameter long slots, harden then finish grind.
Mill, bore then grind a base that holds the die with a collar on the back secured by 6 or 8 cap screws, add an indexing feature (not shown) that places the desired sized hole at the bottom.
Build the blade mechanism that shears the rods, this may be manual, hydraulic, cam or servo driven as one chooses depending on the volume of parts needed.
Add work stops or bar feeder as needed.

[reggie_obe]

On Flrabay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/VEVOR-Threa...-/124184477953

[DR]

I checked the other thread....... Stanley 84-205 bolt cutters.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/425660602262517871/

https://www.rustmag.com/gear/2017/9/...a-bolt-cutters

I have one of the Stanley cutters. I doubt very much it'd cut 3/8" SS.

I also have a 3/8" mild steel capacity Di Acro "rod parter". Don't know if you could do 3/8" SS without a longer handle.

A customer used to supply me with cut to length pieces of 3/16" 1018 cold rolled in 500+ quantities. They'd weld 20 foot lengths on one end into a square bundle and cut in the horizontal bandsaw with a modified vise with a top clamp to keep the bundle square during cut. Both sides of the cut were clamped in the vise.

If you can find the right alloy, wire shops have material on large coils. It's run thru a straightener and cut to length in an automatic shear. Really fast process and inexpensive. Problem is "wire" usually doesn't come in exact fractional sizes. Sometimes, especially in plain steel, it seems to be a medium carbon alloy so machining or threading is not easy.

[eKretz]

Yep, cold saw for sure. Most materials can be cut with a finished end. A pretty nice one at that. They cut pretty square too. And you can cut a large bundle at once. A lot of these other ideas are going to be very time consuming in a large batch if you have to cut one piece at a time.

[Tundra Twin Track]

This small Chop Saw works great for one piece at a time,it cuts faster than I expected 1/2 dia max.

[Black Forest]

What about a block of whatever material you want drilled for how many rods you want and then cut it in half through the center of the holes. The cut will give you the relief to clamp the block in your chop saw or bandsaw. Set a stop out to how long you need the rods and then just loosen your vise enough to allow you to slide the rods forward to the stop and tighten your vise. Have the block setup so the blade comes down right beside the block. I have done something like this to cut rebar on my chop saw. The rebar is not a uniform diameter and so some of the rods would spin when I stacked them leading me to have to cut them one at a time. I just used a 2x4 with the holes and cut it at the holes. It worked and lasted long enough for me to cut 4 rods at a time to get to the 200 I needed.

[BCRider]

Yep, cold saw for sure. Most materials can be cut with a finished end. A pretty nice one at that. They cut pretty square too. And you can cut a large bundle at once. A lot of these other ideas are going to be very time consuming in a large batch if you have to cut one piece at a time.

Yep, I'm pretty sure that a saw of some sort which will leave a nice end is going to be a lot better overall than dealing with the deformed end from any sort of shearing cut.

Plus we all have a saw of some sort already. So nothing needs to be bought or made other than whatever it takes to hold the bundle of multiple pieces for cutting the stock in groups that fit within the limits of the saw.

Only have one long length of stock? Do the "doubling trick". Cut it in half first, then those two pieces together to get four lengths, then the four together to get 8 and finally the 8 to get 16. Or some variation on this if working with two or three 10 or 20 ft lengths. At that point cut your pieces to final length from the grouped bundle. You're now dropping 16 parts per cut that are all to length with clean ends other than minor deburring per cut.

[J Tiers]

I have one of the Stanley cutters. I doubt very much it'd cut 3/8" SS.

,,,,,,,,

Does not need to. It's not really FOR that. In fact, look at it... it likely does not have a HOLE for 3/8"

The bench shears all have holes for 3/8" rod, and in any case, that size is big enough to use any saw with.

The hassle making stuff is down in the wire to 3/16" or maybe 1/4" sizes, mostly too small to saw, too hard to hold one piece for an abrasive wheel, big hassle to get the end smoothed if you use nippers, etc. The cutters are for that sized stuff, even 1/4". The shear cuts 3/8", the Stanley goes to 5/16" in.

The 3/8" SS? It's not for everything (what is?), but it IS "for" a LOT of things.

The pics are for bolts, I thought there was a similar one for plain rod......

[gellfex]

Many years ago I built a mini cutoff saw sized for 4" abrasive disks because I was cutting a fair amount of hard shafting. It was timing belt driven from a surplus blender motor. Still works! I made a V-block with clamps and stops for repetitive cuts. It's so crude I am reluctant to post a pic, but gives excellent cuts on stock up to 1/2". A quick touch up on the disk sander are all they need.