# Homemade Creations >  Splitting a rr-track with angle grinder. In real time

## Tuomas

Very boring video. 
That shows how long it actually takes to split 270mm long piece of 170mm thick rr-track. 




Answers also question about "how many wheels it takes?", " Is it hard Job?" And If watched carefully, also gives some hints about how to.

Cutting happens in real time, only parts where i adjust camera etc are speed up. 

Video is boring and lasts about 30min. Don't watch it If you have better things to do.

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asterix (Nov 16, 2020),

nova_robotics (Nov 5, 2020),

rlm98253 (Nov 5, 2020),

TheElderBrother (Nov 5, 2020)

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## Ralphxyz

one question why?

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nova_robotics (Nov 5, 2020)

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## nova_robotics

I'm just surprised he survived.

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## Tuomas

> one question why?



Another question. Why you need to know? 

To make nice bookends? 
Jaws for the coming vise project? Or for some other reason.

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## TheElderBrother

I had a philosophy professor who did the fun professor trick and gave us a one word final exam. The question was "Why?"

Most of the students hadn't heard the joke before so they sat there writing extensive essays and filling the whole allotted hour with philosophy textbook answers. 

The B answer was "Why not?" because it's poor form to answer a question with another question. 

He would have given an A- for "Mind your own business," but the A answer was "Because."

If you don't want to watch a half hour of a guy making sparks out of a piece of railroad track, you're welcome to move on, but some people will inevitably find value in knowing what kind of time and material a piece of hardened steel like that will consume in the effort to shape it to a useful 
form, or, they just like watching a big grinder making sparks for a while. 

Basically, because.

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## Tuomas

That's well said.

Also there is a little "trick" why its so easy to split RR-track. I think metalworkers here get it if they think a while. If not, i explain it little later.

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## Tuomas

This was a reason number 1, why i wanted to split rr-track.

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Andyt (Nov 18, 2020),

baja (Nov 18, 2020),

Jon (Nov 16, 2020),

Toolmaker51 (Apr 6, 2021),

Tule (Nov 18, 2020)

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## Tuomas

Sideview

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## Tuomas

Version nro 2 about split RR-track.



Height 800mm

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## Tuomas

And here is the final build. 


And video about making:

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jackhoying (Mar 31, 2021),

Jon (Mar 31, 2021),

nova_robotics (Dec 2, 2020),

Teague (Mar 31, 2021),

Tonyg (Apr 1, 2021),

Toolmaker51 (Apr 6, 2021)

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## Tuomas

After first winter outsides, and its still the same. 
Some dirt, but that's it.

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## jdurand

no knights pull the ax from the rail yet?

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## Tuomas

> no knights pull the ax from the rail yet?



Nope. It seems that being a Knight isn't very popular anymore.  :Frown:

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## madokie

good job,,, now for those people that live in LA,, u can just go over to Chuck Norris's place with the RR and a hatchet and he could split it like that in one swing, leave the hatchet stuck in RR,,and since this vid went well over 10 min u get this weeks Sam Kinison award,,,, OOOH,OH,OH ,OOOOOOOOH,OOOOOOH,OH,OH OOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!

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## Tonyg

That looks really fantastic Tuomas. How many hours went into making that, all of them worthwhile?

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## Tuomas

> That looks really fantastic Tuomas. How many hours went into making that, all of them worthwhile?



Hard to say.. i didn't rush with it. Made a one stage in one day, second couple days later.

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## Toolmaker51

> That's well said.
> 
> Also there is a little "trick" why its so easy to split RR-track. I think metalworkers here get it if they think a while. If not, i explain it little later.



Well of course there is a trick involved-
But the rest of us are regular humans, so...

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## Tuomas

> Well of course there is a trick involved-
> But the rest of us are regular humans, so...



Its the profile of the track. Same works with a H-beam too.

If you look the end of the track.
Its easy to see that top and bottom sections, are much wider than section in the middle.

When one cuts steel with angle grinder, cut groove expands wider when steel is getting hotter. But, when steel starts to cool down, it always shrinks little more than it was expanded.

This shrinking makes cut off wheels to get stuck and jump. Specially when cutting thicker materials.

When you cut through the tracks thicker section, keeping groove equally heated as possible. And reach the narrower section, it happens that wider parts of the track resists shrinking forces more than there is " power to shrink " in that narrow area. 

Groove starts to open wider and wider, like a flower.

Shortly " Remaining sides in the thicker area, resist shrinking. While sides of the narrow section are expanding, this makes groove wider and wider. " You can easily cut straight through when groove forms to V- shaped and guides wheel to the bottom.

So, " trick " is to do it with minimal breaks, keeping it warm all the time. Profile of the track does the rest.

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Toolmaker51 (Apr 6, 2021)

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## Toolmaker51

Yes the expansion, petal-like, relieves pressure that would normally pinch the wheel.
But 9 out of 10 can't hold a 3600 RPM 7" wheel so well on plane. 
I watched a good deal of the 30 minutes; especially after beginning following those scribed lines.
Aye Carumba!

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## Tuomas

I made an upgrade.
New axe is also made from a railroad rail. 
Now it fits better to the theme. 



Old axe is weld to stand made from two u-channels.

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rlm98253 (May 4, 2021)

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