Splitting a rr-track with angle grinder. In real time

[Tuomas]

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

[jdurand]

no knights pull the ax from the rail yet?

[Tuomas]

no knights pull the ax from the rail yet?

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

[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!!!!!!!!

[Tonyg]

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

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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!

[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.