"Eric Chang" wrote in message
om...
Hi. I saw a message posted to this group by someone saying that he
can cut 1 square inch of soft steel cross section in 60 seconds. That
sounded pretty fast to me, and I decided to give it a try. I was able
to cut about half a square inch of steel bar in about 30 minutes.
This is with a regular Craftsman hacksaw with a good blade. I am
using a large vise which holds the work steadily. I used a small
amount of gear oil in the kerf. The saw is cutting (I can feel it
bite on the cutting stroke), and filings are coming out. Actually, a
1/2 inch square cut is quite a bit of filings. But this is
approximately 1/60th the rate that the newsgroup post alluded to. I
thought that I should be at least within a factor of 10. The steel
that I am using is part of a bracket, and it cuts easily with a file
(no skate).

I know that an expert computer programmer can program 60 times faster
than a beginner, and get paid 10 times as much, but computer software
is a strange animal. I would think that I should be able to get
within a factor of 10. The blade wasn't buckling, so I think that a
high-tension hacksaw would not give all that much of a boost. It may
improve cutting speed by a factor of 3.

So, how does one cut a square inch of steel in 60 seconds? Inches do
matter!

Thanks,
Eric

Your blade probably has too many teeth to get a bite into the steel with
your available down pressure. It isn't a linear affect. 10 to 14 tpi is a
better bet for 1/2".

The rule about not pushing down, just letting the blade do the work may
apply to wood but not steel.

At risk of the thread going OT, the Craftsman aspect may part of the problem
:-)

Bob