Flame cutter for blanks?

[Marcus]

A friend of mine works in a fabricating shop with a computerized flame cutting machine. In the past I`ve given him patterns for plate steel brackets and such and he`s cut them out for me. I`m thinking of giving him a few straightened and annealed pieces of 5160 car spring steel with patterns to cut them out. The edges are much cleaner than those made with a torch (what I`ve been using) and it`s very fast. Is there any reason not to do this? Marcus

 

[mayor]

No reason at all not to flame cut. Would advise making the blank slightly oversize and grind inside the flame cut line enough to get away from any damaged steel. 1/8" oversize is probably ok. 3/16 might be better.

------------------
Ben R. Ogletree, Jr.