ghetto drilling steel plate for shooting (swinger target)

[Whiterabbit]

Hi guys,

You guys ever just punch through a piece of metal using a stick welder for a quick and easy hole? It'll take me about a minute and a half to do two holes on a steel plate that im gonna shoot anyways. It'll look TERRIBLE, but I'm having a hard time mentally with the idea of clamping the plate onto the mill table and drilling out two fine holes for something that's gonna just get shot up.

You guys ever just do things ghetto too?

[Artful]

Yep, and sometimes it backfires but most times it works out ok.

[AkMike]

Yep, just turn it up and burn it up!

[Hardcast416taylor]

Never had the "Fashion Police" called on me for ragged burned holes on my steelies.Robert

[Reg]

It's easy, soak any rod you have laying around in a pail of water, any kind of junk rod works fine.
Soak it up good , even a hour helps. Then crank up the amps and go for it.
Smokes like crazy but a couple guys in the local wrecking yard cut car frames and anything else they have using wet rod.

[farmerjim]

I have used them to cut before I got a oxyacetylene torch. Sort of like me, Looks like s**t but works.

[jmort]

"You guys ever just do things ghetto too?"

Not sure how much "ghetto" goes on here, but I'm sure there is a whole lot of "beer can engineering."

[429421Cowboy]

I have used that trick in the past building steel corrals, generator/welder on the trailer and no torch, our Miller actually has an extra outlet that says CUT and will blast a hole in about anything. Never heard of soakiing rod for that though, i'll remember that trick!

[tomme boy]

You can buy rods made for this. They work a lot better. I had to cut through a die set on a 350K ton press that bottomed out making a part. The operator was bumping the press over when it locked up. These die set are usually 3-4 pieces pressed together to reduce the size to be able to press in the final die to make the parts. Anyway this die set for this press was 36" dia. x 18" high. I had to cut out the die to get the punch to release. Took about 4 hours to cut it through. It made one hell of a pop when the final die let loose.

[Rusty Goose]

So what does soaking the rod in water do? Does the steam help cut?

[Whiterabbit]

"You guys ever just do things ghetto too?"

Not sure how much "ghetto" goes on here, but I'm sure there is a whole lot of "beer can engineering."

oh, oh, oh, I LIKE that! Gonna use that from now on for sure.

[Whiterabbit]

I assume the water delays burning the rod down so it lasts longer.

[429421Cowboy]

When i took welding a few years back, we had a chance to play around with the shop's thermal lance, basically a valve hooked up to the O tank with a long tube, start the cut with a torch, once it gets cherry red, hit the O and blast gobs of steel the size of your fist through 1" plate. The old timers told me they used them to cut up railcars and dozers, I'd believe it'd get the job done! Somewhere dad has some carbon arcs for cutting as well but i never have used them, might have to try and find them now!

[Artful]

"You guys ever just do things ghetto too?"

Not sure how much "ghetto" goes on here, but I'm sure there is a whole lot of "beer can engineering."

Yes I can see this becoming a standardized term - Beer Can Engineering - when you make it work with what you have.

[joesig]

I prefer the term "quick an dirty"!

Had to do that to a C clip carrier to get the ring and pinion out. I prefer finesse but some times you just have to use a BFH.

[Reg]

So what does soaking the rod in water do? Does the steam help cut?


Not sure exactly what the water or steam does but it is much more effective than just using a rod by itself. There is a big, noticeable difference. Try it.

[lup]

Wet rod gives uneven "wormy welds" from all the I purifies introduced from the excess water. Never going to get that nice row of dimes but all the inclusions make holes in steel faster.

Good way to use old rod that's been sitting.

[Reg]

No, never try to weld with rod that has been wet, exposed to moist air or even if the can has been opened for quite a while and the rod might be dirty, that is if you want a weld that will pass a good inspection.
What I am saying is take old, dirty, exposed or just junk rod in general. Use that to soak and cut.
Yes, there is special arc cutting rods but I know a lot of cheap people and if they can scrounge something rather than buy-- well ?
We used to do a lot of work on oil and gas field service and rigging trucks, booms, leveling legs, tool boxs, beds,add ons etc. Seems like it was very common to find at least one or sometimes several opened and often very dirty ( imagine that !! ) boxs of various rods. I had been told by all of the drill pushers if we found anything like that working on the trucks to remove it and throw it out. I set in in a back room and gave it to the several wreaking yards working here at the time. They generally threw the whole box in a five gallon bucket of water . When they had much cutting to do ( this is just cutting up junk iron) they grabbed a handful of rod and went to it. Saved a ton of oxygen and propane that was generally used. It will never win awards and never will pass anyones inspection for neatness but it will quickly and cheaply burn holes in targets or cut up truck frames. Works with the best Miller or the cheapest Lincoln buzz box.
It did leave an impression with the wreaking yards. Even now when I go in and want a chunk of scrap plate or stick of tube for a project around the place they guys just set in the back of the pickup and send me on.

[Hardcast416taylor]

When i took welding a few years back, we had a chance to play around with the shop's thermal lance, basically a valve hooked up to the O tank with a long tube, start the cut with a torch, once it gets cherry red, hit the O and blast gobs of steel the size of your fist through 1" plate. The old timers told me they used them to cut up railcars and dozers, I'd believe it'd get the job done! Somewhere dad has some carbon arcs for cutting as well but i never have used them, might have to try and find them now!

Years ago we used oxy lances with magnesium strands in the 3/8"x 10` long pipe we would hook up to an O2 line with a valve. We used this lance to burn open a "frozen" pour spout on iron melting furnaces when I was a plumber in a iron foundry. The aluminum anti burn suit with head and face shield was standard equipment as the splatter from the lance was fierce.Robert

[jmorris]

I have done it before but Oxy/act or plasma is much faster and does a better job.

[littlejack]

I have used the lancing rods for cutting through metal items in the Catapiller shop that I worked in Redmond Oregon. Piercing a hole down through the center of a pin to get it to shrink, and pull out was quite an expierience.

When I was running the burning department in one of the shops that I worked in, I used the oxygen lance to pierce through heavy plate (3" to 6") to get the cut started for the tips. If this was not done, you could just figure on ruining the tips when pierceng the plates with the tips. The thicker the plate was, the more tips got ruined.
Carbon arc, are the most common rods used to remove metal and welds to get things apart. I have used boxes of that stuff in many sizes.
Then, there are the scarfing tips. Very proficient in the expierienced hands. Lots of metal been removed with these.

Another way to get a hole into a piece of metal, is with a fast projectile, preferably "jacketed".
My 25-06 with a 100 grain bullet will shoot through (through) a 5/8" steel plate at 85 yards, with the plate being backet up by a fir stump.
The same round, will put a 3/4" nipple on the back side of a 3/4" plate on the same stump.

I saw a western movie many years ago. There where two cowboys putting in a cook stove in a cabin. They didn't have a saw to cut the stovepipe hole in the roof. One of these boys took his double barrel, got on the floor, and shot the perfect round hole in the roof for the pipe.
"Necessity IS the mother of invention."
Jack

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Another way to get a hole into a piece of metal, is with a fast projectile, preferably "jacketed".
My 25-06 with a 100 grain bullet will shoot through (through) a 5/8" steel plate at 85 yards, with the plate being backet up by a fir stump.
Jack

YES, I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned earlier.

I've shot many a SKS steel core rounds (7.62x39) through a 1/4" steel plate...makes a darn nice 1/2" hole.
Jon

[rbertalotto]

Soak the rod.........About the only way to get a hole in the hardened plate we use for targets.

[Artful]

Another way to get a hole into a piece of metal, is with a fast projectile, preferably "jacketed".
My 25-06 with a 100 grain bullet will shoot through (through) a 5/8" steel plate at 85 yards, with the plate being backet up by a fir stump.
The same round, will put a 3/4" nipple on the back side of a 3/4" plate on the same stump.

I'd be real careful of this method - I once had that brilliant idea and some 5.56 Nato AP shooting at rail plate the railroad used
it cratered it but sent back to me a reminder of gun safety - thank god it wasn't a real bad "you'll put your eye out" moment,
but I bled more than Ralphie.

Lessons learned -
Give yourself distance to metal plates -
Know the composition of the metal target -
Always have enough angle that if it does come back it will have change in trajectory to miss people -

You may snicker here but heed the lesson

[I'll Make Mine]

There used to be an "arc cutting" process using air or oxygen blown through a hollow stick welding rod -- like a miniature oxygen lance or burning bar, with arc ignition (BTW, an oxygen lance can cut through battleship armor, never mind containers and rail car frames). Arc cutting with air/oxygen is probably what the "cut" connection on that Miller welder was for.

I doubt that process is used much any more; a plasma cutter is cheaper to operate (at least if it runs on air or water as the plasma fluid) and folks who don't have a plasma cutter probably don't have a stick-arc cutting setup either (though if you also have an oxy/acetylene rig, you could improvise and I think you can still buy the hollow rod). It certainly wouldn't be safe to run oxygen through a MIG gun; the components in the hose aren't rated for oxygen and you could wind up burning up your whole welder (and the resulting cut would be worse than a stick-arc "burn through").

[jmorris]

While Jacks method will work on some steels, they probably shouldn't be used as targets if they do. The key to safe steel to shoot at is it's ability to stay smooth.

It does work though. Here are some holes I put in 1" thick mild steel with my 50 BMG.

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/gn/steel1in.jpg

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/gn/1insteel.jpg

[Rusty Goose]

WOW! What kind of bullet?

[Willbird]

I'd be real careful of this method - I once had that brilliant idea and some 5.56 Nato AP shooting at rail plate the railroad used
it cratered it but sent back to me a reminder of gun safety - thank god it wasn't a real bad "you'll put your eye out" moment,
but I bled more than Ralphie.

Lessons learned -
Give yourself distance to metal plates -
Know the composition of the metal target -
Always have enough angle that if it does come back it will have change in trajectory to miss people -

You may snicker here but heed the lesson

I heard a story about a guy with a 220 swift back in the day that liked to shoot through the web of RR track when out woodchuck hunting, supposedly they found him along the tracks bled out with a blowback bullet wound in his throat. I managed to perforate a leg pretty good shooting aluminum plate with fmj 223 ammo, it went through blue jeans at 50', hurt like the dickens, made a nice round hole in my leg.

[jmorris]

WOW! What kind of bullet?

AP is the welt looking hole, the one that looks like it stuck to the surface than drove a punch through the plate is API.

[rbuck351]

Yeah. I have burnt a few holes through steel with an arc welder. Sometimes it was on purpose.

[jeepyj]

When we were a bit younger we had heard in a Clint Eastwood movie that a 44 magnum would shoot through a engine block. We we didn't have a spare engine to shoot at but at my buddy's garage we found a piece of 1/4" plate steel. Well first we tried a 357mag, it produced a loud ring. Next we tried a 44mag that produced a bit of a louder ring. Neither of these two would even come close to putting a dent in the steel let alone putting a hole through it.
Next I shot a 32winchester special at it, this rifle made small ting. Upon a close inspection it put a hole through the steel as clean as a drill press. Well needless to say we made a colander out of that that piece of steel with that old 32 and my buddy's 30-30
Ooh the memory's
Jeepyj

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

We call that ghetto-fabulous!

Or Ghetto-fab for short

:lol:

[Russel Nash]

they still make carbon air arc rods:

http://yabe.chudov.com/Carbon-Arc-Gouging-Rod/Carbon-Arc-Gouging-Rod-0001.jpg

they go into a special holder (or "stinger"):

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/470583338/Carbon-font-b-Arc-b-font-Gouging-Torch-TFMK4000.jpg

you press on the black button on the side and the air comes shooting out.

Sounds like a freakin' jet. I totally hate it.

I have a plasma cutter, but if I ever try to free hand something, you'd think I had Parkinson's by how jagged the cut turns out.