Hey folks, pardon the rookie question. We need to build a few hundred of these per year, so I thought I’d tool up, and wanted to figure out how to do this “cheaply”.
Parameters. Stainless steel rods, with one end sharpened to a point, and the other end deburred. Typically 30cm long with no real tolerance issues, and no real parameters on the point other than “if you hit it with a hammer, you should be able to drive them into the earth.” Typically made of 3/8" or 1/2" stainless.
My main problem is: stainless is fucking hard and destroys my bench grinder when grinding tips onto it. Is there a better grinder I could be using? Or perhaps I should be cutting these on a small lathe?
Also, when I buy stainless stock, I usually have the metal wholesaler cut them to length for us, but they charge quite a bit. The stainless destroys my bandsaw blades, so perhaps there is a better option? Is there a mitre saw blade that is rated for stainless? Or should I also be using a parting tool on a lathe here?
Thoughts are appreciated. Such a simple thing, but stainless so…
Get this harbor freight bandsaw.
Put these Starrett blades on it.
Use two belt sanders with a 36 grit belt on one and a 120 or so on the other to add your points and deburr the back. The 36 is for roughing to size, the 120 for finishing and deburr. You might use something like this combo belt and disc sander with a 36 belt and a 120 disc.