4 x 4 x 1 plates with 7/8 square hole in Center | Want to Buy | Forum

to punch a 7/8" hole in 1" plate, you need at least a 100 ton ironworker- thats a pretty big beast.
Larry probably has one that big, but I dont know who else does around here- mine is only 50 tons. The cute little vertical ironworker that Grant had was only 35 tons or so. Most medium size shops only have ironworkers in the 50 ton range.

Same thing with shearing 1". Takes a big machine.

If I needed those, I would probably order the blanks cut, either by saw or torch, from somebody like Everett Steel, then drill the holes.

But if you dont have a really big drill press (I use my milling machine) and a set of Silver and Deming drill bits up to 1", to step drill em, then just have em waterjet cut, if hole accuracy doesnt need to be too precise.
Bob Powell, out on Vashon, does waterjet cutting for artists, architects, and craftsmen every day, he's good, easy to work with, and reasonably priced.
Call him up, I bet his price will be good, and he can UPS them to you.
http://meadowcreature.com/waterjet/

I always round up when it comes to ironworker capacity- but yeah, theoretically a 90 ton machine would have the oomph- but you are right, the punch would probably break trying to punch 7/8" in 1" plate. They dont like punching a hole smaller in diameter than the thickness.

Around here anyway, for cutting plate, it goes-

Oxy-fuel torch- cheapest- I use Everett Steel.

Plasma- next cheapest, but usually only good up to about 1 1/2" max. Even at 1 1/2", you are talking a 200 amp power supply, big as a fridge. And you get draft angles on the cut, too, unless they are using Hi-def machines, which start at something like 30 grand for the power supply.

Waterjet- next cheapest, but has draft angles on thicker material, so much beyond 1", it gets pretty wonky. But you can cut 6" granite with waterjet. I have my stainless steel base plates waterjet, works good with no HAZ.

Laser- consistently the most expensive, but requires massive power to cut thick plate- the commercial laser house I use has maximum thickness in steel of around a half inch, the really big laser cutter down in Auburn tops out at 3/4" in steel. Laser is great for thin stuff, but for thick plate, nothing beats a giant, ancient, oxy-acetylene burning table.

There is no question that you could cut this on a pretty cheap, small bandsaw- assuming you had a scrap of 1" x 4" flat bar sitting around. But once you start needing to cut it from plate, most people would be cutting it with a torch.
I dont have any scrap 1" plate, so for me to do a job like this, as a job, means buying some. Aint practical for less than real money.

As mentioned above, cold punching this size hole in that thickness plate doesnt work.
Hot punching would work.
Or drilling.
I have drilled a lot of stuff like this- you either use an annular carbide hole saw, which costs around 40 bucks, and needs to be used in either a mag drill or a really big drill press, or you step drill with S&D bits. Step drilling is slow, annular cutters can break if you dont have a rigid setup. Aint no free lunch.

Sometimes things that seem really simple on paper, are just not so simple in real life. If I absolutely had to make these for a paying customer, I would probably lose money. If I needed em for a job, I would have em waterjet cut, most likely, as its cheaper than me driving into town, finding a piece of scrap that is undoubtedly bigger than I really need, cutting, grinding, drilling, and ending up with way too much time into something that should be cheap and simple.

Now if you had the exact right scrap lying around, then it might be easier.

John, I guess these things must vary a lot regionally. I dont know of any local laser shops around here that will even cut 1". I am sure there must be one, but most of the local shops I do know of have much smaller machines, and, as I said, top out at 1/2" or 3/4" in steel.

And, every time I have gotten price quotes around here, laser has usually run significantly more than waterjet- I use a couple different waterjet shops, and that price differential is consistent. In fact, one shop I use, Cutters, Inc, in Bellingham, has both a waterjet and a laser on the floor- and so all other factors are equal. They have always waterjet cut my stuff, and I see the laser there running thin sheet when I am in there. The laser is more accurate, but the basic machine cost at least double what the waterjet machine cost, so they bill it for more per hour, to cover its keep.

I would agree that, usually, I can have parts torch cut for less than I would pay for material alone, especially when you consider that I must buy the scrap too if I buy a bigger piece and cut it out.

Basically, if this guy lived ten miles from me, I could probably knock these out for him, but he lives 2 1/2 hours away, and thats on a good traffic day, and, for me, the psychological factor of long distance usually means higher prices and more hassle. I do plenty of local favors, my karma is still intact.
Now dave, if you wanna drive up, and buy me lunch, we could do em in an hour or so- but we would have to buy some 1" plate at Skagit River Steel first...