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Grinding a point on 5/8" hot roll rod.

Portable Welder

Cast Iron
Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Location
Milan, MI
I have 576 pieces of 5/8" solid rod that I have to put a point on, the rods will be welded to a plate and drove into the ground.

Any ideas to speed the process up...

My choices are to grind or chuck into a lathe, shearing them on an angle wont allow them to drive straight.

IDEAS....
 
a big belt grinder if they dont have to be perfect. or or plasma set up in a welding turner, but still have to grind them. a bigger lathe with taper attechment should do it in two passes that sounds like a boring job
 
There is a chamfering tool that can be used in an electric drill. Unfortunately I can't remember the company name. That could do part of the job But probably would not get to a sharp point.

Just remembered: Uniburr. Not sure how it will hold up to the scale on the HR.
 
Yes, really. Commodity item, stocked even at the average Big Box in shorter lengths.

THEIR source must be able to supply arbitrary lengths.

Prolly with plates on them, too. This is already somebody else's regular and ordinary rice bowl.


What commodity item, Big Box stock, are you thinking of? Please be specific.
 
What commodity item, Big Box stock, are you thinking of? Please be specific.

*sigh* ignorant round steel bar, already pointy at one end, meant to be driven into the ground, commonly applied to stake concrete forms, among other uses.

What ELSE was under discussion, this thread?
 
*sigh* ignorant round steel bar, already pointy at one end, meant to be driven into the ground, commonly applied to stake concrete forms, among other uses.

What ELSE was under discussion, this thread?

*sigh* The OP specified 5/8". Round nailstakes are 3/4" diameter IME.

If you're going to try to help, be specific. include a link or at least specific searchable terms.

Steel Stakes | Grip Rite Building Tools and Supplies


PS: Stuff your *sigh* where the sun don't shine.
 
qt: [the rods will be welded to a plate and drove into the ground.]How long will they be?
Possible rocks in the ground wont allow all to go in...likely near a half minuet each grinding with perhaps a 2HP spindle.....
about the same turning but the grinder will be chuck-turning slow so quicker to re load.
 
*sigh* The OP specified 5/8". Round nailstakes are 3/4" diameter IME.
"nailstakes" are also 7/8" and 3/4", even 1", commonly enough. They have reason for that. Ground rods often get by with 5/8".

One point is that the major fabricators of such goods can do any size.

The one that may bug the OP's client the most, however, has not been addressed at all.

That 5/8" is not all that good a choice for reliably driving into - shall we presume local customer, hence Michigan-local soils?

Search on "glacial moraine" and find Michigan entities at the top of the returns...
 
Might's well add my 2¢ worth. If I couldn't buy those parts and absolutely had to make them:

Cut to length in an ironworker using a stop. Chomp, chomp, 576 times. Cycle time <5 seconds. About an hour with handling.
Load in turning-center chuck using a gauge for minimum stickout.
Run wide open flooded with coolant. Probable cycle time <20 seconds. About 11,000 seconds, call it 3 hours

This looks like a four-hour project. If your cost is $30/hr the parts are something like 20¢ each to prep. The material is dirt cheap, so worst case it'd total less than a quarter each. Can you buy the pieces for that?
 
Hey guys, the stakes are 34" long, I do have a 36" lathe, accuracy is not critical but need to be pointed...., I'm not above chucking into a lathe and grinding... just gonna be slow.
 
Hey guys, the stakes are 34" long, I do have a 36" lathe, accuracy is not critical but need to be pointed...., I'm not above chucking into a lathe and grinding... just gonna be slow.

Meah.. grinding.... in "volume", yet.. on any lathe you'd like to keep sweet for the NEXT job? Not my cuppa.

Better to rig a fixture for a Burr-King or cousin? Pipe threader, modified, idea may be slow, but investment is very low, you might hire someone hungry for Christmas cash to do most of them whilst you generate other revenue on more wisely bid tasking (hint, hint...), and it need not trash the rest of yer machinery.
 
Hey guys, the stakes are 34" long, I do have a 36" lathe, accuracy is not critical but need to be pointed...., I'm not above chucking into a lathe and grinding... just gonna be slow.

Put a steady rest or roller stand on the outboard side of your headstock, chuck in through the hole in your headstock with less than 1" sticking out, set the compound to 60[SUP]o[/SUP], use an electric drill to drive the compound. Depending on the power of your lathe you can make a point on A36 or 1018 5/8" rod in a couple or few passes. There are only a few unmentionable lathes out there that will not be able to take 1/8" deep cut in one pass. If you have a decent lathe you might be able to do it one pass. Use carbide find the right balance between feeds and speed and go at it. Cut from the large side to the point. Really boring job. No need to grind, it goes into dirt it will dull the point in the first foot or less.

dee
;-D
 
Might's well add my 2¢ worth. If I couldn't buy those parts and absolutely had to make them:

Cut to length in an ironworker using a stop. Chomp, chomp, 576 times. Cycle time <5 seconds. About an hour with handling.
Load in turning-center chuck using a gauge for minimum stickout.
Run wide open flooded with coolant. Probable cycle time <20 seconds. About 11,000 seconds, call it 3 hours

This looks like a four-hour project. If your cost is $30/hr the parts are something like 20¢ each to prep. The material is dirt cheap, so worst case it'd total less than a quarter each. Can you buy the pieces for that?

Stack cut them on the bandsaw, a tack weld holds the end together.

Ironworker will mangle the ends so you cant' shove into back of headstock,
to get thru the collet.

You'll have to in thru the nose, and move all that tooling out for very piece.
(actually, both ends will be mangled so much that only a 3 jaw can be used,
much slower than a collet withe lever closer)
 
Hey guys, the rods will get welded to a 12" x 12" x 3/8" base plate, there will be 4 rods per base plate and I'm using 1/4" x 1 flat bar to hold the rods in place 20" down from the top of the base plate.
I have 2 minutes per rod figured into the price for grinding to a point, cutting of the rods will be done on my iron worker, ( Yes, I will weld my ends together so I can cut multiple pieces at a time with a stop set on the iron worker ).

As far as ruining my $ 1,000,00 lathe due to grinding !!!! We dont do any critical machining, I try to hold plus or minus .010 on the lathe... and consider that good.
 








 
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