Slice torch, brings back fond memories...not!
Actually many years ago I used to do a lot of fabrication and repair. My least favorite was getting the tracks apart on a machine I couldn't get to the shop where I could rig up a portable pin press to press it out. Wailing and beating on the pins never worked well. Trying to cut them out with a torch made too much touch up repair work later.
I've used big slice rods (5/8" thick and 10' long) to pierce thick plate (6" +) that I cut on our CNC oxyfuel table when I needed a peirce hole, so I went out and bought a slice torch. You can stuff it right in teh center of the master pin on one end and keep feeding the sucker through the center till it pops out the other side 8 or 10" later. You may need to change the rod, but it's not a big deal. It will throw crap everywhere till the hole gets established, then it's not so bad. the coolest part is that the pin shrinks to the inside about .005 and you can usually tap them out with a hammer.
the best was when you get a farmer that has beat and beat, and hacked, and heated, and beat some more on a pin that won't come out, and you take your slice torch to it, and a couple minutes later the pin is out.
After a while you never do it while you're watched. They don't feel like the value is worth it. I still have the torch, but rarely use it anymore. It comes in real handy a couple times a year though. It's great for getting rebar out of concret, and does a pretty good job of melting through a concrete wall. Now that throws crap everywhere.
Incidentally when piercing thick plate I used to weld a cap on a big hunk of tubing with a large hole in 1 side and run the rod through the cap. Start it up and set the tubing over the pierce hole, aiming the hole in the side at a suitable palce to throw molten chunks of metal and let her rip.
