Cutting Stainless Steel

[nctnico]

I have 3/8" x 24 SS threaded rod and need to cut it to size.

Then cut it, like anyone else would do, with a hacksaw.

You can cut stainless steel with a hacksaw but I always use manual water cooling (from a squeeze bottle or similar). Otherwise the blade gets dull really quick.

[nctnico]

As asked, I'm not on the coast. The cut end will be in an attic where it can go from freezing to 120 degrees F in the summer. I could have went zinc plated (assuming they come in the size/length I needed), but feared cutting the end, scratching, etc... would cause the plating to come off and thought the SS was worth the extra few dollars.

I'd be wary to use stainless steel for construction work. AFAIK stainless steel is less strong compared to carbon steel. Another problem is that threaded rods are often made from very soft steel unless specified otherwise. The stuff from 'home depot' et al may be too soft for your purpose. So by all means try to get bolts which have the suitable length and check their tensile strength rating.

If you are worried about rust, you can buy cans of zinc spray that can be used to cover up blank steel. Another good option is paint with rust-conversion agents in them. Over here 'Hammerite' is a good brand offering protection against rust for decades.

[coppercone2]

I also have the guilitone style bolt cutter that you thread a bolt into and strike it with a hammer. It does work on stainless steel and egnineering bolts but it requires quite a bit of force. BUt it does seem that the milwakee tool might be capable of shearing bolts.

https://www.aircraft-tool.com/detail?id=ats-sbc

I can't understate how nice it is to shear bolts and I wanna know if anyone tried that milwakee threaded rod tool on stronger alloys.
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/2872-20

-Powers through 1/2" Mild Steel & 3/8" Stainless Steel Threaded Rod in Seconds

Once i got the ATS tool it seemed totally crazy to actually cut bolts unless its a specialty pitch.

[bostonman]

The stuff from 'home depot' et al may be too soft for your purpose.

Thanks for the warning, but I'm using SS from McMaster-Carr. I don't believe HD sells lengths of rod long enough for my purpose, however, I would have assumed their threaded rod is the lower quality, maybe 12k psi whereas the stuff I have is 70k psi.

[Bud]

Try Metal Supermarkets, they sell industrial grade stuff.