08-14-2012, 02:40 PM
Hello Walter,
I have made similar tracks previously using very similar track dollies, and in the first instance I decided to mill the slots, mine were a full inch wide, in 1/4" wall thickness 4" x 4" tube and the slots were not all the way to the ends of six foot long tracks, Long story short 5+ feet of 1" X 1/4" milling takes time and for my money is just tedious, I was making ten of these beams for a customer, luckily I was also the design engineer on the job, A quick amendment to the drawing and I was free to use a Plasma cutter to do the slot, and by judicious use of a powered straight line cutting jig the last nine beams were cut in the same time as the first one was milled.
My point; if it isn't critical for dimension or finish it is often preferrable to go with a good clean plasma cut rather than spending weeks and a load of cutting tools trying to mill structural steel parts.
I hope this is of some value.
Best regards
Rick
I have made similar tracks previously using very similar track dollies, and in the first instance I decided to mill the slots, mine were a full inch wide, in 1/4" wall thickness 4" x 4" tube and the slots were not all the way to the ends of six foot long tracks, Long story short 5+ feet of 1" X 1/4" milling takes time and for my money is just tedious, I was making ten of these beams for a customer, luckily I was also the design engineer on the job, A quick amendment to the drawing and I was free to use a Plasma cutter to do the slot, and by judicious use of a powered straight line cutting jig the last nine beams were cut in the same time as the first one was milled.
My point; if it isn't critical for dimension or finish it is often preferrable to go with a good clean plasma cut rather than spending weeks and a load of cutting tools trying to mill structural steel parts.
I hope this is of some value.
Best regards
Rick
Whatever it is, do it today, Tomorrow may not be an option and regret outlasts fatigue.