How To Cut Stainless Steel?

If your business deals in stainless materials or the production of steel components, then cutting is the most common fabrication technique you need to master. This guide takes you through the technologies you can use to cut your stainless steel plates and pipes to suit your fabrication or industrial needs.

Why is Proper Cutting of Stainless Steel Important?

Here are reasons you must adopt proper cutting techniques:

• To ensure you maintain the integrity or physical properties of your stainless steel
• It helps in achieving high-precision cutting, leading to high-quality production
• It reduces waste while enhancing production efficiency.

How to Cut Stainless Steel Plate or Pipe: What Should You Consider?

Before deciding on which tool or equipment to use for cutting your stainless steel plate or tube, you need to be guided by the following factors:

1. The thickness of the steel plate or pipe you want to cut

2. The level of cutting precision your project needs

3. Your fabrication capacity in terms of the machines and skills available.

4. Your budget if you need to engage the services of a specialized fabricator

So, as a fabricator, how do you approach the stainless steel cutting process? Let’s find out

1. Put your own safety first! When using some metal cutting tools, you will encounter flying metal chips, noise, and sharp cutting blades, so protective equipment such as earmuffs, gloves, goggles or masks are very necessary.

2. Ensuring Your Material Is Effectively Secured and Other Safety Concerns

3. Your Cutting Methods Must Suit Steel Thickness and Project Requirements.

4. Factor In The Post-Cutting Treatment and Finishing

How to Cut Stainless Steel: The Power Cutting Techniques

There are different specifications for stainless steel sheets, plates, and pipes. There are also different cutting techniques you can choose from based on your material size and project needs.  The cutting methods can be manual or automatic. 

Here are the power techniques for cutting stainless steel plates or pipes:

Stainless Steel Cutting With Power Shearing Machine

Another highly efficient method of cutting the straight edge of stainless steel plates or sheets of different sizes is a shearing machine. 

For light shearing machines, inclined or scissor-like blades achieve the cutting.  However, you require a heaving-duty shearing machine with a straight-cutting mechanism, a moving upper blade, and a fixed lower blade for your industrial stainless steel cutting needs. 

 There are different shearing machines to suit your different fabrication needs. The most common industrial types include Mechanical shearing machines,  Swing beam CNC  shearing machines, or Guillotine NC Shearing machines. 

Note: Choosing a shearing machine that matches the thickness and width of the stainless steel materials you intend to cut is important.

Laser Cutting Machine

Laser cutting is a thermal cutting process that will precisely cut through a stainless steel plate or tube.

If your stainless steel material thickness is up to 1.00 inches, a high-energy carbon dioxide laser will effectively accomplish your cutting task. 

For thicker or industrial stainless steel plate or tube cutting, choose a fiber laser cutting machine with a suitable power rating. 

Before choosing your fiber laser machine, you must know the maximum thickness of stainless steel it can cut. 

Cut-Off Saw | Abrasive Saw | Chop Saw

You can also cut your piece of stainless steel plate or tube using a table-top chop saw. The tool uses an abrasive disc whose rotation cuts by eroding the steel surface.

For an efficient stainless steel cutting process, you must choose a narrow and high-quality ceramic cutting wheel.

Band Saw Steel Cutting

You can use heavy-duty or industrial band saw machines to cut your steel metal plates or pipes. Band saws are like cutting belts that are driven by pulleys. 

Because stainless steel is a tough material, you need to install a carbide saw blade in your machine for an efficient cutting process. 

Before deciding on a band saw method, remember it’s not your silent-cutting guy! Therefore, if you operate in an area where loud noise is an issue, it may not be your best steel-cutting method.

Cutting Steel With a Miter Saw

A miter saw is yet another technique you can use to make different types of cuts on your steel material.

 Even though miter saw tools are popular with wooden materials, they can still use one if it has a special carbide-tipped blade suitable for cutting steel. 

Miter saws work well on thin or small-size metals. So, if your fabrication tasks involve working with large and thick steel plates or tubes, you are better off considering other suitable steel-cutting methods.

Stainless Steel Plasma Cutting

Plasma cutting is one of the best and most cost-effective methods you can use to cut stainless steel plates and tubes of a wide range of thicknesses. It can be applied to cut stainless steel plates into different shapes.

Plasma-cutting technology uses a stream of ionized gas at high temperatures to form a plasma capable of cutting your stainless steel material. 

Plasma cutting is a fast and suitable stainless steel cutting technique. It guarantees a clean and high-precision cut.

Abrasive Water Jet Cutting 

If you want to cut stainless steel fast and without distortion risk, then an Abrasive Waterjet Cutting machine is worth considering. How does it cut stainless steel?

The process involves pressurizing water mixed with an abrasive substance. The mixture then passes through a waterjet nozzle to cut your stainless steel tube or plate along the already marked lines. 

How to Cut Stainless Steel: The Manual Cutting Techniques

Here are the most common manual techniques you can adopt to cut your stainless steel plates or pipe materials:

Hand Hacksaw | Power Hacksaw Steel Cutting

Hand hacksaw cutting is the most popular and cost-effective way of cutting stainless steel plates or tubes. 

You can use either a hand or a power hacksaw machine depending on your cutting needs.

You must ensure that your cutting blade matches the thickness of the steel material you intend to cut. 

If your stainless steel plate thickness ranges between 5mm and 6mm, use a size 24 hacksaw blade. For a stainless steel tube, a size 32 blade is suitable. 

In general, to avoid the tendency of your cutting blade jamming during the cutting process, use blades with a higher number of blades per inch. 

When using a power hacksaw, ensure the cooling system works so your cutting blade does not overheat.

Stainless Steel Cutting Using Angle Grinder

Another cheaper option of how to cut stainless steel is by using an angle grinder with the right cutting disc size. 

What should guide you in choosing the right angle grinder is your desired steel cutting depth. For instance, if you want to cut a stainless steel plate with a 30mm thickness, choose a 115 mm angle grinder with a cutting disc.

How to Cut Stainless Steel Tube Using a Tubing Cutter

A tube cutter is another tool you can use to cut your stainless steel pipe 

If you use a hand-held tube cutter, your tube thickness should not exceed 1mm. However, with some heavy-duty manual cutters, you can cut a stainless steel tube of 2mm thickness. 

During the cutting process, you must keep adjusting the feed pressure until your material is cut.

If your fabrication project involves a lot of stainless steel pipe cutting, you can also go for a suitable portable power tube-cutting machine.

This method is more efficient than the hacksaw cutting and leaves a much cleaner and more precise cut. 

Jigsaw Steel-Cutting

For light fabrication projects, especially at your home workshop, using a jigsaw with a bi-metal blade can be a great cutting method for your stainless steel plates. To avoid overheating, you have to maintain a slow cutting process and use a suitable coolant. 

Stainless Steel Cutting With a Circular Saw

Another method you can use to cut your piece of steel plate or tube is by using a circular saw machine. However, to overcome the toughness of your steel material, you must use a diamond blade for your cutting process.

Since this method is prone to produce flying metal chips, special attention should be paid to all-around protection when using it, especially facial protection.

Stainless Steel Cutting Method Precision Comparison

Conclusion

Considering that stainless steel is a hard and valuable metal, you must always use the right cutting tool to achieve your desired cut most efficiently.

It is also important that your technician or machine operator is well-trained in using different tools and in all the necessary safety measures during the stainless steel cutting process.

Contact us for certified laser cutting machines, shearing machines, CNC Press Brake Machines, and accessories for support and guidance.