[Closed] Cutting 1/2" steel plate - best method for a tidy finish?

Or is there a solution I haven't thought of yet?

phone the manufacturer? They might be able to do that at the factory for less than it'd cost you?

Hacksaw and file?

Find a local canal boat yard, boat fitters or something similar.

phone the manufacturer? They might be able to do that at the factory for less than it'd cost you?

It's certainly an option (although they've yet to confirm it can be done) - but would put the installation back by about 4 weeks 🙁

Laser cutter. Won't need finishing off then.

We've just has some 10mm thick plates made up at work, and they were lasercut. Very nice tidy edge. From memory, plasma cutting is pretty messy. Angle grinder will be difficult to get a straight edge.

Or as others have said, get it done at the factory. Worth a try!

I am no expert, but isn't there meant to be a quite considerable minimum clearance around these things?

Plasma cutting can be very neat and tidy, I use one a lot for cutting stainless steel up to 10mm thick. Am not sure whether you can plasma cast steel though. You could use an angle grinder with 1mm slitting disc and just clamp a straight edge to the plate and cut down that.

brant - Member
I am no expert, but isn't there meant to be a quite considerable minimum clearance around these things?

i do find it so frustrating when internet know it alls post information that they have no way of know is correct or not on forums (forii?) 😉

If its a straight cut then the metal cutting circular saws (made by evolution commonly but a few others make them) will be just up to the job. As simple, straight and accurate as cutting plywood with a regular circular saw. No heat/sparks/dust and a beautiful clean, straight, square cut with a lovely almost crystaline finish to it.

A tool hire shop should be able to hook you up with one, the biggest / powerfullest of the Evolution models (1750w) will cut 12mm mild steel plate

Some advice here, though it's american. Though their houses are built out of similar things to ours. I guess.

http://nasdonline.org/document/1254/d001052/wood-stove-installation-and-operation.html

brant - shedfire.

brant's right, a stove should have clearance around it

Yup - I suggest you check building regs very carefully. a quick google gave

A minimum clearance of 80mm around the sides and back of the stove is recommended to allow for air movement and heat from the stove to enter the room.

http://greymetal.co.uk/installation.php

just done one myself.

[url= http://www.sbsa.gov.uk/tech_handbooks/th_pdf_2009/Section_3_Domestic_May_2009.pdf ]page 126 is probably most relevant[/url]

scottish regs butI'dthink English woul be similar.

The manufacturer will/should have specs. on the stove for minimum distance around the stove. Did with my Morso.
And laser cutting great!

9" grinder - sorted

Thanks to those who supplied cutting suggestions, I didn't know about laser cutting - I'll be ringing some metalworkers to see what they can do if the factory cannot help.
For those that offered advice on a subject other than that in the title - I do know about the building regs involved, I don't know about cutting plate metal. If I had wanted to know something about the building regs I would have asked. Had you had been bothered to ask before making your comments, you would have found that 80% of the stove is actually going to be sitting in front of the inglenook because of the tightish fit. The only reason part of it is going inside the recess is to maintain the 30cm distance between the front of the stove and the edge of the hearth.
Oh, and once past the granite surround the inglenook opens up to allow 80mm clearance around the stove anyway.

Some advice here, though it's american. Though their houses are built out of similar things to ours. I guess

Not quite........ overall they make much more use of wood and less brick

50000Psi of directed water.

are you sure it is just a steel plate, some stoves are cast iron as steel would buckle with the heat.

For those that offered advice on a subject other than that in the title ... If I had wanted to know something about the building regs I would have asked.

Are you new here?

re: the American building materials thing, I suspect they don't make their fireplaces out of wood.

are you sure it is just a steel plate, some stoves are cast iron as steel would buckle with the heat.

Clearview - defo steel. More stoves are being made of steel rather than cast now.

Laser cutting is pretty tidy, Waterjet cutting is even more tidy.

Why don't you just lick it with your sharp tongue then?

If you can take the "lid" off easily enough, any metal workshop will be able to saw/mill the edge off with ease. For DIY I'd go with a decent large-diam cutting disc and a straight edge, but for the time and cost and effort of DIY I suspect the machine shop would be a better solution. They would be even happier to cut "corners" out of the rear so the front maintains width if you prefer.

but for the time and cost and effort of DIY I suspect the machine shop would be a better solution

I agree. Although I 'could' do it I think this one is best left to someone who cuts metal for a lving.
AFAIK the 'lid' is welded on 🙂

Clearview have just said that it could take them half a day to change the laser cutter program to make different cuts. Although this sounds a little excessive I can see they're not that keen to do it.
Upon remeasurement, if I put the stove entirely in front one the recess (so no cutting) I'll have 24cm between the front of the stove and the edge of the hearth - I may just go with that instead.

With a laser cutter its fairly easy to do a one-off but if you're in the middle of a production run it's going to give some down-time. With the lid welded on a machineshop won't be able to get it into the majority of cutting gear so you're falling back to a cutting disc im afraid! I think I'd do the same as you and just be careful with the ashes/sparks on the carpet!

Clearview just rang to say they use robot welders for the stove construction and they use the edge of the 'lid' as a reference point, so if the changed they width of the lid the robot would get all upset (in a digital way).
They have confirmed that we've got enough clearance at the front anyway so that's that 🙂