[Ronja] finding rx/tx casings - cutting 316L steel?

[Bruce M Simpson]

Karel Kulhavy wrote:
> Oh it's rectangular. Do you mean it for the case of the optical head or the case
> of the electronics?
>   

Just for the heads... haven't dealt with the twister yet.

Says here that "power hacksawing" is well within engineering limits for 
300 series steels:
    http://www.ssina.com/view_a_file/fabricate.pdf

I found the metal outside a house which was being renovated by a 
property developer, clearly left over from a new kitchen.

I wonder if I can anneal it suitably for cutting with a heat gun -- I 
would prefer to borrow one of these, 'cause I was going to do 
experiments with recycling QFP SRAM chips from PII/PIII SECC cards for 
use as trace memory for minila.sourceforge.net, and I can't be arsed 
forking out the money for an SMD rework station yet.

>
> I also once cut steel by setting a MIG welder to maximum current and minimum
> wire feed. Made a lot of light, smoke and rusty dust and just melted the steel away. That was because both the band
> saw and grinding worplace was full. But the lady who supervised the workshop said I shouldn't do it anymore that it damages the machine. I wonder why the machine allows
> setting a combo of parameters that damage it ;-)
>   

I'm going to have to play with this kind of toy one day... I used an arc 
welder briefly once years and years ago.

BMS