Angle Iron Straightness

[richie00boy]

I am looking to buy some lengths of angle iron to use as guides for cutting sheets of wood accurately. Is angle iron usually true and straight or am I better off looking for a more engineering grade of material?

 

[cumbriasteve]

Off the wagon bog standard angle is rarely 100% true and straight and usually has some minor distortion caused by the storage, moving and lifting by the suppliers, it's usually nothing major and can be easily sorted for metalwork and would certainly be straight enough for any general purpose marking of sheets for any joinery work I would do.

Suppose it depends on what levels of accuracy you require.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I am looking to buy some lengths of angle iron to use as guides for cutting sheets of wood accurately. Is angle iron usually true and straight or am I better off looking for a more engineering grade of material?

You are better off going for heavy wall aluminium extrusions, I bought a length of 3"*2" by 1/4" aluminium angle to make a fence for my table saw, bought a 4m length and had 3m left over that I use as a cutting guide for 8*4 sheets of ply, levelling up gate posts etc and its accurate enough for me.

 

[awemawson]

Had sandwich board / plasterboard partitions put up in an office donkey's years ago, and they used extruded 'H' and 'U' sections of aluminium alloy. I blagged a couple of lengths and now 35 years later I'm still using them as straight edges. Very rigid and yet light to carry about.

 

[Hitch]

Extruded ally flat would be my choice....
If you do a lot of this sort of work, have you considered a track saw?

 

[Kent]

I should go for something like 40x10 black flat m/s bar if you wanted cheap and reasonable Or Ali as above. You might find buying a straight edge made for the purpose not too different in cost to the Ali though

 

[Monkey Harris]

Had sandwich board / plasterboard partitions put up in an office donkey's years ago, and they used extruded 'H' and 'U' sections of aluminium alloy. I blagged a couple of lengths and now 35 years later I'm still using them as straight edges. Very rigid and yet light to carry about.

i have a u section which held the wall to the ceiling ..
yup just the job..

 

[julianf]

I did the front edge of our Rayburn hearth (33mm slate) with angle iron clamped to both sides, and then gone at with a sanding disc.
This was only a short distance, but aluminium would have been too soft (however, i agree, would have been straighter)

(later jobs, i got better at, and did not use the angle iron)

 

[richie00boy]

Thanks for the replies. Will look into the alu extrusions.

Hitch - have considered a track saw but also looking for somthing portable that I can cut up sheets in lumber yard to fit into car.

 

[Maker]

Thanks for the replies. Will look into the alu extrusions.

Hitch - have considered a track saw but also looking for something portable that I can cut up sheets in lumber yard to fit into car.

I think the track can be split in two on some of them so it would be even more portable than the extrusion.

 

[richie00boy]

Wendelspanswick, where did you get that aluminium 3x2 angle? It sounds ideal. I also need to make a decent fence for my saw table.

Had a look for metal battening for stud walls, it all seems to be thin steel.

Whatever I use, it needs to have a sharp corner to allow me to line up precisely against the line by eye.

 

[normspanners]

I use some lengths of I beam alu for marking out, it seems to stay straight, i think because it is that light you can pick it up at one end with one hand therefore doesnt attempt to bend with its own weight.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Wendelspanswick, where did you get that aluminium 3x2 angle? It sounds ideal. I also need to make a decent fence for my saw table.

Had a look for metal battening for stud walls, it all seems to be thin steel.

Whatever I use, it needs to have a sharp corner to allow me to line up precisely against the line by eye.

There use to be a company that supplied aluminium extrusions for lorry bodies locally but they closed a few years ago but that's where you need to search.
That's also why my extrusions were in imperial sizes as apparently all lorry bodies are built using aluminium extrusions in imperial sizes.

 

[normspanners]

go to window / conservatory places, they have all kinds of long alu extrusions and will usually have some scratched stock they will sell cheap .

 

[Maker]

ParkerSteel sell 3" x 2" x 1/4" aluminium angle for £36 or 2" x 1" x 1/8" for £12.

 

[ford34/2]

If you can find any Office, Glass partitioning installing companies ask for KOMFORT partition stuff, NE Komfort were in Leeds area, brilliant, Try some of the suspended ceilng companies + they probably do stud partition work as well. Several sections come to mind all brilliant straight edges.
Stan

 

[richie00boy]

Maker, have you used Parker Steel before? That price is way cheaper than anything else I can find. Just wondering about what their packing is like.

 

[Maker]

Maker, have you used Parker Steel before? That price is way cheaper than anything else I can find. Just wondering about what their packing is like.

I've not used them before, I just use their so get an idea of what things will cost. I think I found them by recommendation of another forum member who had used and liked them.