Best way to chop a socket in half without a lathe

[kyjuypo]

Hi all, so I want to make something like the photo. It’s essentially a bit of flat bar (though I’ll use an old spanner that I’ll grind off the spanner bits at each end as I have no other use for it) with a chopped up socket welded to each end. This is to do a job where a crowfoot simply doesn’t work.

In an ideal world I’d use a lathe to do this cleanly but I don’t have one of those (though I certainly would). Is my only other option to use an angle grinder and then a belt grinder to get it smooth or is there another option I haven’t thought of?

Thanks!

 

[MetalMonkey]

No pictures are showing, but I recently chopped an old chrome socket down to weld onto a home made tool, and did exactly that, slit it to length using a grinder with a thin cut off disc, and dress it with, in my case, a fibre disc.

Id also suggest a good idea to remove the chrome plating from the weld area.

 

[Agroshield]

You might get a squarer cut with the grinder if you spin the socket slowly in a cordless drill while cutting. 1/4" male hexagon to 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" socket square sizes are easily available.

 

[julianf]

No photo showing, but...

If your welding the half socket to somthing, is it possible to weld it first, and then cut it once it's welded?

That way you can hold it better when you're cutting it.

Or even, if youre ultimately wanting the other half, weld it to scrap, cut it, keep the bit you want.

 

[arther dailey]

No photo showing, but...

If your welding the half socket to somthing, is it possible to weld it first, and then cut it once it's welded?

That way you can hold it better when you're cutting it.

Or even, if youre ultimately wanting the other half, weld it to scrap, cut it, keep the bit you want.

only if you weld it from the socket side rather than the drive side , which I reckon would work well as you say , great idea. other than that I would suggest sticking a tight fitting nut in socket , in the vice next and cut head off with 1mm slitting disc.

 

[julianf]

only if you weld it from the socket side rather than the drive side , which I reckon would work well as you say , great idea.

....what i mean is that, if you were wanting the "offcut" you could still do the same, but just weld the whole part to some scrap for holding / cutting, and, when the offcut (that you want) flies off into the abyss, curse that you didnt keep a better eye on where it went...

(but, if you did find it, then weld the offcut to what you want)


So, either way, weld the part to something for holding, and either just keep the welded part, or find the escaped offcut, and weld that to the job thereafter.

 

[Screwdriver]

Assuming the problem with a crowsfoot spanner is the gap, have you considered the idea of welding a small restraining strap over the gap?

It would be a lot stronger than welding on a socket.

 

[jo1010]

For a square cut with slitting disc wrap masking tape around the cut line first - and rotate the socket in the vice several times while you cut...