I have read many questions from the CNCzone members regarding the cutting of Hardened and Case-Hardened steel rails, so here is a little post on how I do it!
First off, I have a 6x12 Surface Grinder in my shop. A necessity if I do say so! They have a magnetic chuck, which allows for easy holding of steel parts and tools. For this job I used my old grinding vise, which I have rigged up a stop that's nothing more than a piece of pipe with a 1/4-20 threaded rod inside. This holds a little metal plate at a solid point, so all the rails will get cut the same length!
The grinder has an abrasive cut-off wheel, which is around 3/32" thick. The grinder's RPM is around 3000+ and this will eat the steel really fast! For the sake of taking a movie, I have removed the safety guard from the grinder's spindle. Because the sparks and debris fly all over, I have safety goggles & a dust mask on!
After all the parts were cut, I took them out of a bucket of coolant which was used to cool them off, and loaded them into my lathe where I face off the burn squaring up the end and bringing it to my desired length.
Now, I know that the average bloke doesn't have a Surface Grinder, but an abrasive cut-off saw's are really inexpensive and come in a variety of sized. One person even mentioned that the local ACE Hardware store had one which they used to cut pipe!
VIDEO (15.2 MB)