cutting stainless... go on.. clue me up.

[Mussels]

I would probably use it as an excuse to buy another tool. I could do it with a hacksaw slightly over size and then file it down but that's boring (and my bench skills aren't the best). I'd look for a secure way to hold the work in a table (workbench) and then use a router with a milling bit. The secure fastening is the only part I'm not sure about, it needs to be very secure but not crushed, the pipe notch in a workbench may be enough but I wouldn't know until I tried it.

Finding a local machine shop will be cheaper and likely to be a better job.

[mangocrazy]

It's along the lines of 'if my grandma had balls she'd be my grandpa', but if you lived in Sheffield I could take you to an engineering shop that would do that in 5 minutes. I'd definitely try and find (and cultivate) a local engineering resource. They're invaluable.

[weeksy]

It's ok @mangocrazy I've bought/found an alternative solution.

[mangocrazy]

And you definitely need an angle grinder in your life. I've got two Hitachi grinders and they are excellent - for £35 how can you go wrong? No case (you'll pay about £15 extra for the case), but still brilliant VFM.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185474808246

[Felix]

Screwdrivers kind of work or even make you a shorter one.

[demographic]

I'd take it to a local machine shop and get them to do it, hack sawing stainless steel is hard work, if you angle grind it will no longer be stainless thanks to the heat.

Grinder type heat doesn't change austenetic stainless steel into non stainless steel.
It does however allow it to take temper colours unless its either kept away from the oxygen while its hot or if you clean off the oxide coating after its done.
Under that micro thin temper colouring oxide coation its still stainless.

One other thing about grinding stainless that you do have to watch out for is using a grinding disc thats been used on non stainless steel as the micro particles cause the stainless to corrode.
Use discs designed for stainless and don't use the same discs for both.
Also use a stainess rated wire brush.

[Yambo]

I'd take it to a local machine shop and get them to do it, hack sawing stainless steel is hard work, if you angle grind it will no longer be stainless thanks to the heat.

I've cut a fair bit of ss with an angle grinder and it's still stainless.

I get a fair bit of ss welded and it gets fucking hot but it's still stainless.

Wonder why that is.

[Skub]

My old mechanical instructor would've hack sawed it and then filed it to what you needed. He was amazing, he used to work on Typhoon's in WW2 and then got involved in a firm making microwave wave guides in the late 40's and 50's. When he was getting us to make test pieces as apprentices he had this magical ability to file something square and to the centre of the tolerance band with seemingly a few strokes, it was so infuriating watching him achieve something in a few minutes that you'd failed to do all morning.

That was a loooong,boring part of my training as an aircraft apprentice. The thickness of a line on a 6" rule was reckoned to be 10 thou,so we were expect to split that and effectively read a rule to a given dimension within a 5 thou tolerance.

[cheb]

I'd take it to a local machine shop and get them to do it, hack sawing stainless steel is hard work, if you angle grind it will no longer be stainless thanks to the heat.

I've cut a fair bit of ss with an angle grinder and it's still stainless.

I get a fair bit of ss welded and it gets fucking hot but it's still stainless.

Wonder why that is.

Firstly, I'm not a metallurgist so this is AIUI: Stainless is stainless because of the alloying metal, chromium and nickel in varying percentages. 316 is 18% Cr, 8% Ni with the balance being iron. The chromium forms an oxide layer and because it has the same density as Cr it doesn't flake off so continues to protect the iron. I don't know what the Ni does in this situation.

There's also two crystal structures, austenitic and martensitic but that mostly affects hardness, strength, machinability and the like.

[petrolpete]

Having thought about this the lathe would be the best solution. Otherwise as mentioned a hacksaw cut then filing it down would be my choice. I would get the part in a vice and put some masking tape around and draw the line where the cut has to be and maybe start the cut with a dremmel all the way round to get the line straight.