How to Cut a Steel Beam With an Angle Grinder

How to Cut a Steel Beam With an Angle Grinder
Written By
C.L. Rease
C.L. Rease
Published: Jan 9, 2010
Updated: Nov 20, 2021
2 minute read

Step 1

Place the steel beam on top of a stable worktable, resting on a web of the steel beam. If the steel beam is longer than the worktable, support the end of the steel beam with a pipe stand.

Step 2

Measure and mark the distance that you need to cut the steel beam with the tape measure and soapstone

Step 3

Extend the mark by aligning the blade of the combination square with the soapstone mark and dragging the soapstone along the blade of the combination square.

Step 4

Put on your safety glasses, face shield and leather work gloves.

Step 5

Attach a 1/16-inch thick cutting wheel to the six-inch angle grinder.

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Step 6

Lower your face shield, press the trigger of the grinder and lower the spinning cutting wheel to the soapstone line you made on the web of the steel beam.

Step 7

Run the spinning cutting wheel along the soapstone line to create a score line across the web of the steel beam.

Step 8

Continue to run the cutting wheel across the score line until you cut through the web of the steel beam, exchanging cutting wheels as needed.

Step 9

Secure a new cutting wheel to the six-inch angle grinder, place the cutting wheel in the center of the cut web and make a deep cut into the center web of the steel beam.

Step 10

Flip the steel beam over so the cut web of the beam is resting on the worktable and repeat the process to cut through the other web of the steel beam.

Step 11

Lay the steel beam on its side and draw a line between the two cuts that extends onto the steel beam's center web.

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Step 12

Cut the center web of the steel beam using the same methods you employed when cutting the top and bottom webs of the steel beam.

Step 13

Secure the six-inch diameter flapper wheel to the angle-grinder.

Step 14

Run the flapper wheel along the cut edge to remove the burr left from the cutting process.

Warnings

Before cutting a steel beam with an angle grinder, ensure that the cutting wheels you are using are meant for high speed cutting.

Photo Credits

Kim Steele/Photodisc/Getty Images

C.L. Rease

C.L. Rease , based in Texas, has been a professional construction and outdoor writer since 2003. His articles have appeared in The News-Press, a local Southwest Florida newspaper and a small Southwest Florida fishing magazine. Rease served…

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