is there a relatively inexpensive tool that can be used to cut perfect circles in lets say a 1/4 steel? easily.
I know there is expensive ways and I know there is some time consuming ways.

 

1/4 inch is some pretty heavy steel unless you have a torch or plasma cutter. Without one of these two things I wouldn't know of any way, with one of these two it's no big deal at all.

 

the torch will cut crappy. the plasma is out of my price range

 

The torch cut is easy to clean up though with a little grindin. Just put a slight bit of angle on the cut then grind it flat and it comes out right on the money.

 

If your wantin down and dirty precise, it would have to be a metal art type places that uses the water jet's or laser to cut but that's a little over kill for most anything I could think of.

What's this gonna be for.

 

differential guards

 

1/8" or maybe even 3/16" could be done on a bandsaw. 1/4 inch is some pretty serious stock for somethin like that, might be normal for Jeeps, I don't know. But being on the underside of the truck I think a torch cut that's been cleaned up would get close enough for nobody to tell the difference. If they'r lookin that close at the underside of your Jeep, odds are pretty good you messed up already.

Most skid plates are only heavy guage sheet metal. They count on the frame work that mounts them in place for the strength.

 

yeah but there isn't anything to support the diff cover except the diff cover itself.

 

How are you gonna mount these monsters then. I don't think I'd wanna use the cover plate bolts to hold this kind of weight, not to mention that if you hit somethin hard enough to need that kind of armor plated protection you would probably damage the diff just from the impact.

Hard to know cause I know nothin about Jeeps and what they have under there, but I think I would weld the mounting brackets to the Axle with C channel and bolt the plating to that.

 

A torch with a circle cutting attachment (I make my own) and a little practice and you can cut circles that are so smooth on the edges that you don't have to clean em up at all. The same attachments are avalible for a plasma cutter too. Practice is the key to most hand operated welding or cutting processes. Depending on what you call cheap, you can buy a entry level torch plus single stage guages and a cicle cutting attachment for under $300 bucks minus the bottles to run it. Then you set to cut carbon steel and weld.