Cutting small tubing

I used to cut tubing like this with a 1" abrasive cutting wheel without too much problem. The hardest thing is holding it firmly, because if you allow it to twist much it breaks the cutting wheel. I found that the best solution was to mount a miniature vice on a block of wood, hold the tubing in the vice and slide the block of wood across the bench surface into the cutting wheel. But you need a bench mounted grinder to do this. What kind of grinder are you using? If you can hold the tubing steady and square the cut produced by these small discs is usually pretty clean. The discs also like to go fast - my grinder goes at about 20,000 rpm if I recall correctly. I can't think of a better way to cut this tubing right now. Shearing the tubing will squash it, and a hacksaw is too crude.

Best wishes,

Chris

Hi Rheal - can you get access to a lathe? Best of Luck - Mike

Dear Saul:

If the lathe doesn't work out, try:

- laser

- water jet (I have no experience with either on tubing, to believe they would work)

David A. Smith

A lathe is a good idea if you can grip tubing that small. Perhaps you can find a 1/16" collet?

A water jet might work if you can keep the tubing from rolling away, but you'll have to dive into the water tank to grab those 1/2" pieces afterwards :-).

Chris

You need a "Terry Tool". It's a little hand tubing cutter especially made to cut small capillary tubing. They're cheap.

Don Kansas City

Or a sharp edged file. We use them all the time at work on 0.063" dia tubing used in wind tunnel propulsion models.

---------- Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 ( snipped-for-privacy@EdwardG.Ruf.com)

I had to cut 1/16" SS tubing once and had the same plugging problem. It wasn't too hard to ream out the plug by hand using a small drill - wouldn't want to have to do it for more than just a few pieces though.

Lance

Saul thought carefully and wrote on 4/29/2005 5:30 AM:

If you can get your hands on a wire that fits closely in the I.D. make the cut with the wire in it. Then after the cut poke the wire out.

Richard