Conduit nipper?

I use appropriately-sized hole saws in a Bridgeport. I've made a lot of "stuff" out of conduit. The little Lincoln SP125+ MIG box is great for this.

A standard tubing notcher will work fine.

A few caveats:

-conduit is designed to be easily bent. It is very ductile and has a very low yield value. These are not attributes you will want for things like go kart fames, hanger hooks, and similar.

-the OD on the sizes you mentioned are really pretty weird. Conduit bender dies will work but not pipe dies. Not to mention clamps, mills, hole saws are all the wrong size.

-C> I have a lot of stubs of conduit laying around, and the 3/4" and 1" looks

Actually I think conduit makes great hanger hooks for the right stuff. I have a bunch of them 1/2" with 180 degree bends. I made them using a regular conduit bender and then I mashed the long stub end flat in my hydraulic press, drill some holes in them, and screwed them to the front of my shelves. They work good for hanging extension cords, large coils of rope, metalic and liquitite flex, smurf, and other bulky linear items like that. I'll post some pictures if you want. Its crude, but very effective. I have tons of stuff up off the floor in the shop with these. None of the loads are super heavy, but some are not light. Think of a couple 75' 12ga extension cords and a couple 40' double layer tow straps. I just wish I had a nice rubber cap to glue on the open end.

P.S. The radius of bend is too big on the larger conduit for most places I would want to put a material hanger hook.

Just as an aside. Many swap meet canopies are made with special screw connectors and conduit. I forget if its 3/4 or 1" I can post some pics of those too. The connectors. I'ld have to wait until swap meet season to take some pics of conduit canopies.

Anyway, yes the stuff is soft and easily workable, and definitely not for structural anything...

I haven't seen one, unless something is made for another purpose and just happens to fit the occasion.

I fishmouth all my tubing by angle cutting about 1/3 of the diameter away on both sides, and touching the corners to a grinder to get a smooth radius.

You would use the same tubing nocher for thinwall round mild tube, because that's all it is - BUT.

You have to grind, brush, file and/or pickle (with acid) the zinc galvanizing off the EMT before you try to weld on it, and even then you want to avoid the fumes - run a fume extractor on the welding table, and/or have the breeze (or a fan) at your back, and/or use a supplied-air respirator.

Inhale the vaporized zinc fumes while welding something galvanized and Zinc Fume Fever willl mess you up but good.

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Maybe this sort of thing

Lowbucks is $325? Looks like it would do the job, though.

Steve

It's just where I could remember such things being sold so put it forward. Whether you buy or copy the idea and adapt is another issue. Looks easy to make, but like many things it comes down to the balance between free time and paying time.

apologies, i know this is not what you asked...

wondering if there could be a way to rig up a jig(s) for use with a plasma cutter? that is of course if you have a plasma cutter. i just remembered seeing scenes from a tv show from the plant where they make harley davidson motorcycles and they put the tubing in a computer controlled plasma cutter machine that cuts the fishmouths (at varying angles). oh, i'm meaning, a jig that you could rotate by hand, not some fancy computer controlled thing. just wondering. the computer controlled one works beautifully.

just now i wondered if winmiter is still out there, googled it.

b.w.

And also a poor choice for folding chairs and such -- which does not keep people from making them that way. I've got some three-legged and four-legged folding stools which have developed such problems, and I need to redo them for supporting someone my weight. Probably water pipe instead of conduit.

Enjoy, DoN.

Hmm ... for one or two, have you looked at crutch tips available at the local drugstore? I suspect that you can find some which fit.

Or -- go to someone like MSC, and look for rubber handgrips for levers. They are available in various sizes and work quite well for many things. And -- they come in larger quantities for a given price (I forget whether it is ten or twelve per bag), so the price is likely to be better than a "medical supply" (the crutch tips). :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Also, it won't do the 3/4" -- looks like 1" is the smallest size.

Enjoy, DoN.

Vinyl or polyethylene end caps like those on the pages of items 9753K54 or 9567K12 at mcmaster.com would be more suitable. $5-6 per package of 100.

"SteveB" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.infowest.com:

I find the fishmouth/miter template method of making EMT project joints pretty quick (non-production that is) and easy. Just print out the template, tape around the tube, and with a right- angle grinder grind to the line. You can even make double fishmouths to weld a tube at right angles to an X joint..think patio umbrella stand. And these programs are.....free!

Problem is that conduit OD is an odd size

One option would be to lose weight! (ducking for cover)

Pipe is really terrible stuff to use for real projects. Try and find some .083" wall tube.

And how would that help with sliding a protective cap over the outside?