Removing welded pipe bead?

How about a cylinder hone w/ extension?

A hole saw might do the job. You would have to grind the first half inch of the weld down to start it but that would be easy with a Dremel or similar tool. Do it in a drill press (or lathe) - kep the speed way down and pressure moderate and lots of lube. Ken.

Hole saw or other edged cutter with a pilot pin that has a groove in it for the ridge?

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!

Use the dressed grinding wheel, but make a key slotted eccentric disc to follow the bead down the pipe ahead of the wheel.

The disc keeps the grinding wheel positioned along the bead and the bead makes a temporary key that you remove as you go.

Something like an 1/4" disc turned to 3.5" diameter with a center pivot hole for a pilot on the grinding arbor offset 1/8" from center. Dress your grinding wheel to 3.25 in. and as an added benefit the rest of the id will be protected. Cut a slot clocked to the offset axis to fit the weld bead and off you go. Might need to install a cheap bronze bushing int the disc for the pilot to turn in.

There will be a slight undercut to get a flush surfacec with a 3 1/4 " wheel, but probably a lot less than what you would get just tossing a 3 1/2" wheel through it with no guide.

Haven't tried this yet, but I have the same issue with some welded stainless tubing that would be near perfect except the bead. My original thought was a custom set of push broaches but that seems like it would be too much effort to save...very little.

StaticsJason

Glenn,

If the inside pipe does not need to turn you could simply grind/cut a groove in the outside of it to make room for the burr.

Regards, Jim C Roberts

Ok, here's an idea. What about making a large D-bit just the size of your desired ID of the pipe? Grind away just the first 1/2" or so with a die grinder, then put your pipe in a stout vise and run your D-bit in from the end. Since a D-bit has over half of a cylindrical shape it will follow straight down the pipe, and just (ideally) nip away a bit of the weld on each rotation.

If you have a lathe with a big spindle bore you could mount your pipe in a chuck and feed the D-bit in using the apron.

Sort of like a big homemade gun drill.

Grant

It has to rotate. This is going to be the pedestal for my "dream" rotating, adjustable height, lighted, dust collecting 5 position sharpening/grinding/polishing/buffing station with lazy susan wheel and compound storage.

Right now I have all that equipment crammed > Glenn,

Ah. Why not redesign with clearance, and use a surplus Timken tapered roller bearing at the top? Whenever I think "telescoping" I think of 1/4" of clearance with 1/4" bushings welded where they need to be. This is how the boom on my old boom truck worked, and it worked really well. I'd suggest forgetting the idea of removing the internal weld bead.

Grant

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

Agree on bushings. Everytime I ever used a nice good slip fit of an entire length just a small amount of rust made it a bi%@* to get to telescope again. Now I is smarter, I use bushings, not as much contact area to give me grief, and if I have some that fits, I usually use brass or bronze or even nylon etc.

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A bit hard to describe but you can also scrape it out. The inside diameter is 3.505" so get a piece of bar stock, weld a bar on one end at a slight angle, a cutter on the other end, total length about 3.600. Drill a series of holes near the cutter end to allow adjustment, and pull it though. If it is real hard to keep it from binding, exhange the cutter end for a half round file thta is wedged in place.

But the real way to do it is to put bushings on one end of the outer, one end of the inner. Cut a grove in the inner tube bushing to accomdate the weld seam.

Cheers.

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

Glenn,

You've got some pretty good suggestions on this, and I'm going to add my suggestion, not because I think it's a particularly good one. I just took it personally that I had to come up with a suggestion. You could take a hand held air driven cutoff wheel and cut all the way through the pipe lengthwise along the weld joint. That will remove the weld bead at the expense of leaving a burr that can probably be cleaned up just by running your tubing down it a few times. If the slot weakens the pipe too much, you can weld it at the ends where you can easily clean up the inside with a die grinder.

Bob