Tube Notching Methods

Plain ol' abrasive wheel. I don't know how well it'd work on a saw meant for wood, I don't think I'd do it even if the rpm was ideal if it was a nice saw. You can get a cheap abrasive wheel chopsaw pretty cheap.. If you've got a radial arm saw you can put an abrasive wheel on it too, I've done it with good results. It's very good for deep cuts, you can make them in multiple passes and not worry about burning the wheel like you might in a single pass.

Guess I didn't realize they called a similar saw for wood a chopsaw, in my neck of the woods a chopsaw uses an abrasive blade and is either electric powered or has a chainsaw engine.

John

I once tried to mount an abrasive blade on a power miter saw and use it to cut steel. The steel stock gets quite hot when cutting it and I hadn't accounted for that, so not only did the saw not cut the steel well, but a few plastic pieces on the saw melted and were destroyed.

I went and bought a Ryobi 14" Cut Off saw after that and never looked back. Great saw; very sturdy and made for the job.

Here's an example of that saw:

You best be doing a backup also. CD or DVD burners are getting pretty cheap now days. The law of averages will ultimately catch up with you.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

That's too bad.. hate it when I damage a tool.

There you go, that'll work nicely. You'll be impressed at how nice of fitting you can do with that on tubing.

If you don't have a belt sander, it's the next best thing for grinding a drill. I do quite a bit of grinding on the side of my chopsaw wheel, I'm sure you're not supposed to but I do. Bent a piece of welding rod to wrap around the trigger and hold the guard up..

John

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Man I got backups of backups of backups, and even backups of those backups, much of it on ¼ tape. I have a CD burner and just got a DVD burner. But the tape is still the best and most reliable method to archive data, for long term storage.

I am in the process of building a large BBQ grill from a tank that is

3½-foot in diameter, by 5½ foot long. Having learned from previous mistakes I am cutting one side at a time and welding in 1" X 1" X 1/8" on the edges of each half before cutting and welding the next side. (Oh yeah, I put the hinges on the first side I cut.) Now as two pieces of 1/8" thick angle, placed back to back equal approximately 1/4", I needed to make each cut in the tank approximately 1/4" wide. I took my 2hp Craftsman 7¼" circle saw and put two (2) 1/8" metal cutting abrasive blades on it side by side to give a 1/4" cut. The 2hp saw has enough power to do the job if I don't force it, and I can make the cut down the long side and part of another cut before the blade's wear out. Then I cut two pieces of angle to length, place them back to back and slip the edge into the cut. I tack the angle into place with my TIG using it as a stick welder, then follow up, completing the welds with my MIG. After doing one side at a time before cutting the next side I have a top and a bottom on my grill that match perfectly, without any air gap to speak of.

Q.E.D

Yeah, it works fine on tubing and angle stock. Even re-bar cuts well, but when you start to get into thicker solid steel it's more efficient to switch to using a bandsaw. A number of years ago, before I had bought my 4x6 horizontal/vertical bandsaw I had a need to chop a slice off of some 3" diameter round stock I had. After about 45 minutes of working on it with the abrasive cut-off saw I finally gave up and finished the job with a destruct-o saw.

Hmmm, sounds kind of shaky. I'm slowly collecting the parts to build a shop-made belt grinder, like this one:

Mine will be uglier, for sure, but will incorporate a disk sander as well. It'll be powered by the 1.5 HP 220v motor I have laying around.