I'm looking to buy a tubing notcher and need to come up to speed on what to get. If you could post a pic of what you use and tell us what you like and dont like about it that'd be great. I'm not looking to spend over 750.00. Thanks in advance.
I picked one up for $100 that mounts in the drill press. Like the one Seedway sells. It works good but man does it like the hole saws.
I use a "JD²" one its the type you mount in a drill press or a vice i bought it to build BMX frames but i used it on heavier stuff on cars also it works great but i had to shim it a little to get it aligned perfect and added more incraments on the protractor for bikes where +-.5° incraments are needed Zach
The old joint jigger is a good one.The trick for the hole saw thing is slow,slow slow speed,and firmly anchoring your fixture,whosever you choose. It's difficult to find or make a drill press run slow enough to not eat hole saws due to heat. If you have or have access to a mill and correct hogging mill sizes that is really the cats meow.
How about Williams Low buck Tools? Anybody use them? Damn, they will notch up to Sch. 40 pipe! I have a holesaw tube notcher, never used it because holesaws are sooooo sloooooooow! I may try one of these. http://www.lowbucktools.com/notcher.html
+1 for the old joint jigger. I have the cheapest one (no roller bearings) and it works great for notching my 3/16 wall ch***is and rollcage. slooooooooow with the handdrill mounted in a vise, lots of cutting fluid. no need to spend anything like $750 for home use. If you're a shop of course, using all day every day its a different story..
Years ago I bought a used horizontal mill for $150 and a swivil based machinest vice for $75 at a machinery auction. Mounted the vise on the mill and made an upper limit bracket for the vice(to keep the tubing from being pulled out of the vice by the rotating mill). I've milled many thousands of notches with it. To mill angles you just loosen the angle vice bolts and turn the vise to the required angle and your good to go. It is close to the Mittler Brothers expensive mill notcher in operation at a fraction of the cost. For years i subcontracted the building of roll cage kits for Howe Racing Enterprises and this thing ran at least two days a week the whole time. The only use it gets now is when I build a one off race car or pro/street car for a customer. Frank
I'd like to see that. I've used a hacksaw and a round file too, but I don't like hitting my head against a wall any more either. How on earth would you use a bandsaw to cut an angled notch?
Mine's an end-mill type. Very heavy-duty and makes production-quality, repeatable notches in 1" up to 3" tube. It was a little over $750 but I dig it for making roll cage kits and H-pipes. http://www.bii1.com/notcher_tubeandpipe.htm Hank
Hole saw notcher was the best 99 bucks I spent in a long while. I have acess to a Vertical mill, bandsaw, cold saw - I STILL prefer the lowly hole saw notcher. Simple and effective. Did my entire 4130 dragster ch***is without killing a holesaw. However I am a hobbiest.
I plan on buying a notcher as well soon....along with a tubing bender. Probably go with JD2. www.jd2.com
I've been doing this for many, many years. In fact, I gave my notcher away. It takes a bit of practice but once you get accustomed to doing it this way it's quicker than the old "joint-jigger".... Usually a tiny bit of grinding is needed to make a perfect fit and I have a 1" wide stone on my bench grinder that's purposely rounded off just for tube fitting.
Wow, dont I feel dumb. That's pretty neat and obvious now I see that you are cutting the corner off the tube, not trying to cut out the U shape. Yeah, I can see that once you have written down the common angles and measurements you could do that much quicker than with a holesaw.
I have done it this way as well, only with a portaband. And yes, it does take a little practice, but can be done.
O yeah, the fastest way I have found without a real tubing notcher is the good old fashioned torch and a pipe wrap. I can notch a tube in about 30 seconds with that method.
This is cool because it has all the angles already listed. It would be neat to have some sort of jig with the angles on it for this.
I just eyeball 'em....then mark approximate cut lines with a soapstone. Again...it's just practice. That's why I get the BIG money !
I've done both. I've got this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42324 - was $29.99 on sale when I bought it so it was so cheap I thought I'd try it. Works well, definately not up for daily production use, but has done 3 cages over the last 2.5 years or so and so far and it's holding up fine... Of course the last one I did I didn't use it on, so even I don't know what's best...
from a friend of mine... The chop saw method, if understood, is a science. With known tube size and joint angle, tube can be notched with great accuracy. The notch is achieved by cutting two opposing angles on one end of a piece of tube, to form a point. The cross-section of this cut will be an elliptical cut due to the shape of the tube. Changes in both of the two angled cuts must be made for the intersection angle and the size of the two tubes being joined. The only real limitation is the max angle of the chop saw. You start with what I call the base angle. This is the angle of both cuts if the joint was 90*. For an example, I am fitting Two tubes together that are both 1.75", at an 90* joint. The base angle, or the angle of both cuts is 28*. These two cuts must meet at a point, and the point must also be centered on the tube. Remember your base angle will change with the tube being cut and the tube that you are fitting to. Here are a few examples of base angles... 2.0" to 2.0" tube, base angle of 30* 1.75" to 1.75" tube, base angle of 28* 1.5" to 1.5" tube, base angle of 26* 1.25" to 1.25" tube, base angle of 22.5* 1" to 1" tube, Base angle of 20* Now to fit different size tubes together 1.75" to 2" tube, base angle of 25* 1.75" to 1.25" tube, base angle of 45* 1.25" to 1.75 tube, base angle of 20* 1" to 2" tube, base angle of 12* What if instead of a "T" joint, I want the notched tube at a 15* angle with my first 1.75" tube???? You must start with your base angle, which was 28* for 1.75"(remember above), and subtract 15* from one cut, and add 15* to the other cut to form a perfect notch. So now I must make a 13* cut and an 43* cut with the point centered on the tube. Perfect coped joint, with no grinding. Written by Marc Googer
I have built many roll cages and I can't imagine using a hole saw type notcher. I do it like JohnnyFast and it only takes a minute or 2 per notch. I use a cyliderical stone in my angle grinder for quick and accurate final fit.
Wow, that's ironic I was gonna post just the opposite. Coincedently I was fitting some helmet bars just tonight so I figured I'd time myself. Working in my normally leisure pace I marked my tube (1" OD x .058 4130) and stuck it in the notcher - the cut took exactly 30 seconds and the fit is near perfect. Now granted there are times the notcher won't do the job, but overall I use it whenever I can. Believe me I am NOT disagreeing with anyone here as this is definitely NOT a right or wrong kinda of thing - just different strokes for different folks.
This is real interesting stuff ! Keep it coming... I'll try the chop saw method this weekend .That chart of degrees is now posted on the shopwall.
For notches on bars that fit at 90 degrees I have a Williams lo buck notcher. Very quick and easy. The steep angles are the ones I can't imagine doing with the hole saw. 2 cuts with a porta band and a touch up with the grinder and you're done. In the same amount of time I imagine I would still be clamping it to the drill press and figuring out angles. But I'm just set in my ways, I have never tried a hole saw type notcher.
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