Tube cutting

Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made a jig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried botha
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods? Thanks!

I've often used an archery "arrow cutoff saw" and abrasive blades like
these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Abrasive-Cut-Off...cmdZViewIte m
to cut aluminum (1/4" to 3/8") and carbon (1/4") tubes. They also make them
in 4" diameter.
BR

"La Stella Celeste" a écrit dansle
message de ...
Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made a jig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried botha
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods? Thanks!

La Stella Celeste wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made ajig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried both a
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods? Thanks!



Several thousand sounds like a quantity that might lend itself to being
'farmed out'. perhaps a machine shop or a very well equipped job shop?

I dunno - might be a good excuse to buy some cool new tools!

Carl

--
to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net)

La Stella Celeste wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made ajig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried both a
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods?

Yes, I have. If you really have several thousand tubes to cut, you are much
better farming it out. Buying it ready cut to your tolerances.

Look at it his way. If you need 3,000 tubes and each one takes you 10 seconds
to cut. All of this would take you 8.3 hours to cut, if you would do it non
stop, without taking any breaks at all. No bathroom breaks, no lunch, nothing.
Obviously it would take you quite a bit longer. So figure out what your time
is worth doing that. I bet you can find a supplier who can do that cutting for
you for much less than you can do it yourself. There are many places that
automate this kind of operation. And you can then use that time, not doing it
yourself, to make money doing something else.

Since you OD is rather small, you could contact Small Parts
(http://www.smallparts.com/) and get a price quote from them. They are somewhat
expensive. Make sure to specify your tolerances.

Or you can contact Metal Express at http://tinyurl.com/nfawz and get a quote
from them.

Or, you could go through the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers online
(http://www.thomasnet.com/), and find a supplier of what you are looking for,
that way. You'll have many hundreds to choose from. 775 to be precise when you
search for "Aluminum Tubing".

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

La Stella Celeste wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made ajig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried both a
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods? Thanks!



I built a table saw as follows many years ago. use it for all sorts of
precision cutting.
Heres how.
get yourself a 1/3 hp induction electric motor running at 1440 rpm.
No faster.mount it on a wooden base.
on the shaft usually 1/2in dia mount a shaft extension that has a
shoulder with a 1/2in threaded extension.
onto this fit a say 20/1000in high speed steel milling cutter 2in dia.
and 1/2in bore 24 tpi
make up 2 pieces of say 4in by 2in par( planed all round wood) also
fitted to the wood base, screwed from the underside ofcourse.
Next get a 1/8 in piece of brass or steel to make up the table
Mine is 4in by 4in.. screw this down ( countersunk screws of course.) to
the 4 by 2 in so that the saw protrudes by 3/4in through this plate.
youill need todrill a hole then saw the slot with a suitable piercing
saw in the right place..
now make up a fence out of say a piece of 1in by 1in angle with a
slot in it for the hold downcscrew, obviouisly threaded into the table.
so you can adjust the gap between this and the saw blade.

You need to use a candle as a lubricant between every few cuts.
Or bees wax, smells nicer!
also you need to support the tube your cutting inside a piece of wood
say 1in by 1in by 8in long with a slit in it so both the piece
thatslong and the short piece are contained inside a drilled hole almost
right through, Push this piece of wood up against the fence using the
tube and youll cut hundreds an hour..If the hole is a few thou larger
tha 3/16ths in the cut off piece will fall out.
this will prevent the snagging and tearing your experiencing.
Build it well and youll use it for all sorts of cutting I made it
primarily for accurate sawing of hundreds of jump rings.
the other day I had to shorten 200 potentioneter shafts for an
electronic co. they were all done in 2 hrs the above way at 75cents a time.
they wanted them the same day.
Ted Frater

On Sun, 16 Apr 2006 21:26:22 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry ted frater
wrote:

also you need to support the tube your cutting inside a piece of wood
say 1in by 1in by 8in long with a slit in it so both the piece
thatslong and the short piece are contained inside a drilled hole almost
right through, Push this piece of wood up against the fence using the
tube and youll cut hundreds an hour..If the hole is a few thou larger
tha 3/16ths in the cut off piece will fall out.
this will prevent the snagging and tearing your experiencing.

Given the quantity you're trying to cut, I'd change the design of Ted's cutting
jig (a great idea, by the way), to one that will hold multiple tubes to be cut
in the same pass through the saw. If your block of wood had ten drill holes to
simultaneously hold ten lengths of tube to be cut in the same pass, then you'd
be making 300 cuts instead of 3000. That's not a minor savings in time. Not
sure if you can actually do ten at a time, but even two or three at a time makes
a dramatic difference. You might need to adjust the size of the saw blade to do
it.

And pay close attention to Abrasha's suggestion. Jobbing it out may wellbe
quite the best way to go here.

Peter

Abrasha wrote:
La Stella Celeste wrote:

Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made ajig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried both a
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods?


Yes, I have. If you really have several thousand tubes to cut, you aremuch
better farming it out. Buying it ready cut to your tolerances.

Look at it his way. If you need 3,000 tubes and each one takes you 10 seconds
to cut. All of this would take you 8.3 hours to cut, if you would do it non
stop, without taking any breaks at all. No bathroom breaks, no lunch, nothing.
Obviously it would take you quite a bit longer. So figure out what your time
is worth doing that. I bet you can find a supplier who can do that cutting for
you for much less than you can do it yourself. There are many places that
automate this kind of operation. And you can then use that time, not doing it
yourself, to make money doing something else.

Since you OD is rather small, you could contact Small Parts
(http://www.smallparts.com/) and get a price quote from them. They aresomewhat
expensive. Make sure to specify your tolerances.

Or you can contact Metal Express at http://tinyurl.com/nfawz and get a quote
from them.

Or, you could go through the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers online
(http://www.thomasnet.com/), and find a supplier of what you are looking for,
that way. You'll have many hundreds to choose from. 775 to be precisewhen you
search for "Aluminum Tubing".

Of course,
Abrasha is right in thinking of the broader picture.
Certainly a bar/ tube feed cnc production lathe is the way to go if
you can get it done cheaper than doing it yourself.
It depends on the cost factors of subbing it out and wether you
want/need the work.
It also depends wether theres any other work needed, like deburruing or
end chamfering. this depends on the customers need and or design.
all need to be taken into account.

Do let us know what the outcome is
on this and which way you go.
an interesting production question.
I get this sort of question regularly every week from the electronic
co,s I do work for on the side..
there brilliant at what they do but cant use a hammer.!!.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I would like to try to do it myself
because not all the tubes will be the same length and I'm not sure at this
point what all the lengths will be. Will try Ted's suggestion and let you
know how it turns out (may take a few weeks). Thanks!! Robin


"La Stella Celeste" wrote in message
...
Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made a jig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried botha
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods? Thanks!

Thanks Ted - have just spent an hour and a half googling the milling cutter
that you suggested or something similar. Do you have any suggestions as to
where I might look?

"ted frater" wrote in message
...
La Stella Celeste wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions on high-volume tube cutting? I made a
jig
and can saw by hand fairly fast, but I have several thousand tubes to cut
and would like to speed up the process. I am cutting aluminum tubing -
3/16". I tried riggng my flexshaft like a small table saw and tried both
a
cutoff wheel and a narrow sawblade specified for metal, but am getting the
metal chewed up and sheared off. I am holding the tubing in a jig to hold
it steady while feeding it through the blade and it is still not working
well. Has anyone had any luck with other methods? Thanks!



I built a table saw as follows many years ago. use it for all sorts of
precision cutting.
Heres how.
get yourself a 1/3 hp induction electric motor running at 1440 rpm.
No faster.mount it on a wooden base.
on the shaft usually 1/2in dia mount a shaft extension that has a
shoulder with a 1/2in threaded extension.
onto this fit a say 20/1000in high speed steel milling cutter 2in dia.
and 1/2in bore 24 tpi
make up 2 pieces of say 4in by 2in par( planed all round wood) also
fitted to the wood base, screwed from the underside ofcourse.
Next get a 1/8 in piece of brass or steel to make up the table
Mine is 4in by 4in.. screw this down ( countersunk screws of course.) to
the 4 by 2 in so that the saw protrudes by 3/4in through this plate.
youill need todrill a hole then saw the slot with a suitable piercing
saw in the right place..
now make up a fence out of say a piece of 1in by 1in angle with a
slot in it for the hold downcscrew, obviouisly threaded into the table.
so you can adjust the gap between this and the saw blade.

You need to use a candle as a lubricant between every few cuts.
Or bees wax, smells nicer!
also you need to support the tube your cutting inside a piece of wood
say 1in by 1in by 8in long with a slit in it so both the piece
thatslong and the short piece are contained inside a drilled hole almost
right through, Push this piece of wood up against the fence using the
tube and youll cut hundreds an hour..If the hole is a few thou larger
tha 3/16ths in the cut off piece will fall out.
this will prevent the snagging and tearing your experiencing.
Build it well and youll use it for all sorts of cutting I made it
primarily for accurate sawing of hundreds of jump rings.
the other day I had to shorten 200 potentioneter shafts for an
electronic co. they were all done in 2 hrs the above way at 75cents a time.
they wanted them the same day.
Ted Frater

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/N2DRVSH

--

Don Thompson

There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance.
~Goethe

It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom;
it is another sight finer to fight for another man's.
~Mark Twain


"La Stella Celeste" wrote in message
...
Thanks Ted - have just spent an hour and a half googling the milling cutter
that you suggested or something similar. Do you have any suggestions as to
where I might look?