Tube cutting

La Stella Celeste wrote:
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



It depends where you are and how near or far that is from a general
engineering area such as an industrial estate.
Now the milling cutter is a standard one ,here at any rate, and should
be avauilable fron any good engineering supplies co. ie one that sells
drills milling cutters and lathe tools. etc.
Over herein the UK and for that matter throughout Europe there are
manhy of these co's supplying the ehgineering and machining trades. Look
in your localyellow pages and do some phoning around.
Youll also need the arbour to support this blade. Start with the motor
first then work out from that.
Have you a vernier gauge ? to measure the shaft dia?

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 17:45:01 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Don T"
wrote:

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

--

Don,

That link leads to a "search page" on MSC's site saying the thing can't be
located...

But to the person needing the item, this is one of the right companies to be
talking to.

on that search page, click browse. Then under section 3, click "saw blades and
saws". From the resulting list, you can choose from among several
possibilities, including "jewelers saws", which go up to about 1 3/4 inch
diameter, or "slitting saws", which go up in size from there.

once you've picked the size you wish, no doubt they can also supply an arbor for
the thing too. Not much in machine tool supplies they don't have. probably
could find a fully set up cut off saw in their catalog too, intended for doing
pretty much exactly what you've got in mind...

MSC is a good company to deal with, and has an enormous inventory (their catalog
is about the size and weight of a major city's phone book...) $25 minimum
order.

Many other machine tool suppliers or milling cutter suppliers may have these.
Another one I'd look for is Enco (chicago, I think) Don't have the link handy.

Peter

Happened last time I did it too. Been so long that I forgot though. Anyway.
The link was to the first of 10 or so pages of HSS "slitting saws". Go to
the page and use the "keyword search" function at the top of the page. Type
in "slitting saws" and select your poison.

--

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


"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote in message
...
On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 17:45:01 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Don T"
wrote:

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

--

Don,

That link leads to a "search page" on MSC's site saying the thing can't be
located...

But to the person needing the item, this is one of the right companies to
be
talking to.

on that search page, click browse. Then under section 3, click "saw blades
and
saws". From the resulting list, you can choose from among several
possibilities, including "jewelers saws", which go up to about 1 3/4 inch
diameter, or "slitting saws", which go up in size from there.

once you've picked the size you wish, no doubt they can also supply an arbor
for
the thing too. Not much in machine tool supplies they don't have.
probably
could find a fully set up cut off saw in their catalog too, intended for
doing
pretty much exactly what you've got in mind...

MSC is a good company to deal with, and has an enormous inventory (their
catalog
is about the size and weight of a major city's phone book...) $25 minimum
order.

Many other machine tool suppliers or milling cutter suppliers may have
these.
Another one I'd look for is Enco (chicago, I think) Don't have the link
handy.

Peter

Don T wrote:
http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/N2DRVSH


This link does not yield anything.

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

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
,,,
Another one I'd look for is Enco (chicago, I think) Don't have the link handy.

http://www.use-enco.com

Carl wrote:
Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:

,,,
Another one I'd look for is Enco (chicago, I think) Don't have the link handy.


http://www.use-enco.com


Enco is wholly owned by MSC.

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

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:


MSC is a good company to deal with, and has an enormous inventory (their catalog
is about the size and weight of a major city's phone book...)


I agree. Even though my orders are always small, I feel like they treat me as
if I am General Motors.

$25 minimum
order.

Not so, in my case. No minimum orders required. I have ordered items for as
little as $2.00 (and paid shipping charges of $8.00 on that)

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

On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:22:44 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:

Not so, in my case. No minimum orders required. I have ordered items for as
little as $2.00 (and paid shipping charges of $8.00 on that)


Ah, that's nice to know. I took the minimum order data just from their web
page. It's been a few years since I last ordered anything from MSC, so Ididn't
recall the actual experience. I wonder if web orders are treated differently
than phone orders, or orders from established clients or something...

Peter

On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:22:38 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:

Carl wrote:
Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:

,,,
Another one I'd look for is Enco (chicago, I think) Don't have the link handy.


http://www.use-enco.com


Enco is wholly owned by MSC.

Another new tidbit of info for me. thanks.

Peter

Celeste, Go to a local hardware store and purchase a small tube cutter. The
kind that is used to cut copper tubing. Should be under $10. Mark your tube
with a felt tip pen your desired lenghts and cut away. This method will
produce rounded ends however. if you need flat ends you could do a little
grinding ...tedious. If it were me and I had to cut thousands of little
tubes, I would embed several dozen long tubes in plaster blocks and use a
band saw. You would have to experiment with the plaster to get the formula
of one that disintegrates in warm water. Good luck,Will E.
"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!