im hoping to order one of these imminently, current target is the £70 one from chester tools. But it only goes up to 45 degrees, has anyone spotted a cheap 60 degree one for sale in the UK? Protools have them but they are $200 and $300, and obviously being in the USA they would incur import tax.

Cheers!

Don't you just cut the angle at 30 degrees but the other way around?

there is no other way round with most notchers!

What I mean is rotate the pipe!

that would still be 30 degrees... you would have to secure the pipe at 90 degrees to normal, like i have to do with my bandsaw to cut tight angles.

Still don't see what you mean. 90 degrees minus 30 is 60.
It all depends where you measure from.
Anyhow, both Demon Tweeks (£89.10) & chester uk (£70.50) have a delivery time of 6 weeks.
I ordered mine from demon originally as their website said 3 days delivery. After 3 weeks they told me that it would be a further 6 weeks due to the manufacturer redesigning the item!
I cancelled with them and found chester uk and they told me 6 weeks. No bullsh*t from them about manufacturer redesigns!

well, thats a bit of a bummer...

as for the angle thing, how can you turn the tube 90 degrees, it would be sideways in the jaws. You would have to turn it end to end, which is 180 degrees. You couldnt use it to chop a super tight angle, which a lot of trangulation might require. For instance, in the picture below, you couldnt cut the black pipe at that angle, however you turn it.
Rescued attachment notcher.JPG

Not a good picture, but couldn't you cut it here instead?
[img][/img]

that would be a different angle! Very different, plus i dont think they can adjust upwards anyway. There, it would be identical to 30 degrees down.

ie the same as this:
Rescued attachment notcher1.jpg

I can see what Nitrams' getting at. He means, cut it at 30 deg and, if you were welding it in the position shown on the diagram i.e. running bottom left to top right at 30deg from vertical and into a 90deg corner formed by 1 horizontal and 1 vertical tube, then weld it to the horizontal pipe not the vertical.

At least I think that's what he means

that would be possible, but its not always into a corner. Good point though, that would solve many problems.

my brilliant diagram was actually a picture of the cutter itself, with the different angles shown!

[Edited on 28/5/06 by JoelP]

However you rotate the tube, a 30 degree cut is still a 30 degree cut, it can't suddenly become 60 degrees without physicaly mounting the tube at an extra 30 degree angle before you make the cut.

so bumpety bump, surely with all the engineering greatness of the UK (ha...) there must be more than two suppliers with a 6 week lead time?! Madness... They seem common as muck pondside.

How much notching have you got to do?
personely i would have to be doing a hell of a lot to warrant buying a machine to do the job..

I am going to build my second project, based on the ariel atom chassis. As this will have minimal panels, the chassis will be the bodywork and on show. Therefore I am going to tig weld it.
Good tight joints are vital to look good.
My first car (my avatar) was relatively locost.
My next one will be better.
I have already got my rodends and mounting brackets sorted:

Description

For notching tubes, if you only have a few, could you use a pillar drill, vice and a hole saw?

I was going to sugest the "tubemitre" software...

works a treat

That is all a hole notcher is.
A clamp with angles written on an adjuster, plus a holesaw chuck.
It just holds everything steady.
You method would work but requires more setting up.
The notcher is easier to set up.Click

[Edited on 29/5/2006 by nitram38]

I'd forgotten about that. Anyone got a copy that a mac can run? Changed from a 'normal' pc and lost it.

dont know about the mac but heres the PC version.

http://www.ihpva.org/people/tstrike/tubemiter.exe

nearly everything i will make in future will be in round tube, plus right now i have about 40 tubes to notch for my front end, plus more throughout the rest of the car. I have notched a few to date by drilling through 19mm tube with a 16mm drill bit, cutting and grinding it to fit, but that is no good for doing angles. All my trangulation really needs a proper notcher. Tubemitre is a great program, but i cant be arsed doing them all by hand!

There are a few different plans floating around on tinterweb to make your own, think rortys site might be one. if i was to make one i think i'd be tempted to use a rotabroach cutter instead of a hole saw.

Al.

rotabroach looks very mean. How easy is it to use a lathe for hole cutting?

If you can adapt the tool post to hold the tube and it can take that sort of force of the chuck being pushed onto it (well it onto the chuck & can't see why i wouldn't) then the lath would be fine.

Done a lot of tube notching in the past using a lathe. Use an end mill held in the chuck and a tube vice mounted on the toolpost, works a treat.

I don't have a tube holder for the toolpost on my lathe at the mo and I haven't had any suitable lumps of steel to make one from, so I use a carbide cutter in the die grinder, which does the job in seconds anyway.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Race-Car-Tube-Notcher-Tubing-Notcher-pipe-notcher_W0QQitemZ7625050930

thinking of getting this one shipped over from the USA. Anyone else interested in one whilst im at it? Im just waiting for a postage estimate.

[Edited on 2/6/06 by JoelP]

I've done all mine in a cheap drill press with a rotating bed and a vice. You do need expensive starrette typw hole saws and you will even take the teeth off these eventually.

Aldi has a good drill press for £29.99 at the moment, 500W and lots of speeds, better than my old Makro one and £10 cheaper.

Caber

idea of the week! I forgot my pillar drill has a tilting bed then again, it might not... off to check!

right then, it does tilt, but not very well! I got a nice adjustable vice from machine mart, and a set of holesaws, and set about some right angle ones. I think tilting it would make it snatch too much, without the extra bearing of the notcher. Not bad at all though!
Rescued attachment notched.JPG

Joel,

Use cutting oil and light pressure on the drill press, if you don't have cutting oil use 3in1. as long as you don't press too hard and let the saw cut it should work fine. It is also worth making sure that the drill bed is not flexing, the cheap ones do. when I was cutting holes out of 3mm wall tube I set up the bed so it was supported at the opposite side from the pillar with offcuts of tube and plate.

Best of luck

Caber

i knew it needed oil, but only had wd40! not quite the same need to get some sharpish the bed does flex a little, but i can brace it

Good idea gents! I've just remembered my drill has a tilting bed, i'll just have to get meself a suitable milling cutter if me holesaws won't work and make a tube-clamping vice and off we go!

If you have a lathe, you can make a tube clamp to fit on the tool post. This can then be rotated to whatever angle you need. Use a milling cutter in the chuck. A friend of mine has done this very successfully and for very little cost.

John