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Cutting thin wall aluminum tubing
- Thread starter N804RV
- Start date
Kyle Boatright
Well Known Member
Bandsaw or hacksaw works. Fine toothed is preferred.
Tom Martin
Well Known Member
A tubing cutter works well. You have to be careful to not take too big a bite each time. Many turns around is better then a few. Take a large half round file and clean out the slight burr and you are ready to go with a perfect perpendicular cut.
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A Diablo or tenryu non ferrous blade will work beautifully, use a 100 tooth or possibly more if its a 12" blade, hold tube so it dont spin, no problem. It will also cut thick stock, hold material firmly and let blade stop before bringing up until you get experienced, most the problems are from bringing the blade up and small pieces, some line like we 40 will make the blade last a lot longer, I work with aluminum extrusion everyday and the best saw we could is the real sliding 12" mitre saw, very versatile and precise. Beware of the saws that have the blade farther away from the fence to cut taller material, these like to grab the metal and pull it up.
Kyle Boatright
Well Known Member
Cut it a gazillionth long, then sand or file it back to a reference line on the tube.
Exactly what Tom Martin suggested. Take it slow with progressively tightening the cutting wheel till it pops then dress with a file. Takes a little ( very little) longer time than a hacksaw but you you end up with a nice clean square cut.
I am the third with the same recommendation. I did the RV-8 just as described.
rv7charlie
Well Known Member
+4
Only downside to a tubing cutter is the 'shrunk' ID, which can be removed.
Never tried cutting thin tubing with a table saw, but a regular wood cutting carbide blade works fine on extrusions. Just wear gloves & eye (face) protection.
Only downside to a tubing cutter is the 'shrunk' ID, which can be removed.
Never tried cutting thin tubing with a table saw, but a regular wood cutting carbide blade works fine on extrusions. Just wear gloves & eye (face) protection.
KatanaPilot
Well Known Member
Beautiful cuts
I had an extra Dewalt mitre saw and I bought a Forrest non-ferrous metal carbide tipped blade. Not a cheap blade, but it makes incredibly smooth cuts. I use V blocks when cutting round stock.
I'm a tool hound and I appreciate the accuracy of the chop saw. Like others said, wear really good safety googles as these blades create a lot of flying aluminum chips.
I had an extra Dewalt mitre saw and I bought a Forrest non-ferrous metal carbide tipped blade. Not a cheap blade, but it makes incredibly smooth cuts. I use V blocks when cutting round stock.
I'm a tool hound and I appreciate the accuracy of the chop saw. Like others said, wear really good safety googles as these blades create a lot of flying aluminum chips.
Greg Arehart
Well Known Member
Tubing cutter and deburring tool. Or if you really want perfect, chuck it into a lathe....
I did it and it worked great!
I used a 80 tooth ultra fine carbide blade on my 10 inch miter saw and it makes a very very straight and precise cuts. My cuts only needed to be cleaned up with some fine sand paper to complete the process. I have to confess, it was a little scary, but it worked great.
I used a 80 tooth ultra fine carbide blade on my 10 inch miter saw and it makes a very very straight and precise cuts. My cuts only needed to be cleaned up with some fine sand paper to complete the process. I have to confess, it was a little scary, but it worked great.
Robert Anglin
Well Known Member
Ditto
Me too, A 36 tooth hacksaw and a good fine file is all you need. As has been pointed out, just cut it 1/16" over and trim it back to square. You will want to deburr the I.D. and O.D. anyway. Yours, R.E.A. III #80888
Me too, A 36 tooth hacksaw and a good fine file is all you need. As has been pointed out, just cut it 1/16" over and trim it back to square. You will want to deburr the I.D. and O.D. anyway. Yours, R.E.A. III #80888
Sam Buchanan
been here awhile
I had occasion to make hundreds of cuts in tubing in the course of building my last two planes. I use a floor-mounted metal cutting bandsaw to make the initial cut which is a little long then bring the tubing to final dimension with a bench-mounted disk sander. A fence is clamped to the disk sander table that is precisely 90* from the disk and the tubing is brought down to final size very quickly and easily.
N804RV
Well Known Member
One of these days I will have a disk sander.
I found an inexpensive large tubing cutter that will handle 1.125" aluminum tubing. Gonna give it a try. And, I also have the chop saw with the TCG 80 tooth blade that I'll try as well. I'll just have to see which one I like better.
Thanks for all the response!
Plummit
Well Known Member
I highly recommend the Reed TC14 tubing cutter. We use the TC14 exclusively for anything under 1.25". It has a built-in deburring tool and is the smoothest tubing cutter I have ever used.
https://www.amazon.com/TC14-Telescoping-Tubing-Cutter-Pencil/dp/B001F9RJ4K
Wow, I just saw that Amazon (Toolup) wants $10.73 shipping. Check with a local plumbing supply house or the internet. Better deals can be had. I don't recommend you buy used as a sharp cutter wheel makes all the difference.
~Marc
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