Round tubing

Clay45 · May 30, 2016

I used a hole saw to cut notches in tubing that fit perfectly. But the HF notcher clamp didn't perform well for me and I found a basic vice on my drill press better. But you must have the room and the ability to level the tubing while cutting it. Can't be in a hurry.

A man skilled with a cutting torch is the fastest I've seen. But I don't own one and I'm certainly not skilled with one.

Good luck!

handirifle · May 30, 2016

Jim Timber said:
That's debatable. You just don't have the experience yet. Square is easier in some respects, and round has other advantages.

Just get a mill and be done with it. You'll thank me later.

Ha yea one more thing to wish for. I like to look of round tubing better, I have to admit that. I gave some serious thought to welding up a flatbed from some round tubing. Was thinking something in the 16ft range, nothing heavy duty, maybe 5-6K double axle, maybe single. Like I said not a heavy duty, but every now and then I need to haul something long, like steel and hate to have it cut to 10ft, when I NEED it to be longer for the project.

Thinking of a long wood shed, for one.

I don't have the room to set something up in a permanent spot to cut tubing so it has to be portable, somewhat. Don't want something too light, then it's inaccurate.

EddieWalker · May 30, 2016

Back in my Jeep and off roading days, I would just use a piece of scrap to draw a line on the pipe to notch, then cut it out with the torch. Clean up the edges a bit with the grinder, and weld it together. It only took a minute to cut out a notch, and it was really simple and easy to do.

Shield Arc · May 30, 2016

Here's how you do it when you don't have a big enough hole saw.

Egon · May 30, 2016

Get lazy:

[video]http://www.nexussteels.com/prd/weldolet.jpg[/video]

handirifle · May 30, 2016

Yea I bet those pieces would double the cost of my little trailer.

Oldpath05 · May 30, 2016

stuckmotor said:
I've thought of using round tubing for a ladder rack thinking that it might offer less wind resistance.

For on a pickup yes, square is not as good, makes more wind nose going down the road. I made a pickup rack from 1-1/2" square, had to add a wedge shape piece to the front cross member to quiet the wind nose down coming from between the rack and top of cab.

Oldpath05 · May 30, 2016

Jim Timber said:
That's debatable. You just don't have the experience yet. Square is easier in some respects, and round has other advantages.

Just get a mill and be done with it. You'll thank me later.

Round is more of a pain to get/keep/clamp/measure square, there I feel better now after winning that big debate, your welcome.......

Oldpath05 · May 30, 2016

EddieWalker said:
Back in my Jeep and off roading days, I would just use a piece of scrap to draw a line on the pipe to notch, then cut it out with the torch. Clean up the edges a bit with the grinder, and weld it together. It only took a minute to cut out a notch, and it was really simple and easy to do.

I'll hope I never grow out of my Jeep off roading days, but I'm with you on notching pipe with torch, after one cut with an hole saw, I'd throw it across the garage. I'm slow geared, slow thinking, and slow minded, so I want some other tool to make things slower. Seem's to me after a couple notch cuts, I have it down to pat and if I was doing alot of round pipe notching, I'd get a plasma, which can also be use for straight cuts.

Jim Timber · May 30, 2016

Oldpath05 said:
Round is more of a pain to get/keep/clamp/measure square, there I feel better now after winning that big debate, your welcome.......

Not really, but keep thinking it's so hard and it always will be. Or, you can learn how to work with it and it's not a big difference.

IslandTractor · May 30, 2016

I don't have a lot of experience working with round tube. I did however purchase the HF tube notcher and set it up in about 10 minutes and make my first nearly acceptable cut a couple minutes later. As with all HF tools there is a need to shim and adjust. Once I figured that out I was able to make precise notches quickly and easily. I was making 90 degree cuts but it looks just as easy to make cuts from 30 to 90 degrees without more than moving a bolt along a calibrated arm. And, once you've set the device up, you can cut an identical notch in about a minute. Just reclamp a new piece, measure, tighten and turn on the drill. Actual cut takes about five seconds.

I've used both torch and plasma but I don't see how those would be as quick or repeatable as the notcher. For the price of the HF notcher (?$45) and a set of bimetal hole saws, it seems a simple way for a novice to prepare tubes for welding. If I was undertaking a serious project I'd probably invest in one of the US made notchers but for general duty notching of thin wall tubing up to about 2 inches I was impressed with the HF (after shimming). All I needed after the cut was to file the burrs and weld. Pretty efficient.