Tube Notching

admin

There has been a good bit of discussion on tube notching in the last couple weeks so  I thought I'd show you the tube notcher I set up for my shop.  I've used the hole saw style - a lot - and don't much care to ever use one again.  Every one I ever used always gave trouble with the attachment of the hole saw to the spindle - usually in the form of the threads getting ripped out of the hole saw or the end of the spindle.  It works, but it can get real ugly...So, I bought a very small horizontal mill on Ebay called a Nichols Miller.  The Nichols is very small, and has a great feature - the X axis of the table is driven rack and pinion with a lever rather than by a lead screw like most mills.  This works great for tube notching - very quick action.  I got the mill through a best offer for $200.00 including shipping!  There was even a neat indexing head with a good 3 jaw chuck bolted to the table which I have since turned into a weld positioner (I'll show that off another time).I had to buy an endmill holder for 1.25" shank end mills.  That was about $65 from MSC.  I also had to buy big roughing end mills from a surplus tool place - about $80 for the 1.75" O.D. x 4.5" cut length shown below.  Oh, and the swivel base vise also came from MSC for around $80.  So - the pics and vids below represent a notcher that cost me around $425.00 as shown.  I haven't kept track of how many notches that endmill has made - but I'd guess it would be close to 1000 now.  It's definitely duller than when I started, but still cuts nicely...Here are some pics:Here is a video of it notching 1.625" OD x .12 wall DOM on a 90 degree angle: http://tubularfab.com/upload/notch/MVI_0163.AVIAnd here is one of it doing 1.75" OD x .095 DOM on a 30 degree angle: http://tubularfab.com/upload/notch/MVI_0164.AVII didn't have anyone here to hold the camera, so those are done with me holding the camera in one hand and running the mill with the other.  It's much quicker and easier when both hands are running the mill!Anyway, I just wanted to throw this method out there for those that are spending about the same amount of money on fancy hole saw notchers...  This thing is way more rigid and flexible - I can notch off center, etc.  I can even do a plunge cut with the head that makes a nice miter on the end of the tube with the endmill.  Little horizontal mills are really cheap used - you might look into this as an option.
Reply:Oh hell yeah!I don't run into the need to notch tubing much, but thta is obviously the setup to have for anyone doing a fair amount of it. "How to" posts are the best.
Reply:Seems like i remember seeing that notcher.I'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:saweeet!!
Reply:At prototypic, Pretzel wasn't too trustworthy wow gold  almost the entire day domiciliate experience. With his process in between his legs he paced part the interview assemblage and kept hunt toward the entry for his mom.Instead, in came Emmie, a prosperous retriever, who sniffed his search and left.