cutting 6" Pipe

[muck]

Whats the best way to get a straight cut when you are cutting 6"+ Acrylic or Clear PVC Tube??

Does the cut have to be perfect in order to Weld a flat peice on top??

[Robw]

Try a large hose clamp and use it as a guide. I saw this somewhere on the net. Either that or some careful measuring and some masking tape.

[StirCrazy]

Whats the best way to get a straight cut when you are cutting 6"+ Acrylic or Clear PVC Tube??

Does the cut have to be perfect in order to Weld a flat peice on top??

table saw with a good jig made to do it. and yes it has to be pretty much perfect to glue a flat chunk to it.

Steve

[Aquattro]

Steve, maybe post a pic of your jig. It's a clean example of what's required.

[StirCrazy]

Steve, maybe post a pic of your jig. It's a clean example of what's required.

hmm let me see if I have one.. if not I will have to get one later on.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

here is a pic of the home made tube cutting jig I use.

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/tubecutter.jpg

I have cut 9" tube on this jig by myself. oh also remember a proper acrylic blade for the saw is a god send, you can buy a high number tooth blade and it kinda works but needs a lot of clean up. if you use say a 120 or 160 tooth blade you will most likely just melt the acrylic and make a mess depending on your luck. a proper blade lets you go strait from the table saw to the gluing station with no additional edge prep.

Steve

[Delphinus]

How does the jig work? I see a piece clamped onto the fence which I can guess, but the part over the blade has me a bit stymied.

[StirCrazy]

put the tube against the large fence (adjusted for length) pull it tightly against the small fence. start the saw, raise the blade through the bottom of the tube and slowly rotate the tube to wards yourself until the cut is complete. I would be standing on the far side of the table saw facing you in the picture.

Steve

[Richer]

Awesome! Thanks for the picture Steve :razz:

-Richer

[muck]

Thanks Steve!!

I was hoping there was an easy way to cut it on a tablesaw. The jig looks nice and simple to make too. Pictures are great!! I may just have to get cracking on that them there skimmer soon. hehe :mrgreen:

[Richer]

muck - where are you gonna get your acrylic from? The lady at GEpolymershapes said they didn't have any of the tubing that I wanted, or any of the acrylic sheets for that matter =\ . Maybe we can get together and buy a couple of large sheets rather than a few small ones and save a bit of money? Who knew acrylic cost so much? We should use that instead of currency :rolleyes:

-Richer

[kuatto]

Steve
Is there anything holding the part of the jig that the blade goes through to the table?

[Richer]

Looks like rails were put on the bottom of the jig to slide through the notches on the tablesaw... probably would be wise to clamp it down while you're using it.

-Richer

[muck]

muck - where are you gonna get your acrylic from? The lady at GEpolymershapes said they didn't have any of the tubing that I wanted, or any of the acrylic sheets for that matter =\ . Maybe we can get together and buy a couple of large sheets rather than a few small ones and save a bit of money? Who knew acrylic cost so much? We should use that instead of currency :rolleyes:

-Richer
I actually came across a 6" Clear PVC Tube in the shop at work the other day. So I will be using that cause its FREE. I will probably need some flat pvc though or acrylic would work if someone can confirm that its possible to glue the two together...

[Richer]

Do you happen to have enough to spare me 2 feet worth? :mrgreen: (yes, I'm a mooch).

I'm pretty sure you can bond acrylic with pvc. I keep on reading that weldon 16 should do it as long as it has enough time to cure (whatever that means).

-Richer

[StirCrazy]

Steve
Is there anything holding the part of the jig that the blade goes through to the table?

yes like Richer said there are the two runners on the bottom that go in the guide slots only I made them very tight so it doesn't go anywhere while cutting and no need for clamping the sled.

Steve

[Jack]

I find when you buy lengths of tubing the ends aren't always at a level cut which screws up your mirrored cut on the other end. So, sometimes it takes some prep to straighten that out but that's the hardest part. Heavy grit sandpaper works best to do that, IME.

[Aquattro]

Jack, all you need to do is cut the first piece an inch longer than you need, then turn it around in a jig like Steve's and trim the rough edge off. Perfect cut on both ends. You'll never need to sand tube again!!

[Delphinus]

That's really cool.

So what's different about an acrylic blade? Up until now I thought it was just more teeth that you wanted. Is the shape of the teeth different?

Would a place like Industrial Paints & Plastics have a blade like that or do you need to special order it from somewhere?

[Aquattro]

Tony, th tooth design is different. IPP might have them, but you'd need a bank loan. Specialty saw shops are likely the best place. These can run upwards of $200 per blade.

[muck]

Tony, th tooth design is different. IPP might have them, but you'd need a bank loan. Specialty saw shops are likely the best place. These can run upwards of $200 per blade.
:eek: :eek: :eek:

[StirCrazy]

That's really cool.

So what's different about an acrylic blade? Up until now I thought it was just more teeth that you wanted. Is the shape of the teeth different?

Would a place like Industrial Paints & Plastics have a blade like that or do you need to special order it from somewhere?

some features are simulare like the tripple chip tooth arangment, but the shape of the space between the teeth is different to reduce heat and melting and to clear the chips faster. also the rake of the teeth is different. my blade was 160+tax after my discount. go to a saw shop and ask for a nomelt acrilic blade. should be between 150 to 200 bucks. or for the same price drive to the Island and I will cut it for ya :mrgreen:

Steve

[medican]

hi guys.......

sorry to bud in but I built this one and works great and I included the home page to with a list of lots of DIY


http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=169285

http://barraquatic.com/


hope this helps

richard

[StirCrazy]

hi guys.......

sorry to bud in but I built this one and works great and I included the home page to with a list of lots of DIY


http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=169285

http://barraquatic.com/


hope this helps

richard

I looked at this design originally and decided to make my own for two reasons. the one in the link was plywood. this I could have easily built out of MDF instead which is a superior product to use for jigs as it has a perfect surface and is more rigid and structurally stable than plywood.

also the design of that one was that you needed to build two of them. one for the larger pipe and one for the smaller pipe and I didn't want two jigs taking up space when one could do it.

if you already have made one I would suggest going out and getting a chunk of MDF to use as the backing plate to give your tube a truer surface to run on. you will notice it in your cuts.

Steve