My pipe beveling tool

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05-16-2012, 09:18 PM

Urinemachine

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My pipe beveling tool

Figure I'll share with the forum since you've all helped me out a bunch.

I was inspired by someone elses tool - I made my own version. Here is a quick run down.

I've had this "pipe beveler" in my head for a while. The other day (ok, a couple weeks ago now) I went to Lowe's basically looking for a "heavy duty dremel tool with some sort of aluminum base". Didn't come up with much. Wanted something with good power with a 1/4" collet. Almost settled for an air powered die grinder... but then, there it was! I was looking for rotozip/dremel type tools when I realized wow, what I need is a palm router!

I was between a DeWalt and a Bosch. Bosch was $130 (eek) and DeWalt was $89. The differences were pretty big - build quality for one, but also the Bosch had variable speed and a variable deck with coarse (slide it by hand) and fine (rotate a rotary **** and the deck moves in SUPER fine). I had to have the Bosch. $130 was more than I wanted to spend, but whatever, I was sitting in Lowe's tool aisle formulating my drawing. The base was perfect for what I had in mind. I actually did a quick trig for the angle and base plate dimensions on the counter lol. Nerd. But, it was perfect. So I tried to buy it - dude couldn't find the 3 they had in stock. All he could find was the one on the shelf which was lacking its cardboard box and was just in the plastic transport "Bosch" box. Obviously had been opened but the wrenches/manual bag were sealed and the unit was not used. So... he said he'd sell me it for $75. SOLD! They wrote "missing parts" on the label but there were none! Win!

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

So fast forward to tonight. I got to work - I unscrewed the plastic slider plate (for routing wood - who uses wood?!) and measured the bolt pattern. I had some 1/8" HRS plate - measured, cut, drilled, mitered, cut, drilled, etc., welded. Here's what I ended up with:

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

I am using a carbide double-cut bur tool. Its a 1/4" shank w/ 1/4" head. The hot part is, if you bevel a million parts with this, and it gets dull... lower the table! I had to buy an "extra long" bur due to the heightof the "wedge table" I made.Since I built the bevel angle into the table the Z-axis of the tool just raises and lowers the tool, but the angle is preserved. Hot. Could have made the welds prettier but I was busting this out and hey, it's a tool for making pretty parts - if I made it too attractive itself it was sure to not work

So after all that, I chopped up some 304L Sch 10 1.25 straight pipe.

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Yuck! Who would use that?!

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Hmm... looks promising...

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Whoa... could be good...

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Oh yeah! (PS, what works as a giant heatsink better than a giant heatsink!? How handy!)

Pipe Beveler Project by Jon Kensy, on Flickr

Love it! It's perfect! Basically, you butt the pipe up to the bur and let it ride the two guide pins I welded. TIG'd those on for awesome fitment - and the best part is a 90 deg pipe EASILY clears them, so you can bevel a 90 deg weld-el.

The bevel is hot, and the placement is perfect. My math worked - the result is a 1/16" flat landing with a clean bevel. Its dead on - this will make penetration and fitment OUTSTANDING.

Seriously satisfied with this project.