Say, charge piping, or a downpipe. I can NEVER get the pipes to but against each other with minimal gap (unless it's 2 straights) I see these downpipes, where the god damn pieces just fit together. How the hell do you people do this??? Do you just eye it, go cut, eye it again, cut a lil more, etc?

My downpipe looks like a 4 year old made it because I'm filling in 1" gaps etc.

 

What are you using to cut?

 

Harbor freight chop saw But my technique is to eye it and make a mark on the piping of how to cut it, but it always comes out shitty with huge *** gaps. Then I'm "making piping" with my welder, using up a lot of time, wire, and gas. I'd love to get a nice small gap all the way around, and do one bead and be done with it.

 

How is the harbor freight saw anyways? Sorry, I can't answer your question but I would like to know also~!

 

we used the harbor freight saw at my last job. Worked fine most of the time, sometimes it needed a tap or two to get going. But it was old and definitely well used. Personally, I bought a dewalt multi-cutter. More precise, less mess, less finishing, less frequent blade replacement and much nicer construction

I think the trick to nice fit is just careful measing and cutting, not that I'm great at it. If it doesn't fit nice at first, I do a little tweaking with a beltsander or angle grinder.

 

The chop saw does it's job. Hmm, maybe I'll just take some time with a grinder or dremel on each cut to make sure it fits well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CVC9216 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">we used the harbor freight saw at my last job. Worked fine most of the time, sometimes it needed a tap or two to get going. But it was old and definitely well used. Personally, I bought a dewalt multi-cutter. More precise, less mess, less finishing, less frequent blade replacement and much nicer construction

I think the trick to nice fit is just careful measing and cutting, not that I'm great at it. If it doesn't fit nice at first, I do a little tweaking with a beltsander or angle grinder.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Those dewalts are expensive! Do you know of any other alternatives that would be good for cutting collectors?

Another question, harbor freight only charges like 8 bucks to ship that huge band saw, is that true? or do they charge extra later on when they get the TRUE price?


Modified by DefiantGSR at 9:27 AM 1/19/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CVC9216 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">we used the harbor freight saw at my last job. Worked fine most of the time, sometimes it needed a tap or two to get going. But it was old and definitely well used. Personally, I bought a dewalt multi-cutter. More precise, less mess, less finishing, less frequent blade replacement and much nicer construction

I think the trick to nice fit is just careful measing and cutting, not that I'm great at it. If it doesn't fit nice at first, I do a little tweaking with a beltsander or angle grinder.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i want to get a multi cutter too but i'm having second thoughts on using it on stainless steel, so how long does the blade last on steel and wont the blade get dull much quicker on stainless steel.....

 

Lots of practice.

 

yeah its all about patience,i mocked up my downpipe,everything fits up very well and i did all my cutting and fitting with a hacksaw and a dremel needless to say it took me forever

 

I either use a Milwaukee Chopsaw or a Jet Bandsaw, depending on how fast and accurate I need the cut. Both cut straight though.

 

You have to match the angles. If you want a 5 degree bend, you need 2.5* on each piece.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kookz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You have to match the angles. If you want a 5 degree bend, you need 2.5* on each piece.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Do you just eye this or can you cut these angles with a machine you're using?

 

are you cheating the pipes, if the cut is not at 90 degrees sometimes that can cause problems with them lining up right.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sporkcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Do you just eye this or can you cut these angles with a machine you're using?</TD></TR></TABLE>

A soft measuring tape is your friend

Take it along the outside of the elbow (long side) and measure it. Lets say you measure 6 inches on a 90 elbow. Well, this means that cutting it at the 3" mark will give a 45 degree angle. Cutting at 2" will give 30 degrees, 4" will give 60 degrees. The measurements are all examples, but I think you can get the point here.

The cat is now out of the bag.

 

I cut all my stuff with a BEWO saw

 

The problem is your using a chop saw.

If I need to cut less than half an inch off on mine you can clearly see the blade deflect. Deflection causes incorrect angles..

Needless to say I completely regret buying the chop saw instead of a band saw!

 

ahhhhh, that measuring sounds damn good. Once I get some money I might redo my downpipe and charge piping with some new welding techniques I just learned, w00t!

 

one little trick i used that worked for me, i also used a Hf chop saw... and after carefull "eye balling," i would make a cut. well sometimes the cuts would be off. so what i did with the chop saw was... squeeze the trigger in the up position and use the side of the blade to clean up or get the desired angle, that way everything stays square.

hope that helps you.

 

i have the $50 h-f chop saw and it cuts tubing fine for me

i tried (and failed ) at making a little circle out of small box tubing but the angles were off by a bit; the ends butted together just fine after cleaning them up

 

I might be confused on what you're talking about. I thought you were making bends out of straight tubing, as seen here:

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kookz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I might be confused on what you're talking about. I thought you were making bends out of straight tubing, as seen here:

</TD></TR></TABLE>

never saw the point in that. except to show off craftmasnship and welding. considering bends can be bought cheaper and faster. looks nice as hell though !

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by project dc2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

never saw the point in that. except to show off craftmasnship and welding. considering bends can be bought cheaper and faster. looks nice as hell though ! </TD></TR></TABLE>

ditto....?

does look h0t IMO though

 

correct me if im wrong but i believe they make bends like that because they use titanium and it cant be bent so they have to use the cut and weld method

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cjames235 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">correct me if im wrong but i believe they make bends like that because they use titanium and it cant be bent so they have to use the cut and weld method</TD></TR></TABLE>
That's what I've heard also.