Silly question but always looking for better ideas. How do you guys cut your schedule piping for different angles? Like say you have a 90 deg std radius 304L weld-el, 1.25 schedule size (sch 10) - how do you cut it down for a clean 45? Clean 15? etc?

Also - how are you guys putting a bevel on your pipes?

 

I use an angle finder to find the angle of the turn and mark it.

At home I use a chop saw and a flapwheel on a 4.5" grinder to bevel.

At work I use a bandsaw and a sander to bevel. Prefer works method, but gotta do what I gotta do at home lol.

 

How do you hold the pipe at the angle in chopsaw/bandsaw?

 

You will have to make a simple Jig. This write up should explain it great. You can modify the design slightly for your application. https://honda-tech.com/forums/welding-fabrication-53/merge-collector-fabrication-101-a-2787713/

 

^^^ dude... that is EXACTLY the type of thing I've been looking for!

How about for cutting weld-el's on angle? Like cutting a 90-deg down to 30 or 45 deg reliably?

 

How bout go try it out. You really need a belt sander to get perfect fitment unless you want to rely on your cuts every time.

 

Take the next size up in weld-el and cut it in half length wise leaving a little material to keep it from falling in half on the bottom, the pieces you want to cut will slip inside it.

Weld that to some flat stock that can bolt to your saw bed. The weld-el is now your clamp, use vise grips or any clamping method to squeeze the piece down on the cut piece. If you set it up right it makes life so easy cause the cuts are always perfect in regards to maintaining radius.

Sorry no pics, I will search though for you.

 

I getcha - so the "clamp" weld-el, make the end parallel to the saw blade/cut off wheel, and then slide the piece to be cut in or out to change the length/angle of bend.

Pics would be awesome, but I get the idea! Thanks!

 

You have the idea, I suck at just text explanations. I recall a poster here showing how he made his version, it was a v8 or v6 turbo suv build thread I think. His was a great example. If I use it soon I will take some shots.

 

With my hands, lol. Sorry OSHA.

 

Yeah I found it somehow in google - its an infiniti V6 twin turbo

 

I've never welded thin pipe like this before, only thicker pipe that requires 3+ passes.

Do you have a knife edge, bevel with landing, or just a squared edge?

 

So far I have found it to be ideal to put a bevel on the pipe with a 1/16" or so flat on the end. This way the pipe is not so thin that you burn through. You can get an autogenous first pass this way.

 

 

^^^ interesting! I think I like that!