General welding questions that dont fit in TIG, MIG, Stick, or Certification etc.
Cutting and notching, angles and all that. Need some help
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Hey Guys,

I am working on a site right now with the job of building a tire rack. I have built a lot of things but normally, I build out of square tubing and not pipe. In this case, its pipe (woo) which I am not very good at figuring out angles and notching and all that fine stuff.

If you look at the picture on the right of it, is a side view it shows the piece with angles cross bars going down the side, I started building it yesterday and I am copying an existing one so I am able to get some help from that, my angles look pretty good and piece itself looks pretty darn good on my opinion but the fitups I am getting are awfull, horrendous. I am getting at least a 1/4" gap on both sides of the pipe and its just not fitting in like I want it to. I don't have pictures of the real thing but I might be able to get some tonight when I go back out there.

How do you guys notch your pipes at angles to fit in good?
Tire Rack.png
Tire Rack.png (131.22 KiB) Viewed 1007 times
if there's a welder, there's a way
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John Chamorro
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Olivero wrote:Hey Guys,

I am working on a site right now with the job of building a tire rack. I have built a lot of things but normally, I build out of square tubing and not pipe. In this case, its pipe (woo) which I am not very good at figuring out angles and notching and all that fine stuff.

If you look at the picture on the right of it, is a side view it shows the piece with angles cross bars going down the side, I started building it yesterday and I am copying an existing one so I am able to get some help from that, my angles look pretty good and piece itself looks pretty darn good on my opinion but the fitups I am getting are awfull, horrendous. I am getting at least a 1/4" gap on both sides of the pipe and its just not fitting in like I want it to. I don't have pictures of the real thing but I might be able to get some tonight when I go back out there.

How do you guys notch your pipes at angles to fit in good?
Tire Rack.png
See if this helps.
http://dogfeatherdesign.com/ttn_js/
I don't know it all but I'm working on it.
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Not really working for me.... I don't think I am doing it right though :lol:
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noddybrian
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There is a similar thing on metal geek that works OK - I use it sometimes on odd joint angles in bigger diameters - you can buy dedicated wrap around gauges - kinda like a profile gauge with a load of sliding pins that works or for moderate size pipe - you can get a cheap jig that uses hole saws to cut the mouth - or I tend to use rotabroach cutters in my mill - also there are layout books that cover this - how you do it varies a bit with experience & how much you want to spend gearing up to do it - I'm guessing some of the regulars here that do almost exclusively pipe will chime in.
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Yeah, I am sure there is an easy way to do it with the right gear, I have on the site, a plasma cutter, a grinder and a chop saw. Then 3 different welders, 2 stick and 1 MIG.

So far its been done with an angle grinder and its better than nothing but its a lot of grinding.
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exnailpounder
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You can cope pipe with an angle grinder. I do it all the time. Not really tig quality fit-up but you said you have a mig there right? Cut your basic angle and then use a good course flap disc to rough out your cope. It's not landing gear for the space shuttle 8-)
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Coldman
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Free download of Tubemiter.exe on this site. It's what I use, simple and accurate. Metric though. It prints out a pipe wrap for marking out. Really good.

https://www.ozhpv.org.au/shed.html
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Even a cheap notcher with a hole saw will do you good.
IMG_20161221_1388.jpg
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IMG_20161221_32535.jpg
IMG_20161221_32535.jpg (34.4 KiB) Viewed 946 times
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exnailpounder
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Hey Anders...even though I don't do very much coping, there is a notcher I would like to get just in case :lol: How do thesaw bits hold up? I would hate to buy really expensive bits and rarely use them when I could waste the money on something else I don't need either 8-)
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noddybrian
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I used the hole saw kind a few times but how long a cutter lasts depends a bit on having a drill capable of driving them slow enough / material type & wall thickness / operator - but don't expect many copes per saw - the best we can buy here are Starret & they don't do that well - one thing that helps is plenty of lube / coolant & where possible cut though a complete tube- ie mark out to cut 2copes at the same time - cutting just on one side gives the most issues - I gave up on hole saws & use rotabroach cutters in the mill when tight tig fit up is needed especially stainless in small diameters like boat parts & handrails - anything else a wrap around & plasma is adequate with just a little fettling using a grinder - an in line type with a wheel close to the tube size is best.
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Thanks for all the reply's,

I will probably buy one of those HF notchers, I believe they can be run off a regular electric drill or a drill press which is a plus point for me, I can definetley see that coming in handy, a lot.

Unfortunately, they want this thing done in the next 2 days so I have a guy out on site doing the cutting, notching and fitup during the day and I come out at night to do the welding and make sure its all correct, which is fine with me and we will probably make the deadline but I spent 2 hours welding up holes, inserting spacers to fill gaps and welding them in.

I Also used the MIG to fill holes as it can run weak enough for me to stack the welds, takes a couple of minutes of non-stop welding to fill the hole but it gets there and I then have a backing of sorts then I stick weld over it.

Just a lot of time to fill holes, proper fit-up would make a world of difference here. But I can say now that I have no doubt in my mind that this thing is really, really strong. Its a seriously supportive design, way overkill for tires in my opinion but they want the existing one duplicated so here we are.... Building structural bridge supports for tires :lol:
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You can run them with whatever drill you have, even battery powered.

Jeff, what Noddy said.
The smaller hole saws aren't that expensive compared to a rotabroach. The Bacho (Snap-On) hold up quite well even in SS if handled with care.
Last edited by AndersK on Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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exnailpounder
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Thanks Anders..Eastwood has a nice notcher I might have to get but I don't want to buy their saws, I would rather get Morse or Blu-mol..it hurts to wreck a good tool but I know notchers are hard on bits.
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Well, here are some pictures of my project all done and painted.
IMG_1861.jpg
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IMG_1864.jpg (49 KiB) Viewed 826 times
Took longer than I expected but it turned out pretty good.
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Horstrax
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Look up Tube noticing without a notcher on u tube. The Fabricator
This works great can notch any angle Easley and fast. I never use a notcher any more after I tried this.
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Antorcha
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I do it a little differently on something like that. Get your angles and cut the pipe as if it were swauare tube, Then go to Lowbuck tools and buy the notcher with the appropriate kit for the tube you'll use.I can bang that rack together in short order with that and some .035 wire in the mig.
The only way I ever break out the Pro-tools hole saw type kit is fancy stainless or copper for a jewelry fit. Everything else goes to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gNov_ue4N4
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motox
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youtube of guy doing copes with basic tools.https:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHBanmfn_CA&t=40s
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