Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
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Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
I need some copper strip - anyone know how to cut a tube lengthways with minimum fuss and wastage ?
- Swedish Pride
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
hit it with the torch until red hot, dunk it in water, it's now soft like butter ( wont try to spell the word as my spelling is dodgy and I make it look rude.)
Use tin snips and it will cut it fussless
Use tin snips and it will cut it fussless
Don't be a dick
Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
2nd that approach, it's what I've always done.
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
i'm not sure I can get it hot enough with propane to do a 3 foot length
- Swedish Pride
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
make a 3ft long fire in the back garden and throw it on the hot coals
Don't be a dick
- Yummyrum
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
Swedish's method is what I do . I like the long fire idea although I never tried it . I have used a gas burner to preheat and used MAPP to raise it to red but I'm not sure that propane would do it over a gas burner though .
You could try using a 1 mm cutoff disc in an angle grinder but you'd need to watch it didn't dig in and nick the opersite side .
Eitherway you still have to anneal it to red hot to open it out and flatten it between two boards if you want flat copper in the end .
You could try using a 1 mm cutoff disc in an angle grinder but you'd need to watch it didn't dig in and nick the opersite side .
Eitherway you still have to anneal it to red hot to open it out and flatten it between two boards if you want flat copper in the end .
My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory
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- Master of Distillation
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
I use an angle grinder with a metal cutting blade to cut copper length wise.. it's not a fast process, but it works quite well on copper up to 1" in side.. mark the cut line with a black marker and just go slowly..
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
depending on what size tube you have and what tools you have available.Pikey wrote:i'm not sure I can get it hot enough with propane to do a 3 foot length
run your torch flame through the inside, it will get red. there is no need
to quench copper to anneal it. build a cradle from wood to support your copper
so you can run it through a table saw, with the blade up only enough to cut the
copper. screw the copper to the cradle. ear and eye protection is a must
be water my friend
Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
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Old school it by putting in a vice and hacksaw at an angle. Put a small wedge in to keep the gap open and straight as you cut. Build's character, this way does.
Newer school use a 'sawz-all' with a short blade, at an angle. Use a secondary board as a rest and to keep straight.
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Old school it by putting in a vice and hacksaw at an angle. Put a small wedge in to keep the gap open and straight as you cut. Build's character, this way does.
Newer school use a 'sawz-all' with a short blade, at an angle. Use a secondary board as a rest and to keep straight.
.
Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
Torch will anneal a spot at a time, but it will take a while.
You can throw the whole thing on the grill to heat it up, then fairly quickly run the torch down the middle to get it cherry red.
You can throw the whole thing on the grill to heat it up, then fairly quickly run the torch down the middle to get it cherry red.
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Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
No there is not, either way works.cob wrote: there is no need
to quench copper to anneal it.
But it it sure helps get the job done quicker if you can pick the piece of copper up and keep working on it 1 second after you have annealed it.
Is there really any need to anneal anyway unless your going to use snips?......hacksaws, jigsaw blades and cutting disks were all made to cut much harder things than copper. How hard can it really be ?
Re: Cutting copper tube lengthways - and straight ?
Have you got a Dremil / Multi tool ? lay and clamp the pipe in a V made os wood draw a line along the length with a black marker as said above and cut along with the metal Dremil cutting disc, easy job done.