Tools & Fabrication - Best way to cut exhaust tubing ect.

Whats the best machine or method to accurately cut exhaust tubing?
Phil

depends on what you want to do. i use a reciprocating saw to cut off exhaust or piping

band saw or if you dont have one, a bench vise and a sawzall. other than that a hacksaw?

Chopsaw!

Is it accurate? Not to the thousandth, but then again, most of my fab work requires time on a disc or belt sander.

Chopsaw!

Is it accurate? Not to the thousandth, but then again, most of my fab work requires time on a disc or belt sander.


Thats the only way to go. Or sawzall next. :)

Cheap chop saw with the abrasive 14" disc, like $50 or
so from Harbor Freight.

Hole saw from Home Depot, and a drill press w/ tilt platform
and a good big vise attached, will let you do fishmouth ends
for stuff like H-, Y-, X-pipes (I used a hole saw, a hand drill
and bench vise for cobbling up the H-pipe on my El Camino
but the larger hole saws will want some torque).

A plasma cutter is sweet for when you need to cut a hole
into existing pipe at random (like when we did my cutout,
wanting an oval hole back by the arch to weld on a flange).
Plasma cutters need to get cheaper :(

I have cut numerous exhaust pieces with a sawzall. I picked up one cheap at pep boys. Their blades suck however and went and picked up some nice craftsmans when they went on sale.

Cheap chop saw with the abrasive 14" disc, like $50 or
so from Harbor Freight.

Hole saw from Home Depot, and a drill press w/ tilt platform
and a good big vise attached, will let you do fishmouth ends
for stuff like H-, Y-, X-pipes (I used a hole saw, a hand drill
and bench vise for cobbling up the H-pipe on my El Camino
but the larger hole saws will want some torque).

A plasma cutter is sweet for when you need to cut a hole
into existing pipe at random (like when we did my cutout,
wanting an oval hole back by the arch to weld on a flange).
Plasma cutters need to get cheaper :(

:stupid: That is all that I use unless it I am cutting some thick wall DOM tubing then I use a band saw.

Plasma cutter need to get cheaper, I am looking at one cost about $2700 :(

i started using a sawz-all, but it wasnt accurate enough for me and hard to hold down when i was cutting it. GOt a portable grinder with cutoff wheel and is ok, not as fast though.

Chopsaw from harbor freight. I've used this thing on more shit than I can remember.

I've done a turbo kit, two intercooler kits and some exhausts with my trusty HF chopsaw and my mig welder, as well as various other lil projects.

Cuts pretty clean but you'll need to clean up the cut pipes with a small hand held grinder (ID/OD) for a great fit.
J:D

reciprocating works fine....its all about the blades

The only pain in the ass about Reciprocating saws is the strength to hold them still, but I'm a 2 year old girl so go figure

i use a grinder and a cut off wheel all the time and it works pretty well


james

It really depends on the job and where.

When I was more tool limited it was usually either a saws all for semi accurate cuts or a jigsaw (after laying out a line around the tube) for really accurate cuts. Either way an angle grinder with a grinding or sanding disk did a good job truing up the cuts and minor tweaking to get things to fit tight/just at the right angle.

Now I’m really starting to like my cheap horizontal/tilt head bandsaw for lots of things especially exhaust pipe, with the clamp it’s really nice for cutting out Z sections (pie cuts) out of a tube to just tweak it over a little.

I rarely use plasma on exhaust, it’s nice when you’re cutting intricate patters out of flat stuff and if you just need something cut, but it’s hard to get a really accurate, useable cut in exhaust that doesn’t have to be cleaned up anyway.

If I need surgical precision, I usually whip out the angle grinder and a 4.5” .045” disk, I’ve made all sorts of cool stuff with that, even getting down into stuff like custom throttle brackets and linkages. Now I’d probably try slapping the small table onto the band saw and seeing how that would go, I did do that to cut out rear axle brackets and it turned out pretty well.

Hole saws can be sweet if you have them but I don’t have a good selection so I rarely use them for most bigger stuff.

reciprocating works fine....its all about the blades
rescue blades are your friend