Tubing Notcher

[number77]

Can you guys recommend a cheap good tubing notcher?

[number77]

Can you guys recommend a cheap good tubing notcher?

[Jersey Tom]

http://www.pipemastertools.com/

That's something I want to get

[Brian1]

Whats your idea of cheap? Harbor freight sells tube notchers for around $40 but they are complelty worthless. Mine wore out and bent only making a roll cage for a Jeep which was significantly less notches than the FSAE chassis I built. I would recommend the Pro Tools racer version notcher. I use one and like it. I got mine from Keith @ XtremeCrawlers, he has excellent service and I always recommend him. http://www.xtremecrawlers.com/catalog/hole-notcher-racer-version-p-213.html I would use it on a dedicated drill press.

As far as the pipemasters go they are a great notching tool to use. For those complicated notches I wouldnt know what to do without one now. They significantly cut my fab time when dealing with complex notches. I wish my team would have had them when we built our chassis. I would recommend getting them through Trick Tools, http://www.trick-tools.com/, a good company to deal with.

We also used other notching techniques on our car such as a lathe and milling machine with 1" endmills.

[BStoney]

I honestly prefer an experienced bench hand with a 4" angle grinder. Much faster if he's experienced, and can make easy simple modifications to make an exact fit in seconds/minutes. Of course, this takes a bit of experience to get right. We have so many complex fish-mouths to make on these tubes to make them go into a node, you're almost always finishing with a hand grinder (die, or otherwise) anyways. But I guess that opens up a whole other can of worms when you talk about chassis design and the degree of importance of making tubes meet at nodes rather than just a bit off to simplify manufacturing. However, if you're going to simplify things by not having tubes meet exactly at a node, you should probably think about adjusting your FE model accordingly so you can verify your results accurately.

The Drill Press/Mill tubing notchers are just a pain to keep setup (IMO), especially when you've got other guys trying to use the same equipment for other purposes. Whereas with an experienced hand grinding operator, all you need is some electric and a good smooth faced vice.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

we use a 1/2" 3/4" or 1" end mill depending on the tube we want to meet with in a lathe with a vise setup in the tool post holder which allows us to rotate the tube, its hella hard on the lathe bearings, but they were shot when we got it.

[KU_Racing]

this one isnt cheap, but we have one and from where i stand it is worth every single penny.
http://www.mittlerbros.com/
incredibly fast, perfect notches. Easy for the fabricators, even easier for the poor sap who has to weld the frame afterwards.