What's new
What's new

Cutting thin walled Aluminum and Stainless Steel

MichaelGroves

Plastic
Joined
Aug 12, 2018
I am cutting 3cm of thin walled Aluminum (3/32" OD and 1/16" ID) as well as Stainless steel (1.45mm OD and 1.2mm ID)(sorry for the mix of units) using a Dremel tool with a circular saw blade but am finding that the core of the tube always fills in, requiring me to use a drill to open the tube up again. That is easier with the Alum. than the SS ones as you can imagine. This is a big time waster in production.

What would be the optimal way to cut these tubes?
Thanks, Michael
 
Can you use a tubing cutter tool ?

Optimal ?
How many ? Per hour ? Per year ?
Mix of sizes ? Lengths ? Tolerance of length ?

Requirements of the cut edge ?

How much money Ya got ?
 
Carbide cut off disks on Dremel tools should work for this. We used to have a small abrasive disk chop saw where I used to work which worked well on larger thin walled tubes. These days I often work with hypodermic needle type tubing and just use the corner of a fine grinding disk to cut the tube and then the face of it to smooth the end. You might have to work a bit to get the burr completely off but they seem to clean up well. For any more than about five parts, by far the best way is just to call New England Small Tube or Eagle Stainless and get the pieces you need in exactly the right length and perfectly finished.
 
Can you use a tubing cutter tool ?

Optimal ?
How many ? Per hour ? Per year ?
Mix of sizes ? Lengths ? Tolerance of length ?

Requirements of the cut edge ?

How much money Ya got ?

Doug asked a lot of important questions, a couple more how hard is the stainless tube?
You mentioned production, how many of each?
I have cut a couple of pieces with a pocket knife, roll the tube on a work bench with the blade till you get a "score" all the way around, then snap it. that is good enough for some work. Thousands of pieces of with a plus .0005 minus nothing tolerance and a need for a clean square end demand something else. CutTubing - YouTube
That set up works for extreme tolerances down to .020" hypo tube up to 4mm. When we needed .016" tube cut we sent it out and had it EDMed. That same set up worked duplex aluminum tubing for making cable loops with no deburring needed.
For small quantities (5 or 10 pcs)I have used a threading tool to cut tubing on a lathe, after that the ends would be faced square, to length and deburred.

Your saw blade on a Dremel is akin to the carbide blade used in the video except with almost zero control of feed. I imagine the teeth would be chipped right away then the dull tool will push the metal instead of cutting.
Never used the abrasive cut off tools advertised by the tubing suppliers but I would think they would push a pretty good burr ahead of the edge and not give as square and precise cut a carbide blade on a horizontal mill.
 
I'm thinking small cold saw. I prefer with a double vise so there won't be a burr.

That is what is done on my video. The cut is made through a slot in the jaws, the cut piece is supported till the jaws open. A lot went into that set up and I can share if the OP are anyone else wants additional info.
 








 
Back
Top