Pipe holder for Craftsman lathe

[Frank S]

I am planning on an upcoming build that will require several pieces of 1 1/2" pipe to be notched so I decided to make a holder for my lathe so I could use it to notch my pipes.
Ordinarily I would just torch out the saddles then dress them up with a grinder, or I would use a chop saw set at 30° or 25° depending on the radius of the saddle I wanted. I have made saddle cuts on my band saw using the same method.
When I had my Turret lathe I used shell mills and the pipe holders I had made for it but that stuff is long gone now.Time to build a simple device to notch the pipes for the task at hand
I started with a 8" long piece of 2" pipe then drilled 3 holes in it for the clamping bolts then welded nuts to the holes I had drilled in it and a mounting plate to bolt to my compound unit.

Here you see me checking the center height against my compound unit before I welded anything together

Checking the depth of cut before making the notch

to make the notches since I no longer have the shell mills I decided to try using a hole saw the saddles needed to fit a 2" pipe
A 2 3/8 hole saw is a perfect fit to make a saddle for the 2" pipe header

This works fairly well albeit a lot slower than any other method
to make sure that 2 pipes are the same length it is a simple matter of holding one against the hole saw and positioning the header pipe against the opposite ends of both pipes then just tighten the set bolts and it is ready to make the 4th saddle. Using a header pipe also helps to insure the saddles are parallel to each other

Eventually the pipes will be welded together to make the control arms for a tracing torch. Which I need to build so I can make several duplicate parts that will be used to make a wide variety of items one of which hopefully will be a 1/4" by 96" folding break

[Jon]

Thanks Frank S! I've added your Lathe Pipe Notching Jig to our Tube Notchers and Lathe Accessories categories, as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Lathe Pipe Notching Jig by Frank S

tags: tube notcher, hole saw

[jere]

great idea! I hate the alternatives of cutting notches with a grinder and or bandsaw.

[Frank S]

In using the hole saws as the cutter for the saddles it would really be best to machine a proper arbor that the live center in the tail-stock could help stabilize but as usual this was done on the fly and not wanting to spend a lot of time on I muddled through
Have to feed real slow or the hole saw will grab the edge of the tube or pipe and muck up the works. I did 4 pipes this way with the 2 3/8" hole saw then swapped out for a 1 3/4" to do the other 4 pipes

[DIYer]

That's a clever idea, and simple to build. Thanks for sharing!

[Imabass]

Thanks for the plan.

How long does it take to cut out the notch? How long does a hole saw last?

I was thinking about some oil field pipe for fence. 2-3/8 and 2-7/8 pipe. I would imagine that it would take time to notch each piece with a hole saw?

[Frank S]

Thanks for the plan.

How long does it take to cut out the notch? How long does a hole saw last?

I was thinking about some oil field pipe for fence. 2-3/8 and 2-7/8 pipe. I would imagine that it would take time to notch each piece with a hole saw?

The steel that oilfield pipe IE 2 3/8 or 2 7/8 if it has ever been down hole will become almost as hard as the steel that the hole saws are made of. Oilfield pipe is made out of much harder steel that regular pipe.
ASTM and ANSI covers most structural pipe, but oil field falls under the more stringent specs of the API often times having as much at triple the hardness and tensile strength of black pipe.
I'm afraid that the hole saw rig that I posted will not be very suitable for making saddles in that type of pipe also it would take a very long time to make the cuts.
What I do for making handrails or fencing when there are a lot of saddles is to either make a templet out of a slightly larger diameter pipe then use either an oxy act torch or a plasma to cut them.
on pipe that is under 2" OD a 14" chop saw will be your quickest even up to 4" pipe saddles can be cut on them.
What you do is cut your pie to length. then set the saw at 33° angle then cut it twice again.
To determine the length of a pipe to be placed between 2 other pipes of the same diameter Measure the center distances then deduct 1.5 times the tangent of the pie being cut from both ends make your angled cut 1x the tangent of the pipe from the center line for each cut,when you have your finished saddle you would have a saddle depth that would be approximately 1/3 the diameter of the pipe with the square flats remaining about 2x the tangent
the tangent of the pipe is the thickness

I hope this helps

[C-Bag]

All great stuff Frank, thanks so much.

[Frank S]

All great stuff Frank, thanks so much.

You're quite welcome, anytime. I used to do a lot with pipe back in the day. Mostly I used my belt a tri square a framing square and a dollar bill or a piece of adding machine tape to lay out and pull my points . When I was working with 24" pipe having to make a 20 connection manifolding transition at every angle conceivable with multiple sized nipples I had a rig full of templets and patterns that I had made Glad that phase of my life is 40+ years past me now.

[Imabass]

The steel that oilfield pipe IE 2 3/8 or 2 7/8 if it has ever been down hole will become almost as hard as the steel that the hole saws are made of. Oilfield pipe is made out of much harder steel that regular pipe.
ASTM and ANSI covers most structural pipe, but oil field falls under the more stringent specs of the API often times having as much at triple the hardness and tensile strength of black pipe.
I'm afraid that the hole saw rig that I posted will not be very suitable for making saddles in that type of pipe also it would take a very long time to make the cuts.

I hope this helps

Thanks for the input. i suspected that a holesaw on 2-3/8 oil pipe would be taxing on the saw.

I had an idea to scavenge an old drill press and retrofit the electric motor with a hydraulic motor. Then this could be powered via the remote hydraulics on a tractor. Mount up the drill press via 3 point hitch and build a mobile pipe notching station. The hydraulics would provide adequate power to cut through anything that the drill bit or hole saw could handle. I would think that this would have to be rigged up via pulley system to allow slippage on the belt because the drill bits would shear off under the load of a hydraulic motor.