Coping Steel Tubing

Agreed. I do not use a cold-saw free hand. They are not meant for that. But then neither are chop saws, but everybody does it.:)
 
End mill or shell mill in a milling machine or lathe, in the distant past I built a V-Block holder for tubing held in a lathe cross slide, clamp tube in the V, set angle, place appropriate radius end mill in chuck and notch away. This is crude use of a lathe but works a charm as every sized tube will be on center with a V Clamp fixture.

Built many tube components for Northeast Modifieds using this method, this my own car with me at the wheel in 1990 so no advertising here.

bport1990noname_zpsr74ysxk6.jpg
 
we use lennox hole saws on both the mill and our "Old Joint Jigger" annular cutters leave a better finish but i can buy 10 hole saws for the price of one
 
Paragon Machine Works sells hole saw arbors with 3/4" shanks that are much stiffer than the arbors that come with the saws. They allow you to mount them to the mill with a collet instead of using a drill chuck and they are inexpensive enough to make it worth buying over making your own.
http://www.paragonmachineworks.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&category=HS07

I know this doesn't really help the OP, because shipping to Hawaii would be ridiculous, but it may help some others.
 
In the distant past I recall using hole saws with excellent results for roughing +3" holes in steel less then 3/8-1/2" thick, as I recall the typical contractor tool has a 5/8-18 stamped steel threaded hole with 2 drive pin holes for the quick change arbor, this will fail rapidly when pressed into service in a milling machine. I always cut the head off of a 5/8-18 machine screw, placed a nut on the threads then screwed it into the hole saw body and lightly welded them then placed the cut off HHCS body in a collet in the mill.
I realize that spinning such a crude tool in an R8 collet (as will surely happen) is anathema to most hobbyists, import R8 collets cost less then a 12 pack of beer so buy several for this purpose.
 
DSaul said:
Paragon Machine Works sells hole saw arbors with 3/4" shanks that are much stiffer than the arbors that come with the saws. They allow you to mount them to the mill with a collet instead of using a drill chuck and they are inexpensive enough to make it worth buying over making your own.
http://www.paragonmachineworks.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&category=HS07

I know this doesn't really help the OP, because shipping to Hawaii would be ridiculous, but it may help some others.
Click to expand...
How long are the arbors?
 
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