# Tube Notcher Questions



## febikes (Jan 28, 2011)

I have been using a grinding wheel and some hand files. It works well enough but as you can expect it takes a lot of time and is very dusty with lots of sparks.

What are you using for notching and how do you feel about your system?

Hand drill style hole saw notchers: (JMR, JD2, Syncnotch, others) Do these work well for Titanium? Do they work well for harder and thinner steel tubesets? Where do they run into trouble?

Mill with hole saw: How much better then hand drill?

Lathe with hole saw: Is it any better then a mill? Does a mini lathe work?

Mill/Lathe with endmill: How much better?

Mill with fly cutter (using a very slow powerfeed): does anyone do this?

CNC mill with endmill and circular interpolation: does anyone do this?

Abrasive: I have seen some home built but only two options on the market. (baileighindustrial and also one from Fein).

Others options?


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## marks_bike (Aug 22, 2006)

Hacksaw and files is all I use right now. I can cut a miter pretty fast at this point. OX Plat stuff takes a bit longer to file but is still manageable. A mill is in my future though....sigh. --Mark


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## stuntnuts (Dec 7, 2010)

I have a JD2 NotchMaster and I love it. After figuring out how to do certain procedures, there isn't one joint on a bicycle frame that I can't notch with it, accurately and with little setup time. I do the front triangle with the unit as it comes, 100% out of the box. For the rear triangle I designed a seatstay/chainstay fixture that incorporates NotchMaster's swivel plate, bearing block, and hole saw shaft. I have only used this on standard 4130 with .035", .049", and .058" wall thickness. I have not tried anything heat treated yet...


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## RCP FAB (Jun 15, 2011)

In my experience, the JD2 notcher is not a good choice for higher end tubing. On .9mm and heavier it works ok, but on thinner material the clamp is to narrow and can (will) damage the tube.

You can see a few pics of my set up here:

Few pics of my new home made main tube mitering set up..


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## bee (Apr 7, 2008)

I like the syncnotcher design the best. Google their page, I think it's Syncnotcher.com. Seems like it is the most rigid, and snce it is v blocks you don't have to adjust much. You can do thin wall tubing.


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## stuntnuts (Dec 7, 2010)

RCP FAB said:


> In my experience, the JD2 notcher is not a good choice for higher end tubing. On .9mm and heavier it works ok, but on thinner material the clamp is to narrow and can (will) damage the tube.





bee said:


> I like the syncnotcher design the best. Google their page, I think it's Syncnotcher.com. Seems like it is the most rigid, and snce it is v blocks you don't have to adjust much. You can do thin wall tubing.


And while you're there, check out the TWITS....

Twits thin wall tube support, great for bicycle tube mitering and coping

I use these to clamp my material during the mitering process, so no damage to the tubes no matter how thin the walls are, RCP FAB. :thumbsup:


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## smdubovsky (Apr 27, 2007)

febikes said:


> Abrasive: I have seen some home built but only two options on the market. (baileighindustrial and also one from Fein).


KMG from beaumont w/ small wheel adapter - Beaumont Metal Works, Manufacturer of Industrial belt grinders and finishing equipment
Bader BIII
Burr King (though Im not sure they have one w/ changeable wheel diams)
Ercolina
...

IMO, nothing will be faster and least likely to bend a tube than an abrasive grinder. They're also usefull for deburring and shaping other stuff. A absolutely wonderful time saving tool. I made a 3hp KMG clone (using some of his parts) and it cuts though steel like its butter. One could build/adapt a CS/SS clamp fixture to one same as done for hole saw setups.


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## Feldybikes (Feb 17, 2004)

febikes said:


> Mill with fly cutter (using a very slow powerfeed): does anyone do this?


I've made a bike this way. It works really well but is a PITA to set up and doesn't really end up with a significantly better miter than a hole saw or hole saw + a few minutes with a file.


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## Feldybikes (Feb 17, 2004)

stuntnuts said:


>


Nice!


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## customfab (Jun 8, 2008)

I notch on a bench grinder. Yeah it's messy but it's cheap and doesn't require any setup. I can notch tubes for a front triangle in about 45 minutes so once you get the hang of it it's pretty fast as well. Some people might take more time than that just to setup their mill based notching. Different strokes for different folks I suppose. If I was going to change it would probably be to a belt sander style setup.


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## flynfrog (Feb 4, 2011)

When I was in college we built a FSAE car and got all of the tubes CNC laser notched. If money were no object this is what I would do.


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## febikes (Jan 28, 2011)

I am actually happy with the result I get using grinding wheel and drum sander but it takes a bit of time. Since starting the thread I bought a JD2 hole saw notcher and find that the results are not really any better but it sure is fast.

In some ways the results with the hole saws are less good because with the JD2 the angle and ofset adjustments do not micro adjust so for now I plan to use the JD2 only to notch for practice welds. The nice thing is that I was able to quickly make up 10 practice samples that I can use to refine my TIG techniques.


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## stuntnuts (Dec 7, 2010)

febikes said:


> In some ways the results with the hole saws are less good because with the JD2 the angle and ofset adjustments do not micro adjust so for now I plan to use the JD2 only to notch for practice welds. The nice thing is that I was able to quickly make up 10 practice samples that I can use to refine my TIG techniques.


The JD2 angle setting gauge is garbage, don't use it. I use a Wixey digital protractor to accurately set my miters before cutting.

Wixey.com - Digital Protractors


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## kampgnar (Apr 13, 2007)

stuntnuts said:


> The JD2 angle setting gauge is garbage, don't use it. I use a Wixey digital protractor to accurately set my miters before cutting.
> 
> Wixey.com - Digital Protractors


I'll second a digital protractor for setting up miters and a whole lot more. I've had the Beall Tiltbox for a few years and have used it for setting up countless fixtures,tools and fabricated pieces. The relative 0 function is great for finding angles on a piece that doesn't have a level baseline.

I learned early on never to trust scribe marks alone.


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## Feldybikes (Feb 17, 2004)

Anyone ever used a i phone for angle setup? If so, what's a good app. I've searched before and there are a whole bunch. Don't know if one is any better than another. I could see major problems with this (like the edge not really being well calibrated). OTOH, I could see it working pretty well.

(Apologies for the semi-hijack)


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## jgerhardt (Aug 31, 2009)

Feldybikes said:


> Anyone ever used a i phone for angle setup? If so, what's a good app. I've searched before and there are a whole bunch. Don't know if one is any better than another. I could see major problems with this (like the edge not really being well calibrated). OTOH, I could see it working pretty well.
> 
> (Apologies for the semi-hijack)


With the first bike I built I tried this on the android with several different apps and could never get consistent results. I really could never be sure the edge lined up with the tubes. Even with the digital angle finders I still always check with protractor.


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