Does anyone have a good way of figuring out how to notch or fishmouth a piece of tubing? I have a tubing notcher but it doesn't allow a very sharp angle.

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It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit.-
Harry S. Truman

Here is a link I found awhile back on calaculating on mitre joints: http://www.metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi
When I was modifiying my new Buggy frame I used an contour gauge. Its the one with about 100 wires that conform to a shape. Some I just eyed up and cut.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

I built my racecar with a harbor freight notcher, and it worked alright, till it wore out. I just got a JD squared "notch master", and it is amazing. But back to the question, how sharp of an angle are you trying to cut? I think most notchers will cut 50* and more if you take the center bolt out. anything over that, is ALOT of work with a cut-off wheel, grinder, and bandsaw!

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I used a chop saw to make all the notches in my buggy. It works pretty good.

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If its got boobs or a motor its gonna give you trouble!!

http://www.vansantent.com/pipemaster.htm

These are what i use they work awesome.

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

I've got a couple of those pipe masters, and I don't use them very often. They can be a pain in the a$$ to trace out, and by the time you do all that, you can usually just hole-saw it and be done.

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

thats how I used to do it, but the tubing was so thin on my last car, that it would just melt it out

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

[quote="nickschlemer"]http://www.vansantent.com/pipemaster.htm

These are what i use they work awesome.[/quote]
Those things are nice,thanks for the info.

Really, I think there the cats ass. I lubed mine up to make them slide a little better and sometimes i have to shape the curve a little by hand but never have a gap to fill like i do when i use my hole saws..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

Try a place called Harbor freight. It works great and around 100 buck can't beat it.

Again, I must be building the poor man buggy. I use the tube from an empty paper towel roll and cut out my pattern with a pair of scissors. Then, using a grinder, try to mirror the shape. It does not always work perfectly but the price is right.

Dan

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Poor man buggy? I don't think so. That is a very ingenious idea, simple and cheap. I would have never thought of that.

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When in doubt, hit it in second gear!

Thats good. I like that idea wish i would have thought of it before i bought the pipemasters..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

See if this works. its free. http://metalgeek.com/static/cope_custom.pcgi

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one thing is for sure... practice makes perfect! when i was done with my car I could notch anything without thinking about it, first try!

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I agree with DVs, thats a great Ideal. your using something thats readly avalable and you would throw it away anyways.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

I made a block that monts on my Lathes cross slide to hold the tube then i use a hole saw or roughing end mill works great!

hello i like this new fab section. this is my first time posting on here. and i would like it if you would be so kind as to whigh in on my project first time build on a woodbuggy and i have been putting it on youtube. it has some tube notching that you might find useful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFzRMoZf-Bk

thats really neat wankelman..... great thinking!

Great Idea.... That is awesome...

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thats pretty cool, man

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I had no idea there was all these frame building info on youtube...... great stuff!

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Ford 2.3 turbo No Travel buggy, Mostly driven around my block late at night until the Cops show up.... (excessive noise and bright KC`s )

If you have access to a knee mill(bridgeport) you can use it to notch tubing. The holesaw arbor I have is 3/4 dia below the hex part. You can grab it with a 3/4 collet. Then set your vise up to one end of the table. This lets you move the table around to position the tubing. The great thing about this is it lets you take off just a tiny bit at a time. It's so much more rigid than the regular holesaw notchers that the cut is truely straight and it really fits very well with no grinding. You can also notch in the middle of a bend.

John