Big Pipe Cutting

[kwb]

Have a piece of 8" pipe I need to make a few cuts on.

Cuts need to be flat and square.

Tools at my disposal:
OA torch set - not likely to get good result
12" Abrasive saw - Does not fit into saw
Grinder with cutoff blade
Sawzall

One thought is to take Abrasive saw and dismount head from base and use hand held.
Complicating things is that one of the cuts has to be fairly close to a cut that was made with OA torch with little to no regard to flat nor square.

Any suggestions? - and major tool buy is not going to happen for this.

 

[Greg-nwo]

Farm it out to a shop with a bandsaw that can handle the job? Doesn't sound like much fun with what you have available and your requirements of the cut.

 

[nate379]

How flat and square? and how thick?

Are you talking about +- 0.001" or +- .1?

I can usually get within an 1/8" or so with a hand grinder and following a line.

 

[robertlynk]

make a couple of rollers out of solid casters make a mount for your torch lay pipe in rollers fire up torch start cutting on line rotate by hand done

 

[rasit]

One thought is to take Abrasive saw and dismount head from base and use hand held.
Any suggestions? - and major tool buy is not going to happen for this.

I would strongly suggest that you do not follow through with your "one thought" for your own safety. I would consider renting a gas powered cut-off saw with the proper blade or farm it out as Greg suggested.

 

[msnow]

The rollers and the torch is an excellent way to go, you can do the same thing with the angle grinder by keep it static and revolving the pipe. They make some really neat big pipe cutters but they are expensive. My best piece of advice would be whatever method you do, do a test cut first. Make some mistakes and learn then tackle the real thing.

 

[kwb]

Thanks - I think I have just the things around the shop to do the caster idea.

Accuracy wise - probably on the order of flat/square of +/-1/16" which I should be able to do even if I have to do a bit of touch up grinding.

 

[sberry]

Torch it off, grind square.

 

[gorilla]

None fo the methods you have listed keep you from grinding for final fit. Just burn it off and grind to a line. If you stop grinding close to the line and switch to a sander you will have better control of the fit.

 

[GarageEnvy]

I once used a slightly larger pipe that slid over what I was cutting as a straight edge. It worked fairly well but you have to have a larger size piece of pipe. Outside of that I'd cut and grind.

 

[cabriolet]

As gorilla said ^^^^. Perhaps invest in a wrap around at the welding supply store to layout the line around the pipe.

 

[csp]

A large hose clamp clamped down around the pipe makes for a perfect perpendicular line around the entire pipe.

 

[dcovey]

A large hose clamp clamped down around the pipe makes for a perfect perpendicular line around the entire pipe.

I use this method all the time when building headers or any other round stock type fabrication. Works surprisingly well.

Dave

 

[Ben Iv]

At work we cut it on the horizontal band saw but if i cant get it in the saw I use my pipe wraps. work great. http://flangewizard.com/products117.html

 

[NUTTSGT]

I cut off a piece of 6 or 8" cast pipe, while it was hooked to a fire hydrant. I used a Partner saw from the station with a metal cutting blade. It's a gas powered cut off saw. The blade was similar to what you would use with a air cut off tool.

It pretty cut through it like butter. Better wear some serious personal protection though.

 

[fireguy]

My 300 threader instructions say do not thread pipe when a torch has been used.

 

[srmofo]

Im pretty sure if he doesnt have the tools to cut a 8" pipe then he doesnt have the tool to thread the 8" pipe either,lol.

I like the idea of casters and a jig to hold the grinder or torch

 

[Ron Lombardo]

Find a Local Plumber or Pipe fabrication shop with a RIDGID 258 it will take about 2 minutes two make each cut. Otherwise a wrap-around and a hand held Milwaukee deep cut hand hald band saw ... or the good old fashion way ..which is still done every day in the field ... a fine cuting torch and a grinder ... I might add there is a technique to making this cut perfect with very little grinding.

 

[kwb]

Well it is cut-- and the winner was a variant of the hose clamp and a sawzall with metal cutting blade.

Took about 30minutes and one blade to make two cuts.

The casters idea was slick and did make repositioning much easier.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

It's neat to see they sell those wrap arounds. I'm no pro pipefitter, so Ive just been using a roll of plastic sheet or even a straight / square cut strip of corded rubber - whatever I had handy at the time....just for cutting (when there's room to square it up and fill any gap with weld on non-critical stuff) I even use masking tape and a careful eye....

 

[2chipped]

In my job we have to cut fiberglass columns, by tapeing news papers together till it meets the other side . I like to see a can do attitude.

 

[dledinger]

Pipe wrap and a torch.

 

[brianvantol]

The only reason they tell you not to torch cut it is the slag left on the pipe, grind it off you will be ok. If you want another way, use a grinder and a zip cut wheel once you've marked it with a pipe wrap.

 

[littletoes]

UA Steamfitter here....

Wrap-around and torch cut.

If you have experience with a torch, there won't be any slag. I've seen cuts as good as a band saw, and done by hand.

Ron Lombardo-Hey there 'Brother!'

 

[brianvantol]

Hey "brother" UA 787 refrigeration pipe fitter Toronto Canada

 

[littletoes]

Local 44 Spokane Washington! Hey there Brothers! UA Steamfitter.

 

[59 wagon man]

those wraps are neat looking kinda like a trick passed onto me by a welder years ago was to take your belt or any kind of strap wrap it around the pipe overlapping the edges square the edges up and you have a cheap pipe wrap. lowbuck version of the same thing