I need to make some ferrules from thin wall 3/4 in. copper tube. My cutter (or am I to blame?) is making ragged edges that aren't square. Also it has a tendency to cut a spiral instead of a clean groove.
The cutter is a Rigid brand and the frame and jaws _seem to be in line and generally ok. Are the wheels dull? How do I tell? Can they be sharpened? Am I doing something wrong? Is there a trick to using a tubing cutter? Is there a better way than using a cutter? Help!
copper is soft enough that you can chuck it up after you use the tubing cutter and use a parting tool or similar to clean up the cut ends. tubing cutters tend squish the metal around the cut a bit. you can hold it in a
Arch the secrete is to not apply too much pressure and distort the Copper, if you do this then it will wander.
Just make light contact and turn for a couple of revolutions then give the Handle perhaps only a quarter/half turn and turn again for a couple of revolutions.
Spiraling is caused by either worn, loose, or cheap cutters. Rigid is not cheap. Do not continue to turn the cutter around the tube in the same direction. Turn about one quarter of a revolution, reverse direction for about another 1/4 turn. Rock back and forth until one full rev is completed. Check to make sure that the groove is a full circle, and not a spiral. Then continue to cut as normal.
You've got a couple of good suggestions already, but I think I might be able to help you out with one or two more.
First, Copper work hardens- which is to say, it gets tougher the more you manipulate it. While this has never really caused a problem with a tubing cutter for me, there's always an off chance that it's getting tough on you, and causing the disc to slip to one side of the other. Odds are, this isn't the problem, but just in case, you could try annealing it before cutting. Since it is non-ferrus, that's a really easy job- just heat it red hot then quickly cool it in a bucket of water. A little propane plumbing torch should do that job easily.
Second, and this is the good one- copper is more than soft enough to be cut with a bi-metal or carbide blade. Which means if you have an older bandsaw blade laying around the shop, you can cut that tubing as neatly as anything on your bandsaw. A good trick to making sure it does not spin on you and stays level is to make a V-shaped groove in a block of wood and use that as a flat base for the tubing. Usually, hand pressure is enough to hold it in the v-block, but if you are nervous about it at all, I'd imagine a couple of cheap hose clamps (the metal strap type that you tighten with a screw) would make a decent set of clamps for that application.
I have cut quite a bit of copper on my little bandsaw, and it does not seem to damage or even noticably dull the blade- of course, using an older blade for this is a good practice, to keep your new blades in the best shape possible. It is also pretty easy to cut copper with a miter saw or a table saw, but this is a bit more dangerous than the bandsaw, and if you're like me, none of your circular blades are cheap enough to make risking them on something like that a very nice proposition. In any of those three cases, you will need to do a little cleaning up with a file and/or sandpaper to remove the burr and smooth out the cut surface, but that is pretty easy to do.
I like the idea of cutting it on the lathe, too. If you don't want to ding up your parting tool, it's not too tough to grind down a steel bar or the end of an old file for a one-time cutting tool.
to make ferrules from the brass ends of shotgun shells, preferably 10 gauge or brass ends from spent flare gun cartridges some of which are 10 GA too.
regardless, I use a home made dowel turned to the id of the material to be cut, slide the tube or shell case on the end, secured with a small brad or screw, chuck it in a drill press or lathe chuck and turning at lowest speed cut rings using a hand hack saw with bimetallic blade. Never could get the hang of using those little tubing cutters...Joe.
One of the episodes of the Woodturning Workshop shown this week in NJ was about making tools. The host first cut the tubing to length using a bandsaw. He then chucked it in the lather over a dowel and used a scraper to true up the end and slighty bevel the inside edge.
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