slotting tubes

How are tubes slotted in mass production (or semi mass production) ??

If One had to slot a couple hundred tubes, what would be the best type of jig/machine to make ?

small circular saw or router based machine ?

BMS tube slotting service cannot do 2 slots, only 3 or 4, so they are out.

Any pointers?

Thanks,
Slack

Slack:

A couple years back I experienced the same issue of high production tube slotting. I started out doing them by hand with a Dremel tool with a router bit, however I soon found that this was taking way too long, had to speed things up! Here's what I did.....Now the Dremmel tool cut nice but doing this free-handed was where I was spending too much time. So, I went down to Home Depot and bought the Dremel Drill Press...it was cheap, I think I paid $30 for it. I then took a piece of some 1/8" steel angle (you can make one out of wood too) and used that as my fence to slide the tube against while cutting. I also made an "outside diameter" coupler tube that slipped right over the end of the Body Tubes I was slotting, that had already been preslotted. That way all I had to do was slide the tube over the end, flush up my ends, then transfer the slot markings with a pencil and go right on to the next tube.

I guess my advice here is....move the tube, not the hand tool!

Heck, who knows....you might even find a better jig to make that will eliminate drawing out your slots all together.

Hope that helped....~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>===> Good Luck

Chris
NAR#84102
Team Nitrus Rocketry
Machinist



In the works.......
8" Dia. Upscale Bulldog L3 cert Rocket
New Name: Bulldragon

Chris,
great minds think alike !
Had a dremel in one hand and a piece of Alum angle in he other.

I could make a mandrel that the tube slides on, this mandrel would have "stops" on it (2, 3, 4 fins) but then the dremel would have to slide.

Has anyone "seen" a real production tube slotting machine ?

Thanks,
Slack

yes, one way is by punching out the slot with a die / mandrel. fully automated of course.

If you could fashion a punch the shape of the slot..slide the tube onto a mandrel and punch it out.you would have a manual version. lot of work

Originally posted by slackdaddy

Has anyone "seen" a real production tube slotting machine ?

Thanks,
Slack

Click to expand...

Hi Slack.

I've seen three kinds in operation.

A long time ago, router tables were setup with special made custom tube guides.

Just a sideways version the the dremel drill press really on a larger scale.

next new CNC magic machines can make just about anything and I've seen them sloting tubes ,just cost about $30k.

I've also seen laser machines cut tube slots, but they are about $10K as well.

Art

I've used a table saw to slot my tubes and it has worked great. Set the rip fence to 1/2 the diameter of the tube and add a stop at the distance you need (from the tip of the blade of course). I have used this method for both slots that extent through the end of the tube as well as mid-tube slots, although those require a bit mroe care. You can also go to a dado blade if you need really wide slots.

-Greg

Originally posted by slackdaddy

Has anyone "seen" a real production tube slotting machine?
slack

Click to expand...

In most cases that I have seen, high production tube slotting was done with the use of punch & dies. These were just temporary die set-ups that could be quickly assembled and disassembled to provide various sizes (length and width) of slots. Being a Tool & Die maker in my earlier years, I was fortunate to have actually seen this done. The top of the die was the punch and stripper, and the lower die blocks were machined and hardened A-2 round stock tool steel of which the tube slid over and was accurately "indexed" to whatever fin configuration was needed. Pretty cool process actually.

Then came Quantum Tubing Can't punch Quantum.......soooooo, Back to machining!!!

Just my 2 cents

Chris Emich
NAR#84102
Team Nitrus Rocketry
Machinist

In the works..........
8" Dia. Upscale Bulldog L3 cert Rocket
New Name: Bulldragon