Saddle Cut Tubing

Franko

Franko

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I need to make a canopy to protect my boat in the driveway. A standard canopy has the peak too high and will be visible over the gate on my driveway. The code Nazis don't like boats, rvs or canopies visible in the driveway. I have a good cover but no matter how I try to brace it up, it still makes puddles and lakes. I figure if I can make a shallower pitch canopy it would help deflect leaves and acorns and other spring and fall tree things from the inside of my boat.

The idea is to keep the peak of the canopy roof below the 6' gate across my driveway. I need to do some maintenance on the boat and a shady place to work would be nice. I can jack it up higher when I need to work on it, and lower it as low as it will go to deflect all the tree gonads that fall and spring have to offer.

For rails and legs, I'll use 1.25" OD chain link top rails, and make the tinker toy joints from 1.5" rigid conduit.
Which means, I need to make a lot of Saddle cuts. 3-ridge joints, 4 corner joints and 2 center joints for a 6-legged canopy.

I have a HF tubing notcher that sorta works. It tends to drift a little.
I was thinking of using either the 1.5" bi-metal hole saw on the mill, or getting a 1.5" roughing end mill. Shars has a 1.5" x 2" LOC roughing cobalt end mill for about $48.

If I use the end mill, should I enter the cut from the side or plunge it on the end of the tube?
 
FWIW, I've done it both ways and the hole saw is faster on thin stuff (only cutting what needs to be cut instead of turning everything up to the saddle into chips) unless you want to buy a 1.5" rougher, nuthin wrong with that!


Stan,
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Thanks, Stan. Using the hole saw in the tubing notcher was not very precise, and it would not work in my drill press, so I had clamp it in my vise, guestimate where the center of everything was and hook it to my earth shaker wrist breaking heavy duty 1/2" drill.

Hole saw or roughing end mill, I can do it with repeatable precision on the mill.

I saw them making some saddles on "How it's Made" and it looked like the right way to do it. Of course, they were flooding it with cutting fluid. My mill isn't set up for flooding.
 
First thing I would do is move, I really hate HOAs. Around here it's mandatory that you have heavy equipment sitting around in the yard! ;)

I would go with the hole saw, your mill is more than stable enough to become a tube notcher. A 2x4 ''V-block'' would make a good base.
 
It isn't a HOA, Jim, it is the city codes. Someone decided they didn't like boats, trailers or RV of any kind. You can have them, but they can't be visible from the street.

I figured to just use my 6" mill vise to hole the tube. Maybe put a couple V-blocks on either side to keep from flattening them when I clamp them tight enough to mill them.
 
A vertical mill is the ultimate tubing notcher. Your angles should be way more precise than with your HF notcher. The rigidity of the mill should make it smoother to use too. Less chatter and runout. A high quality bi-metal hole saw should work great. Like Stan mentioned above, a huge roughing mill would be even better, but very pricey! :eek 2:

GG
 
I once had to notch some top rails for a chain link fence modification. The rails had been notched and welded to posts, for a clean custom look, around a swimming pool. The client needed a second gate installed and wanted to keep the look so I had to do this in the field. I made up a jig in the shop by boring a hole the diameter of the top rail lengthwise through a block of 4x4 wood about 6" long, then bored a hole the diameter of the post centered and perpendicular to the first hole (using a hole saw), then cut the block lengthwise centered on the rail bore. I clamped the jig onto the rail and used the same hole saw, without the pilot drill and lots of oil to cut the notch. It worked surprisingly well. However, that fence was constructed out of galvanized steel pipe, I think it might not work as well on tubing as the saw teeth could catch on the thin walls. I suppose a temporary plug inside the tubing could help.
 
Add 6 more feet to the fence. No more problems.

Or you could park your boat at my house! :D

I would use the roughing mill!

Sent from somewhere in East Texas Jake Parker
 
Sorry Franko, I didn't say but meant id use a hole saw in the mill. The times I've done it that way, I turned a new arbor on the lathe, with no pilot bit, less runout than a normal hole saw arbor. You need a quality hole saw too.


Stan,
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