To whoever said that this saw is a good idea for cutting tubing,
thank you! I had been eyeing that at the store, and I took that as
the final nudge to get it. I do the enameled beads on copper tubes,
and I dreaded it every time I needed to cut more tube pieces. I have
a plumber’s pipe cutter, which cuts the 1/8" tubing I use, but there
was always a last little sliver all around in the middle that it
didn’t cut, and to have to do that after going through the effort of
cutting the piece off seems a bit much work. I also have a sort of a
tubing vise thing, which I clamped the tube into, then clamped that
into my bench vise (although it’s not really meant to be clamped into
a vise) and then used my saw to cut the pieces. That worked OK, but
again, it was time consuming, and a bit fiddly. This saw is so quick!
In no time I have enough pieces cut to make lots of beads.
BUT! The big but. It’s not quite perfect. On every piece there is a
little flare at one end where it seems the bit of metal under the
blade pushed out of the way at the very end of the cut instead of
getting cut off. I have to get that little snippet with a file, but
it’s still quicker overall than my other methods. Any thoughts on how
to get that last little bit to actually CUT off? Do I need to turn
the tubing a bit at the end or something? Or go slower? Or faster?
Actually, I think I tried going slower, but it didn’t work. I didn’t
try the faster idea or the turning the tubing idea yet, though.
Such a cute little thing, I’m sure I’ll have lots of other uses for
it, too.
Thanks!
Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher
www.lisagallagher.com