Tube Notching 101

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Simple steps creating a perfect notch and getting most out of your tube notcher.

Many a notcher manufacturer will demonstrate how a notch is made using their machine but that is the easy part of notching. It's the right placement that's critical and makes the difference between a good joint and one that requires either a lot of gap welding or in worse case, starting over again.

Making a wrong notch is costly in both time and money. Using a common holesaw type notcher such as the NotchMaster by JD2, we'll outline the following procedures to help simplify and hopefully make for a better and closer fitting notch for many a fabricator. These procedures work - regardless of the angle and regardless whether the joining tubes are parallel, divergent or skewed.

A basic notch starts with laying up the tube where you want the joint. Temporarily secure it so the tube can be easily marked so it can be correctly placed into the notcher. Position yourself to view both tubes at the intersection from a right angle perspective so you can accurately mark both the centerline of the tube (to be notched) and the intersecting point(s). The more accurate the marks - the better the resulting notch will fit. Always mark the point of intersection on the obtuse (or greater) angle side as shown in the picture.

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Making a through hole (vent) at a 60º intersection of adjoining pipe

We had a potential customer asking if the JD2 NotchMaster could cut a 60º notch into 1-1/2" stainless steel pipe (1.9" OD). The NotchMaster and most other tube notchers will only do up to a 40º angle before it physically runs out of room for the hole saw to begin on the side. So that's not a possibility. We knew however, that the SYNC180 would be up for the task!

Most notchers do not have the capacity to perform this task if it were to be done for example in the middle section of a pipe because the extension of the pipe length collides with one thing or another . But here's how we can do it with the SYNC180. To notch a maximum sized vent in the middle section of a 1 1/2" pipe (1.90") @ 60º we use a 1 1/2 hole saw and make the first cut at 60º until the hole saw bottoms out. Then we reposition the notching angle to 0º and make a second notch after the pipe is shifted horizontally to line up the edge of the hole saw with a mark approximately 3" from the entry point of the first notch. The overall process takes about 5 minutes.

Although this task could also be accomplished on a mill with an endmill cutter (by clamping the work piece over the edge of the table) the set up time would be unreasonably long.

The first pic is an end view showing the inner wall of the first notch with a side pipe fitted up against the outer wall.

The other pics are showing steps for the second (and easier) notch.

1. Set the notcher at 60º , line up pipe where you want to start the notch and cut until it bottoms out.

2. Move the pipe to the left about 3" (without rotating it so you stay in line) and set the notcher at 0º

3. This pic shows hole saw about halfway through the wall at the 0º position.

4. Completed notch. I actually went back to the 60º position and ran the hole saw back through to clean up where the two cuts met because I was slightly off a bit. That is something that would be improved upon with experience.

The only difference between the two finished notches would be the wall angle on the right hand side of each. The second method has a more abrupt edge at this point because of cutting it at 0º angle. It's something you should consider because it might make a difference with flow values. I 'spose you could ease the edge by following through even deeper with a final cut at the 60º position.

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We are excited to launch our official Blog. Here you will find updates, pictures, videos and other additions to the Syncnotching system and tube notcher