Can anyone help with mitering pipe?

[Tom Kroscavage]

I am building several polished stainless steel, wall mounted handrails. I was thinking about laying out the miters using triangulation on card stock because I don't have a vertical band saw. Does anyone have a better idea? Any help would be appreciated.

[mrmikey]

Are you just making 90 deg bends, if so what about a chop saw?....Mike

[Tom Kroscavage]

The stairs are 7" rise and 11" run. A chop saw is on my wish list, but I don't have one yet. For SS i've been using a .045 cut-off wheel on a 4" grinder.

[William McCormick Jr]

http://www.Rockwelder.com/Flash/bisection/bisection.html


A miter is just half the angle, of the angle of the hand rail, as it will be. Just split the angle down the middle. You could use a framing square to split the angle. By drawing two perpendicular lines an equal distance away from the vertex of the proposed angle.
Where they intersect, just draw a line back to the vertex and you have your two angles. Just cut the pipe once at that angle and spin the pipe 180 degrees and you ready to weld.

I would lay out the actual shape of the rail on a table or floor, if I had no tools. Chalk it up. And then do as I mentioned above. You just bisect the angle you have.

You cannot use 3.5" 11" because that does not bisect the angle, it is close but not correct.

Sincerely,


William McCormick

[Tom Kroscavage]

http://www.Rockwelder.com/Flash/bisection/bisection.html

Wow that video is too cool! I'll remember the framing square thing. I went ahead and layed out a pipe wrap at 16.25deg on gasket material. It took me 45min since I'm out of practice. It is working perfect. I folded it twice to index it.

I found this http://metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi and filled it in like this:
Diameter 1 - 1.5
Wall Thickness - .065
Diameter 2 - 10
Angle 73.75
offset 0
This was very close for a standard staircase, for making a fast wrap. you can change diameter 2 to 1.5 for a standard cope.

[William McCormick Jr]

You were coping or notching it. I did not know.

Normally to notch something like that we just cut the pipe to the angle straight on a saw, then grind in the slight arc or notch.

Sincerely,


William McCormick

[Tom Kroscavage]

You were coping or notching it.
I guess you would say I am mitering. Like the old miter boxes.

[William McCormick Jr]

So you are mitering it first with a straight cut, and then applying the pattern to create the notch in the pipe so it will look like a branch take off?

That is what we do. We just cut the pipe to the miter angle and then just put the little notch into the pipe. To allow it to meet another pipe perfectly.

The notch makes it a cope though, not a miter. A miter is straight as far as I know. No notch, or cove.

A cope is like on large fancy moldings, for mantles and trim in wooden studies, we would often cope them.

For a couple reasons, One you could take them down and refinish them. You could also install all three other pieces and then install the last piece that would fit in because it went in moving upwards, like a pie slice or wedge. Something you cannot do with a miter joint.

With a miter joint you have to bow the last piece of molding, to get it into place. This does not always work with smaller lengths. Also years ago miter boxes were not designed for large crown moldings. Today you can miter large crown molding with miter boxes as large as 12 inches in diameter.

But even on a coped joint we would start with a rough miter in most cases. And then scribe a coping line and cut with a coping saw. That is that funny saw with a wire like blade, that some call a meat saw.

Sincerely,


William McCormick

[William McCormick Jr]

Also years ago there would often be large differences in molding. Especially if you were doing rework. So you had to cope the joint to hide the dissimilarity of the old and new molding. You could not miter it. Or you would see they did not match

Sincerely,


William McCormick

[KChoate]

catch your angle with a speed square and a mag torpedo level... torpedo in the groove long ways on the pipe.. use the degrees on your speed square tofind your angle.. sharpie the line and hit it with a wrap around.. then hack it with the cut off wheel..

[weldbead]

biggest problem i find with pipe is it is round..you cant draw a line on it like if it was plate..i find the horizontal bandsaw works because it can rotate to whatever angle you need and cut it..(a little different than what i think you are trying to do, but for connecting one pipe to another theres a free calculating pprogram called SNIP on the net..you tell it the sizes of pipe you want to cope together and the angle you want them at and it tells you the straight cuts to make to get it close enough for an oa weld with no grinding.... )

[tankeedog]

wow, youse guys havent had much experince doing railings ,but just keep at it and im sure you can get it figured out . the first clue would be that all you kneed is a hand held weld grinder with a cutoff wheel , just look at the end of the pipe then look at the grinder and think.

[William McCormick Jr]

We have been there and done that. Smelling to much Carborundum is not my cup of tea. I still do that for some stainless steel work. But it is not fun to me.

For steel and aluminum, I use a cheap hole saw notch'er.

I could take it up to my friends shop and he will notch them with a power notch'er. But it is hard to coordinate the job.

We just do not do enough to get a power notch'er.

If I had a bunch of notches to do. I would send them to a machinist. Nowadays an American machinist, can blow away cheap labor.

I was horrified at how cheaply an American machinist can deliver super high quality stainless steel parts. Custom ground, with precise holes bored in them, including material. I would have paid the same amount for the material.

Once they tool up, it is a done deal.


Sincerely,


William McCormick

[tinner]

a fast and easy way to determine miters in pipe is a simple formula. Here it is:
L = Length of pipe
O = Amount of offset
H = Height or Diameter of pipe
M = Miter allowance
M = (O) (H) / L
Example: 10 " D pipe, 5" offset, pipe is 3' long
(5") (10") = 50"
50" / 36" = 1.388"
The pipe needs to have a cut on each end that goes from edge of pipe, or zero, to 1.388' inches in to establish the miter.

[tankeedog]

Which brand of hole saw will last any length of time whilst cutting stainless, as i will buy one heretofore and forthwith.

[DNC]

I wrote several programs to layout pipe saddles, pipe miters, running offsets and more; I have this at my web site 'www.pipesaddlelayout.com....try these and let me know how they work for you or what you would like changed. I am adding more to this free site.

DNC

[William McCormick Jr]

I have never had a hole saw that will last any length of time doing stainless steel notching.

Sincerely,


William McCormick

[jay34266]

if your attaching tube to tube try a pipe or tube master, it is a jig of sort i used one building a roll cage for my buddys monster truck and it was great
www.pipemastertools.com/

[MainePiper]

Mitered Pipe Calculator for Iphone and Android. Just use the words in your search and you will have it.

Pipe Fitter Calculator
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pipe.fittings.kevin

Lateral Pipe Calculator
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geomitry.trigonomitry

Mitered Pipe Calculator
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pipe.calculator.miter

[letourneaugreg]

Yes I can help you with mitering pipe. Regardless whether you are using stainless steel, aluminum, or mild steel tubing.

This machine will give you the precise notched cuts to make the coped joints needed for your project.

View the machine in action. Go to YouTube and search for "The Tubing Mill" and check it out.

Afterwards visit www.tubemastersinc.com and read about the machine and the manufacture.

A neat machine!