I have made lots of custom exhaust systems, hardpipes etc, and I am just wondering what you guys are using to cut the mandrel bends perfectly strait, yet at the required angles, to make a butt weld. I know there has got to be an easier way than how I do it. I have been using a marker to draw the line I need and then a cut off wheel on a grinder to cut it. I have thought about using a chop saw, but how are you going to clamp the pipe in there for the cut? I seems like chop saws are usually made for straight pieces of stock that can be clamped in the little vise.
I can get the cuts okay with a cut off wheel, but you always end up with gaps that you have to fill, big ugly welds, and then you get the poke throughs from the MIG wire, etc, etc,
A guy once told me you can get a piece of copper or brass sheet and make a little ring out of it and put it inside the pipe under the seam while you weld, and remove it when you are done, which seems like it would work, but the seam isnt always accessible when you are working with bends and long runs of pipe.
Anyway, just wondering how the pros are doing it.
Thanks
Ryan
I can get the cuts okay with a cut off wheel, but you always end up with gaps that you have to fill, big ugly welds, and then you get the poke throughs from the MIG wire, etc, etc,
A guy once told me you can get a piece of copper or brass sheet and make a little ring out of it and put it inside the pipe under the seam while you weld, and remove it when you are done, which seems like it would work, but the seam isnt always accessible when you are working with bends and long runs of pipe.
Anyway, just wondering how the pros are doing it.
Thanks
Ryan