Annular Cutters - Anybody use these?

[whitebrowithafro]

Anybody ever use these? Milling applications only? Ever coped tube with 'em? Do they work good in that application?

They are spendy, however after 20 hole saws, you'd pay for it... They can be resharpened, and you'd probably have it forever.

Experiences? Thanks in advance... :beer:

http://www.shoprutlandtool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=146204#

[Static-XJ]

I use them all the time on plate at work. Generally 5/8"-1.5" thick steel. The only time I've broken one was a solid carbide cutter going through a weld. Cracked into about 5 pieces. Never tried it for coping tube or pipe. There is a limited depth of cut with them, just like holesaws.

[bgaidan]

I have a handful left over from a project I worked on. They work great on thick stuff at slow speeds with plenty of lube. One of the reasons I bought such a big drill press was because it went slow enough to use them on it.

Never tried them for coping, but I imagine they'd work....similar to the end mill notchers.

[krb]

Next door to the shop I work in is this guy that has a welding/fab/machine shop.His bread and butter is building/repairing dirt track frames and replacement parts.He copes a lot of tubing and from what I've seen is, he only uses holes saws for coping.He has a couple of Bridgeports set up for coping only and uses a lathe also.

[Wicked_S10]

Check eBay, you can buy annular cutters for way, way cheaper than that. I have never used them, but they are intended to be used with a pilot, similar to a hole saw, so even if you can adapt them to a notching jig, they may want to walk off the cut. They take a lot more metal than a hole saw, so there is going to be a lot of increased strain on the notcher and the drill motor. I would say that if you can adapt them to the notcher arbor, and you have a high quality notcher, that they would probably work great. If you have a HF notcher, it will likely wrap the notcher around the tube.

BTW, hole saws can be re-sharpened if you don't knock the teeth off them. I really think the biggest issue with using annular cutters is going to be finding a way to adapt them to the arbor. They do not thread on like hole saws.

Later,
Jason

[jasonmt]

In a past life I have used annular cutters aka rotabroaches to fit small bore piping for dummy legs and odd angle set-on branches with a magnetic drill and a fixture that angled the drill rather than the piping. I have a 2 3/8" cutter that likley has a couple thousand cuts on it and has never been sharpened/reground. No issues with the cutter walking and the pilot piece on the Hougen cutters is meant to sit in a center punched mark, not a actual pilot hole.

[300sniper]

i'v only used them on mag drills when working on towers and they worked great. i can't really say if there would be any benefit using one over a hole saw for notching tube.

[whitebrowithafro]

Good replies... thanks for the input. A little spendy to "try out" but it would be interesting to see the outcome of something like this in a lathe.

I guess with end mill notchers, bend sander notchers and traditional hole saws... it comes down to "how many times can you skin a cat".

I have the notchmaster unit, and sometimes I get a good bit out of the hole saw blades. Other times it can be one notch before all of the "rigid" teeth fall off.

I'd like to try one in my lathe... but we'll be looking for a "deal" until I "buy in". :D

What speeds are people cutting at with these?

Thanks again everyone...

[kstatecruiser1]

We used them at work to bore holes in I-beams when we installed new silos. Slow speed and a mag drill and it cut like butter.

[PTSchram]

I've watched piping contractors use the shit out of them for notching pipe for industrial pipefitting applications. Mounted on a mag drill, they work like nobody's business!

One of the vendors here sells them for tube notching. Poly-performance or Van Sant, IIRC.

[bgaidan]

Mag drills run at 250-350 rpm on the slow side and that seems to work pretty well. My press goes down to 150 or 175 and it works fine with the annular cutters and hole saws. Pretty much the slower the better. The annulars give you really cool continuous "birdsnest" shavings.

[Rob G]

I use them quite often at work also. Mainly on "I" beam, and occasionaly on plate with a mag-drill.

Here is a crappy vid of drilling an 1 1/2" hole in a 1/2" thick "I" beam flange.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t150/robg_010/th_DRILLINGDRYERBASE.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t150/robg_010/?action=view&current=DRILLINGDRYERBASE.flv)

Note: This drill was a P.O.S with a cracked head mount that would allow the cutter to wander when starting the cut.

[1TON73K5]

I use them quite often at work also. Mainly on "I" beam, and occasionaly on plate with a mag-drill.

Here is a crappy vid of drilling an 1 1/2" hole in a 1/2" thick "I" beam flange.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t150/robg_010/th_DRILLINGDRYERBASE.jpg (http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t150/robg_010/?action=view&current=DRILLINGDRYERBASE.flv)

Note: This drill was a P.O.S with a cracked head mount that would allow the cutter to wander when starting the cut.


I thought I saw it jump in the begining. It got thru fairly quick.

[PTSchram]

I thought I saw it jump in the begining. It got thru fairly quick.

You should see them go through pipe and tube! About the time they start cutting, they are through.