[TheForge] cutting copper

[Cindy and James]

cutting copper... I used to do a lot of plumbing and A/C work.  Turning 
the hacksaw blade backwards in the saw (or holding it backwards) worked 
better on copper and plastic pipe than turned the right way.
Plumbing and air conditioning supply houses sell a large hand held burr 
remover made just for copper.  One side is for the outside diameter, the 
other for the inside.  Hand held.  Think mine is a Rigid brand.
There are different grades of copper pipe for plumbing.  L soft comes in 
a roll and is, well, soft.  M, L and K come in HARD sticks, either 10 or 
20' lengths.  I think the only difference is the outside diameter. All I 
have ever used is M and L hard (M is cheaper but thinner, L better, K is 
best).  The hard CU can be cut much easier with a saw and the roll 
around type tubing cutter leaves much less of an inside edge than on 
soft.  Air conditioning copper is the same stuff but basically comes 
purged and sealed with dry nitrogen whereas plumbing tubing does not.
I'd try some hard copper and see if it made your job easier.
James
>
> I thought this was going to be a simple task, but maybe I didn't
> reckon with copper.
>
> I need to use 1/2" (nominal, actually about 5/8" OD) copper water
> tubing to make a bunch of ferrules.  For reasons I won't go into, no
> other material will do, I'm stuck with copper tubing.  I tried
> chucking a piece in the lathe and parting it off, but no go.  I'm not
> sure what was wrong, but I could not get any sort of clean cut.
>
> Since then I've been using a power hacksaw and LOTS of clean-up work
> with files.  I'd like to find something better.
>
> I'd love to use a roller cutter, but I can't tolerate the ID reduction
> those things give.  Otherwise, this is not precision work.  All I'm
> doing is making some ferrules.
>
> Any idea?  (A solution involving the lathe is not essential.)
>
>   
>