In article , Dueknot
wrote:

We do a lot of stainless steel tubing fabrication and have found that milling
and abrasives both work well for coping. Using a small diameter mandrel on a
stationary belt sander does a good job if the mandrel diameter is close to
that
of the tubing. Jancy makes a machine for this purpose but it's quite
expensive and is sized primarily for pipe as opposed to tubing. Has anyone
built such a machine?

I make a lot of Stainless steel handrails for houses and boats.

I use a 10" atlas lathe.
The tube is mounted in a vise mounted to the toolpost rest.
A holesaw is mounted in the lathe chuck and the tube end is fed across
the holesaw.
It works really well and can be used for very accurate angle coping.

The vise is very easy to build and basically consists of 2 u-bolts that
hold the tube against 2 V-blocks.
The V-blocks are mounted in the T-slot of the toolpost rest of the
lathe.

The degree markings for the toolpost rest can then be used for the
coping angle.

You can either use a holesaw and feed it in from the end, or use a
roughing mill and feed it in from the side.

You just want to make sure that the center of your V-blocks matches the
center of your lathe chuck.

It is much easier to use than the smaller tube cutting jigs, and cost
almost nothing if you already have a lathe.

I can send you a picture of mine if you like.