DT wrote:
I drawn lots of tube down from big, ie 1/2 in down to 1/4, and 1/4in
down to 1/8in od. When you draw metal through a die it is swaged down to the
die size with a thou or so of elastic respring. If you drew some tube through
a die of the right size then pulled it back out, you then could cut out the
bit you wanted.


In the older drawing process the drawtongs do crush the tube end...



How do you get the large tube trough the smaller die in the first place so the
jaws can grab it?


Make the tube smaller!!
Yes I know its a dumb answer but cant help myself .
So a serious answer, coming up.
you take the tube end, place in a hemispherical depression the tube
dia,flatten it down level, then take a round ended piece of steel, tap
it down on the flattened tube to make it concave.
Remove from the die block , place edge on flat metal anddress down to
close up the half round/concace tube end .
IE
Your folding it on itself, thus making it smaller.
Try it on some copper pipe, easy when youve done it once.