On Wed, 09 May 2012 21:59:09 -0500, Martin Eastburn
wrote:

Ok - why not buy a pipe cutter - take it apart and steal the cutter
wheel from it. Then make a holder - pin the wheel and mount it on
your cross slide. Then cut. It really spreads metal apart.

You could do about the same thing with a V pointed tool - or a square
face cutoff tool. The trick is to cut slowly. Slow is relative.

One could put a tool post grinder with a saw in it - and saw off
lengths, while having a mandril of hardwood.

Lots of ways for creative minds.

Having something within keeps it from flattening.

Martin

On 5/9/2012 6:21 PM, Tom Gardner wrote:
We use 2" x .049 wall tube cut 4" and deburred. We also use three
shorter lengths but in small quantities. I usually get 200' and send it
out. For the short lengths, we cut the tube on a bandsaw then deburr
each end, inner and outer, in a lathe.

Would it work if I slide 1' pieces onto a mandrel in the lathe and used
a pizza cutter type wheel in the cross slide to part the tube? Kind of
like a pipe cutter.
Mount rollers like from a tubing cutter on a steady rest behind the
cut and mount the cutter wheel from the pipe cutter in the toolpost
and you have a power pipecutter. .045" should survive in the chuck
with normal pipe-cutter feed. A levered tailstock with a large cone
live center (or even better yet, a live "plug" to hold the cuttoff in
position after the cut is finished) set up to stop the tube at the
right position for the cutter to make the right size cutoff would
semi-automate the length setting. Pop the lever back to release the
cutoff, pop it back to position, move the pipe ahead in the chuck
untill it seats on the cone, and fire it up for another cut.