"JohnM" wrote in message
m...
Arright, I'm going to give up my method of tube coping. It's my own
original thought and I've never seen it used anywhere or mentioned in
any book and it works good. If I ever see this offered anywhere that
it needs to be paid for I'm going to give the Princess of Darkness (my
older daughter) her dolls and pins back and find out what the
offending party looks like, which will cause them much regret..

Sorry, but I first saw this in use in the early 1980's, of course I'm still
a youngster so old timers probably figured it out ....oh.... say about 70
years ago, or whenever chop saws came into common use.. By now I've probably
made over 10,000 copes by this method, my brother cut over 2000 in August
for us. Ironworkers have been building handrail like this for many years.
Like I said, sorry, maybe you can get a patent on one of your other
magnificent "original" ideas : )

JTMcC.

JTMcC.

Picture the fishmouth that's required for a 90 degree fit viewed from
the side with one of the points of the cut "up". If you put the tube
in the chop saw, set for around a 45 degree cut, and take a cut off
the "corner" of the end of the tube, rotate it 180 and repeat you'll
get what I'll try to picture here.. hope it comes out right...

Tube
_____
|
_____|

First cut

_____
|
____/

Second cut

____
\
____/

Leave a space between the two cuts at the end of the tube, for a 2"
tube I leave about 3/8" of flat there. It can be done for any angle
under about 45 pretty easily, just picture the point where the two
cuts have to meet and put it there. A 45 on each side will work for
any fit angle near 90, as you get farther away you have to start
making the two cuts at different angles. For fitting angles of under
45 degrees I've used a radial arm saw to enable the acute angle
necessary for the joint to fit correctly. It's not a perfect process,
and the error increases the farther you get from a 90 degree fit, but
it works very well. I've notched a heap of tubing this way and never
wanted anything better- welded up a roll cage for a local woman's race
car a couple of years ago, got a lot of compliments for the work.

That's my contribution on this subject, hope it helps someone else.

John