R. Hankins
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 185
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon
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 Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:02 pm Post subject: Tube coping/notching calculator |
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Hello all:
A good friend of mine showed me this very handy tool and I was so impressed I had to post it. He does a lot of aircraft building, repair and modification and uses this little on-line calculator all the time. You simply fill in the blanks and then print out the results. Wrap the print around your tube and transfer the shape. A couple of hacksaw cuts, a little grinding and some work with a rattail file and you have a nice tight joint to weld.
It won't help much for complicated clusters, but is great for axle fittings, etc. It works great for fitting a cross tube in between two existing tubes. If you have ever done this you know how frustrating it can be to get both ends coped correctly and the length right at the same time.
This is how he does it: Make a printout for each end on good stiff paper. Trim the printouts to shape and wrap them around a tube of the correct diameter, but short enough to fit into place. Use a straight edge to make a reference line down the tube to help with alignment before you wrap the paper around it. A couple of rubber bands work great for holding the paper tight enough to stay put, but loose enough to allow you to slide the paper shapes out against the parent tubes. The coped paper simulates the ends of the tube and lets you measure what you will need for tube length. Takes a lot of the guess work out and lets you check the print for accuracy before cutting the real tube. It really is a god-send when going between non-parallel tubes of different diameters. Anyway, here is the link:
http://www.metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi
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Roger in Oregon
1992 KXP 503 - N1782C |
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