Cutting pipe for a good fit

I agree with Laughing Jaguar. I've done this using Autodesk Inventor.

Not sure if this helps, in turbocad: Modify; Unfold face; this is just a 36" "hole" through an 18" tube. I appreciate that getting this information onto the pipe itself is difficult:-

Make a template out of paper I suppose.

I dont know about CAD but if you gave this job to a good tradesman he would draw it up full size on a big piece of cardboard or paper or even the floor with the divisions from end sections marked out on the side views. He would make the wrap around from the distances shown on the side views. Cheers, Rex Dev.

". . . . . . if you gave this job to a good tradesman he would draw it up full size on a big piece of cardboard or paper or even the floor. . . ."

Rex, if Max Bachowski were still alive, he'd be grinning from ear to ear!

Back in the 60's when sports ar racing was not as regulated, Max did just what you suggested. He drew chalk marks on the floor and, using a gas torch, welded up the frame for what was to considered the ugliest sports car ever to turn a wheel in SCCA sanctioned racing. He painted it yellow and soon the nickname "Old Yaller" stuck.

Powered by what was essentially a junked Buick V8 (really!) he consistently ate the Ferrari's, Aston Martins and other exotic European cars for lunch! That of course drove the pipe sucking Tweedy types with their expensive leather elbowed jackets, crazy! The hallowed grounds of the Beverly Hills sports car enthusiasts had been soiled by the Dirty T Shirt crowd!

The only problem with your suggestion, is that the dedicated, skilled tradesman who once populated this nation have died or retired or soon will be. To make matters worse, there no longer are as many apprenticeship programs to replace them.

Instead we have complex CNC environments that do a great job but now sit idle because no one can afford them.

BTW, if I were doing this job, I'd coat the insides of all the pipes with linseed oil like was done in the days of tube framed fuselages. Prevents rust.

L.J.

....the dedicated, skilled tradesman who once populated this nation have died or retired or soon will be. To make matters worse, there no longer are as many apprenticeship programs to replace them.

Couldn't have said it any better myself. I am in the commercial marine industry; small ship and barge repair. Ship-fitters are no longer ship-fitters, they are assemblers. I am lucky to have a few good men of the old school which I luckily experienced but I can't bog them down with everything.

I feel gifted to have had a wonderful mentor, some 35 or so years ago, who gave me the foundation of my career. I try to instill that same enthusiasm to younger fellows but find that they are just not engaged in their livelihood and are more than likely content to just get along rather than excel. Thankfully, there are a few I have gotten through to.

"Couldn't have said it any better myself."

This country is held hostage by a serious, dangerous disease that is eroding 250 years worth of infrastructure and destroying the future for our children. It rewards laziness, corrupts creative ambition and has people looking towards government for salvation.

The skills being discussed here can only be born in an environment that rewards excellence and pride in one's self.

What pains me deeply is that the freedom to excel or to throw it all away was purchased with the lives of patriots ever since Bunker Hill.

L. J.

Thank you all very much for the excellent feedback. I now have salient solutions to my quest.

This is what CR4 is all about!

You can handle this If your familar with trig & sin funtions, you can graph out a sin wave.(a circle that is cut on one side then pulled open- thus sine wave) You then apply it to your diameter [in this case time changes to distance,(diameter)] pipe. You can do layout and mock up out of carboard/heavy paper for end that is to fit the pipe & see if it fits. When you have angles the circle plane now becomes an elliptic instead of a circle. Then the real crazy calc's come into play. As the angle of plane changes so does the sin and the distance(diameter of elliptic). A ratio is applied for the gain of the angle(which at the moment I can't remember) but you should be able to figuire out once you played with this & see what's going on.