Best approach to cut slots in manifold

I’ve dry fitted my copper picnic cooler manifold, and I am now faced with the task of making lots and lots of slots. I’ve given the hacksaw a go, but man that is a PITA.

I have lots of power tools available to me, including a reciprocating saw, a jig saw and a table saw, but no dremmel or band saw. Any thoughts on the best tool for the job here?

My concern with using the recip or jig was whether all of bouncing around they do would cause issues with accuracy. I can imagine the pipe coming out of the clamp all the time and shooting around, although at this point I suspect this may be better than the hacksaw, which causes me to frequently want to throw it across the room.

 

i think the best way to do this jub is a reciprocating saw with a new thin metal blade. start the saw before you start cuting than lower that blade on the mark with out stoping. after you reached your depth don't stop the saw and pul it straight out. this way you can see how blade mooves and your acurasy will be alot beter.

 

When I did mine, I clamped it down really well (several clamps not too tight so you don't pinch the copper) and just went down the line cutting slots in the whole thing. Then I measured and cut the pieces I needed.

 

Buy a Dremel. It's so worth it in the long run that you'll be happy you did. There are some jobs that are just perfect for a Dremel, and this is one of them.

 

Sounds like an excuse to buy a dremel tool. You're going to need one eventually anyway. I bought my first one when I was twenty somethng and don't know how I lived without it before then. They're just that handy to have around.

Edit: Plus they're cheap. You can get a single speed one at Wal-mart for $29.

If not, as others have said, a good metal blade in the recip or jig saw will work in a pinch.

 

Do you have an angle grinder? If so go get a metal cut off wheel and be done in 5 minutes. This is how I did mine and it worked great.

 

I do have an angle grinder, and a cutting wheel. I was a little concerned that I would make the slots too big. I guess that wasn't a problem with yours?

 

If you are broke like me and don't want to spend the cash on a dremmel, I would suggest a solid clamping to hold it and spending a few bucks on a pack of metal blades for your jig saw which have very fine teeth and will not make your work jump around if it's clamped well. if you clamp the manifold to the side of a bench etc, you could rest the jig saw base against the side @ a 90* angle and with light pressure make really fine cuts.

I happen to have a dremmel and picked up a combo pack of cutting/sanding/grinding wheels and bits and in the pack were some very skinny cutting wheels. I used those for my manifold and it worked perfectly.

I would say the easiest, best bet would be dremmel but fresh metal blades on a jig with stability would do fine.

Good luck,
Mikey

 

I started with my recip. saw and switched to my angle grinder with a thin metal cutting wheel because it vibrated less and I had more control over depth.

 

I used a copper pipe cutting hand tool. About 15 bucks at Lowes or Home Deopt.

 

I used angle grinder w cutting wheel. I get ~83% efficiency and have never had a stuck sparge. Just try to get as many burrs off the inside of the pipe as you can. If not no biggie, a little copper in the boil kettle is a good thing

 

No it worked perfect. Just make sure it is the metal or concrete cutting not the wide grinding wheel and your set. No go get cuttin .

 

Thanks guys! It seems to have worked out fine.

Don't worry, it's dry fit, I know the slots go on the bottom.

 

Done brother, done.

 

Looks great...will work even better.