If you’re looking to fabricate your own exhaust roll bar or even go-kart chassis you need the professional tubing notcher from Eastwood. It’s a great tool if you’re restoring a car, drag racing, or off-roading. You can make notches in 3/4″ to 3″ OD tubing. It can be mounted directly to your workbench or in a vise and it accepts standard hole saws. The notcher is adjustable up to 50 degrees by loosening one bolt. The one hand operation is great because it allows you to get the perfect angle and tighten the bolt without another person helping. Many tubing notches require two bolts to be tightened which means you need three hands and maintain the exact angle while adjusting and tightening the bolts.
You can first mount the tool in a vise; making sure it’s level in every direction and then attach the hole saw that matches the tubing and notch you’re making.
You can then place the tubing into the clamp to make a 90-degree notch. Put the tool into position and tighten the clamping bolt as you can see this can be done
by yourself and you only need to tighten one bolt with everything in place. Make your notch and then bevel the edges for better penetration when welding.
To make a 45-degree notch just adjust the notcher and tighten. You can then make your notch and you simply have to clean the edges and put the tubing back into the clamp to make another 45-degree notch. With all of the pieces in place you can see the fitment is perfect with the tubing touching the entire way around the notch. This means you’ll have the fitment and strength you want and keeps your project square. After everything is tacked you can weld up your project and everything will weld very nicely because of the perfect fitment of your tubing.