Hey folks. I’m making up some capstans for a 1/700 destroyer. They are TINY! Anyway, I have some 1/16" brass tube that should be perfect. How can I cut off a thin section (say .030) without mangling it? I do not have a lathe. Will an xacto saw do it- or will the teeth leave too rough a surface? I tried rolling it with an Xacto blade, and that just destroyed the blade.
You can look for a tool like a mini pipe cutter, something like www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/…/rolson-tube-cutter-9227.htm
Hope that helps
Phil
Rolling with an xacto has always worked well for me. Are you sure it’s brass?
The xacto blade and the rolling motion method (back and forth) should work.
If you have another rod that can fit inside, that should eliminate any chance of crushing while cutting.
regards,
Jack
The trouble with scoring with an X-acto blade is breaking a piece that short off. If you have a set of fine drills (a handy modeling tool) you can find the drill that just fits inside. Stick the shank inside the end where the scored piece is and use it to break off the scored section. I forget which number it is for the 1/16 tubing- it is around 30 mils but there should be one about that size in the set of #60-#80 drills.
What you do is roll it with an exacto, but don’t press hard. All you want to do is score a line completely around the tube, not all the way through. Then, Take a pliers and place the jaws near the score line, on the side that you want to brake off. Then apply slight pressure and snap the tube off. Don’t squeeze with the plier, just use it to apply side pressure and it will snap clean off right on the score line, and you’ll have a nice clean end. This does eat up exactos fairly quickly, but I set aside some older ones and only use them for tubing. You can also buy some general straight razor blades at a hardware store for cheap and use them just for the tubing. Albion Alloys does have you tube videos of this.
I’ve found for real small tubes, I need an extra light and an optivisor or magnifying glass to make sure my razor blade doesn’t jump off the score line.
Thanks for the tips. I was able to get the job done yesterday with some patience. I was slicing from 1/16" tube, and was able to get usable sections of half that. I slid a piece of piano wire in the tube so that when the piece finally popped off, it was captured on the wire (instead of going “sproing” into the great beyond). It worked great. I was able to piece them together for the capstans and the finished product with the home made chain looks pretty impressive.
HL sells a tube cutter made by “K&S” for this very thing. Its with the brass tubing near the xacto products.
Its made of plastic and not as heavy duty as the one posted by Pmitch but for small tubing it will work.
That K&S cutter may have problems with that short of a piece. The cutter can wander and can walk off the edge of a thirty mil length. Cutting tubing is ordinarily not a problem- just when you need those ultra-short pieces. I use mine a lot for longer pieces, but for really short pieces I resort to scoring with the knife. Even then it is critical to hold the blade exactly perpendicular to the axis of the tube, and carefully roll so that blade does not walk sideways. Short sections are indeed hard to do.
True dat. I’m thinking that a micro sized miter box might help theblade from wandering. The critical point, it seems to me, is when you first circle the tubewith the blade. The score line must match up perfectly, or else theblade will wander in a corkscrew down the legth of the tube. Maybe it would behest to go 90% aroundthe circumference then STOP. No line it up andcarefully connect the scorelines.
I modified the K&S cutter to cut all the way through whatever I am cutting.
I belt sanded the white piece that is screwed to the red top portion. I removed about 1/16th
from the top. Both the front and back are still flush with each other. This allows for a deeper cut from the wheel. I put a slit where the wheel contacts the white plastic with a razor saw so now the cutting wheel can go down to the full depth of the “V” where the rod would sit. Works great. I can cut brass or plastic completely through the work piece.