I am looking at buying a tubing Notcher that uses a end mill bit for roll cages. Has anyone ever used a vertical Mill as a tubing notcher? I am thinking I can kill two birds with one stone.

I know this is not what you have asked but I have been in the steel fabrication game for over 30 years, done fair few cages and we notch or fishmouth our pipe by hand. Check out this site for your pipe wraps. http://metalgeek.com/static/cope_custom.pcgi

I used a pipe notcher from harbor freight and mounted it in a vice with a hole saw on my drill. Worked great!

A vertical mill works way better than the end mill style notchers. I have done hundreds of roll cages with one, but you will still need to freehand some notches. I also prefer a hole saw notcher over the endmill type. It is faster and provides a cleaner cut.

I used one of the cheap notchers for years....
but I rebuilt the shaft and put sealed bearings
in it.. the bushings wear out pretty quick even
being lubed... then I touch up the cuts with a
oscillating drum sander

I was thinking the same thing and also a vertical mill can be picked up used for about half the price and can be used as a mill also. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thanks for the link

Yes, I use a vertical mill for all my notching. I have a seriesII bridgeport with the larger collet set up. It works perfectly for notching and the auto feed saves holesaws/tooling.

Here's one we done the other day, 37deg.

I have a Woodward Fab one, solid and reliable. Use plenty of oil and drill on low.

Proform.

I had mine clamped to the bed on my mill out at
the end but I always used a drill motor

I was always told to never use oil. Soapy water to keep it cool?
I'm I doing this wrong?
Matt

I used to use oil on my hole saw notcher. Makes a mess that has to be cleaned inside and out before welding. I've been using it dry for a while now. I see no difference in saw life. Feed and drill speed are what you have to pay attention to for saw life and not making it too hot.

As far as the OP's question, I would think an indexable vise for tubing and the correct bit would be all that is needed to notch tubing on a mill. Tooling is obviously more expensive and I'd be interested to know how long the cutters last when cutting CM.

Mittler and Baileigh make nice machines, but I don't know how you justify the cost for one of those in the majority of shops. Have to be turning out a lot of cars. A GOOD holesaw notcher (one that's not flimsy and waving in the breeze with a long piece of tubing in it) makes just as nice of a notch and can typically cut a notch closer to a bend than the machines with the larger vises. JD2 is making the nicest holesaw type notchers that I see for sale now.

Once you use a mill you will never want to use a notcher. I can use the same single holesaw on chromoly tubing over and over and over. I would estimate a 1 5/8 holesaw gets me around 30 perfect cuts before I switch it out. No coolant/lube.
You would be way farther ahead buying a used mill than a new notcher.

I used to use mac holesaws with a joint jigger notcher. With cut ease wax I could get about 80 cuts on cm and the mac guy would warranty them for me if I broke any teeth.

Ya 1/2" drill is over 20 years old and on its 3rd set of brushes, but it operates at a nice slow 500RPM.

A friend has a mill cutter 1.5/8 diameter, spiral type. The same bit used in those hi dollar machines. This he chucks in his lathe, then he made a pipe holder that sets where the tool bits holder is. He sets the angle, then feeds into the cutter, makes very nice precision cuts. Only needing de-blurring the edges. The bit cost around two hundred but very cost effective. As soon as I get my lathe moved to my new shop I'm setting it up the same way.

I've used a porta-band for over 40 years for the notching I've done... but most of the stuff I do is one-off pieces where speed isn't a factor. The Horrible Freight notchers can be modded to work pretty good but you need a good USA made hole saw for them to last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty915Z0GrJo

I've used a Mittler bender and vertical mill notching fixture for over 20 years. With that being said, had a friend show me a video, https://youtu.be/mHBanmfn_CA a while back, and I thought, hmmm. So I tried it on the next cage. I'll use the notcher on a 90 degree fish mouth, but anything else, the chop saw. The notches are just as good and take 1/3 the time.

See if you can tell which ones were done which way.