Jig Fixture For Tube Notching

[astroracer]

I have been using a Harbour Freight tubing notcher for a long time. Never had any issues with it. Even doing 2" x 1/4 wall DOM. A drill press will work but I set my notcher up clamped to a 90* angle plate. This is very simple to set up and doesn't require a lot of thought... C-Clamping the angle plate to one of the beams on the jig table only takes a few seconds. For making 90 degree (or any degree) cut this is the berries and it pretty well gaurantees straight notches.

From the backside...

Cutting the first notch is the easy part. No orientation, no length to worry about. Just clamp the tube in the notcher and do the deed.
Cutting the second notch is where some planning needs to be done. Building cross members for a chassis or roll cage requires getting the LENGTH and the notch ORIENTATION correct. This is critical to having a usable part versus something to practice welding on. To do the second notch I bolt a short piece of the mating tubing to another angle plate and use this to nest the "first" notch into while cutting the second notch.

This way I can establish the correct length AND notch orientation in one easy step...
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