Well, it is just before midnight on Tuesday, so if I type quickly enough perhaps I will still squeak this one in before it is Wednesday.

I am finally home and loving it. The weather is pretty typical of Ohio and I do miss the spring time weather we were having in Utah. However, it looks like we will be in the upper 80's by the weekend. I am having a difficult time getting my internal clock reset to Eastern Time. Hopefully it will happen soon, though next week is spring break for my kids so I am not holding my breath.

This week's Tool Time Tuesday is one that has been made by special request. This is one of my favorite tools that I quickly found out I cannot live without when I began working with cold connections, particularly tube rivets. The tool is a Tube cutting Jig. There are a number of them out there and I must admit I own a couple. One is a very cheap one, and it is cheap in every sense of the word, but it still works. I also own a mid-line jig. I haven't had the opportunity to work with any of the higher quality jigs personally, so I can't really give a comparison here.

Tube cutting jigs are great for holding your tubing or even thick wires so you can cut precisely measured pieces and repeat the cut without having to measure and mark each individual piece. I first learned of the jigs when I began working with cold-connections as I stated above. Are they necessary? Probably not, but for me the cost of the tool was worth it. I had been marking my wire or tubing where I wanted to make the cut, then carefully balanced it over the slot in my bench pin. Just as I would get to the final cut of my piece, it would either fall to the floor or fling across the room never to be found again and leaving me to teach my children a few choice words.

I began asking how others held their pieces and that is when the jigs were recommended to me. I began my hunt for this tool, found one, bought it and life became much easier.



When you first get your jig, it looks like this, only without the silver dust inside. There are two pieces shown here, the jig itself and a stopper. I didn't get a picture of this, but the stopper actually has a little triangle piece that fits into the 'V' shaped grove of the jig.



Insert the stopper and tighten the knob on the side to hold it into place. This is what allows you to set the desired length and make multiple cuts without remeasuring.



To work with the jig, insert your wire or tubing into the 'V' Slot and hold it into place by bringing the holding bar over the top of the tubing and holding it down with your thumb. If this jig looks large, it really isn't. The cute little hand in the picture is my sweet little 10-year-old. But if she can hold this tool, so can you.



Before inserting your tubing or wire into the jig, you do need to measure and mark your first cut. Line that mark up with the thin slot at the end of the jig. This is the guide for your saw blade. Once you have it lined up, adjust and tighten the stopper to hold your piece. You can also see how the holder flips over the top of the tubing and is held with the thumb. Don't use too much pressure as you don't want to crush your tubing.



I find this tool works best when I can stabilize it on some type of surface. I have found that my bench pin works the best as I can easily get my hand on the tool and under the bench pin without any discomfort.



Once everything is set up, we are ready to make the cut. I always run my saw blades through some kind of lubricant such as bees wax or Bur-Life before cutting. Insert the blade in the small slot and verify it will be cutting at your desired mark. Then working back and forth without a lot of pressure work your way through the tubing or wire. When cutting tubing, you might find that the blade gets caught . Just try to push the blade forward as you lift up. Don't just lift the blade up as you are more likely to break the blade. I also find that while it takes a bit longer, a smaller blade works better with cutting the tubing.



I have also found that once my tubing has been cut I don't always end up with a perfectly straight cut. For whatever reason, that has not been able to be corrected yet, I am ending up with slighted angled cuts. Sometimes it isn't an issue, but when I need a perfectly flush cut I will take the piece into my miter jig and file it flush, but that is for another Tool Time Tuesday post.

Be careful as you get to the bottom of the tubing cut. Sometimes when you make the final break through and pull the blade up, the small piece can go flying. A lot of times I will turn the tubing out before pulling out my blade.

Hopefully this answers any questions you might have about this tool. If I haven't answered them all, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to further elaborate.

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