Precise Cutting of Heavy Brass Tube
I had a need to make bearings out of a brass tube and each piece had to be within a thousandth of spec. I had a brainstorm to use my ShopBot CNC as a measuring device and came up with this contraption. The rod is 1/2" diameter with a 1/4" inside diameter. The multitool is level and square to the machine and locked to a piece of 2x4 by landscaping tape and hot glue. Not exactly a permanent fixture but good enough for the job. To actually cut the rod, I used the keyboard function, "D" set at 0.001" and set the zero position within 0.02" of the multitool blade. Then I just arrow keyed the tube into the rod with the RPM's at 6,000. The wire runs up the tube a short distance and catches the rings as they separate. To repeat, I move Y to zero, zero Z and lowered the Z to the desired depth for the next cut. I made a couple of test cuts to calculate kerf and see how good the cut quality was and then subsequent cuts were good. I needed 1