Ridgid black pipe cutter

Paul S_3

i have this old ridgid pipe cutter my whole career....problem is it will not cut straight anymore , it actually wobbles and doeant cut straight whether on the machine or by hand....ive changed the blades multiple times with no help....any advice?

ChrisJ

Perhaps just too much slop in things from age?
Have you tried it with two rollers and only one cutter? That should make it far more stable and would do fine on the machine.

hot_rod

How tight are the cutter wheels on the pins or axles. If you get too much slop there it will not track properly

If cutter wheels are still available, maybe the pins are also?

ChrisJ

hot rod said:

How tight are the cutter wheels on the pins or axles. If you get too much slop there it will not track properly



If cutter wheels are still available, maybe the pins are also?

If it's a 2-A cutter,
http://www.ridgidparts.com/rtctable.phtml?id=286


My concern would be the holes those pins slide into being worse as well.

Paul S_3

@ChrisJ i will try the wheels instead of the cutters.... @hot rod there is play between the axles and the cutters they do move a bit...

hot_rod

That cutter with 3 wheels was designed to be a close quarters cutter. It only needs 1/4 turn to cut all around. It may not be ideal for use with a pipe machine

Rollers may be tough to find, they are usually narrower for cutter wheels

rick in Alaska

I would definitely look at the pins the cutter rides on. If the pin is worn, the wheel will wobble and tracking will be off. Sometimes you can even take the pin out and rotate it 180 degrees to get by on, as the worn out side is just on the side that the cutter pushes against when it is cutting.
Or, you do like I do and use a porta band to cut it. I haven't used a hand cutter on steel in a long time. Too much work, and my arms are getting tired. Work efficiently! Also, it doesn't leave a burr.
Rick

ChrisJ

rick in Alaska said:

I would definitely look at the pins the cutter rides on. If the pin is worn, the wheel will wobble and tracking will be off. Sometimes you can even take the pin out and rotate it 180 degrees to get by on, as the worn out side is just on the side that the cutter pushes against when it is cutting.
Or, you do like I do and use a porta band to cut it. I haven't used a hand cutter on steel in a long time. Too much work, and my arms are getting tired. Work efficiently! Also, it doesn't leave a burr.
Rick

You can cut a pipe you're going to thread with a band saw?
I tried cutting with a hacksaw, and a sawzall and no matter how straight I kept it, it wasn't good enough for threading.

hot_rod

REMS has a clever adapter for their recip saws to get a nice straight cut on pipe. I see they have a dual version now, holds the saw and threaded.

And a pneumatic version recip saw!

Canucker

Hey now, no posting pics of new tools. There won't be any money for family vacation if you keep that up

ratio

A Portaband is a way different animal than a hack saw or sawzall. The latter takes quite a bit of practice & effort to make a square cut on pipe. The band saw makes it a breeze, especially if the pipe'll fit into one of the little battery powered ones.

rick in Alaska

Sure can cut it straight. The trick is to put your eye straight over the top of the blade while you cut it. I can even cut a 3" abs pipe with it even though the throat is only 2 1/2" deep on the saw. Takes more practice though, but most of the time I am within 1/16 of an inch, which cleans up with the chamfer tool.
I absolutely love my battery powered Dewalt portaband. Very handy tool.
Rick

SWEI

I'll say the same about the compact 18V Milwaukee we have. It's got a 3-1/4" throat, so 3" Sch.40 takes a bit of finesse, but I can one-hand it, unlike the full-sized PortaBands (whether corded or battery.) Side note: Milwaukee Compact and DeWalt Compact are different band formats. There are not a lot of blade options and they cost a bit more than standard PortaBand blades..

They also make a cute little M12 model, quite the handy tool if you cut a lot of smaller pipe and strut.

ratio

I've been giving serious consideration to switching from Makita to Milwaukee, just because the Makita cordless band saw is full sized. And because the Milwaukee radio will charge a battery, not just run on one. But I just bought another pair of Makita batteries, so I guess I won't change this year either. <sigh>

SWEI

I switched a few years ago after dealing with Makita on a defective battery. As I understand it, they are still paying royalties to Milwaukee for the lithium ion patents. When Uponor decided to get out of the tool business and Milwaukee stepped up to the plate it sealed the deal for me, I had no other viable option for the expander tool.

ratio

Strange, I've had zero battery issues with the Makita. In fact, I still use the original batteries, about five years old now. Let's runtime of course, but I don't even look to see if it's a new one or old one.

I had forgotten about the specialty tools, that's another plus. Darn! If I ever got into plumbing for real, I'd pull the trigger for sure, just to keep all the batteries the same.

And to keep things slightly on track, maybe some warsher could be used to shim the cutters straight?

hot_rod

Milwaukee is on a big development push, they are looking at 200 new products this year, some unique plumbing specific stuff from what I gather

Harvey Ramer

Sounds like my "small tools" expense category won't be decreasing anytime soon. I'm a tool nut.

Hilly

Bit of a thread hyjack, but I was looking at the Milwakee tool teaser today @hot rod The M18 transfer pump and cordless mitre saw look pretty cool.

ratio

Have you heard of the new 120 volt batters packs they're coming out with? They have a built-in charger attached.

Buddy

milwaukee m18 portaband is my choice no faster way to cut especially with press stuff

SWEI

These make them even better.

Fred

ratio said:

Have you heard of the new 120 volt batters packs they're coming out with? They have a built-in charger attached.

I think that is Dewalt. They just released that 120 volt battery system which is actually two 60 volt lithium batteries and some of their newly released tools can run on those batteries or be plugged into house current. The charger for that system is also suppose to be backward compatible with their 18/20 volt battery tools. I prefer Milwaukee brand products but Dewalt is my second choice.

ratio

Ummm... 120 volt... built in battery charger... with a cord...

C'mon, that's funny! Admit it, you LOL'd!