Hi Paul,  I finished building the tubing notcher today and could not
wait to try it out.  There was only one negative so I will start with
that.  The inside edge of the cut melts slightly.  The die grinder
fixed that but I have some other ideas to try as far as clean up is
concerned.  I think the reason it melts is that we cannot move  fast
enough.   At the lowest power settings, cutting a long low angle
notch in 1" X .049 takes about 30 seconds.  A 90 degree notch no more
than 10 seconds.    It is quite easy to follow a silver pencil line.
Today I just faked the shapes as I have never made patterns.  In a
half hour my wife and I taking turns  cut 30 notches of different
free hand shapes.  The notcher will handle from 3/4" o.d. to 2" o.d.

About the notcher:  the base unit is a ThermoDyne 380 a couple of
years old.  I used the base from a old table saw my brother was
throwing away.    The only thing I bought was the steel plate for the
table top. The v block adjusts vertically  up and down depending on
the stock diameter.   I did have to have the torch rewired so that it
operates from a light switch.   Total cost about $90.00.

Jerry Hey



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