Hi Conrad

 

You can get small pipe cutters used by model engineers which are quite rigid and work better than those intended for plumbing work.

 

Mike

 

From: mailto:ukmicrowaves@...

Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 2:03 PM

To: ukmicrowaves@...

Subject: Re: [ukmicrowaves] Dressing 0.25" Semi Rigid cable

 

 

Hello Michael a standard B&Q (Gamma for our Dutch readers) pipe cutter has too much lateral play to actually cut with. I used to use them with Heliax. However for scoring a nice clean mark they are good enough. Thanks for the reminder.

Problem is that the 0.25" semi rigid that I am working with has a tinned braid outer not a solid copper jacket and as such is quite easy to deform.

Pipe cutters work great with solid copper outer semi - rigid because sufficient force can be applied to stop any lateral movement of the blade during rotation.

Maybe there is a high quality version of the cheap pipe cutters available.

I don't want to get it wrong too often as it's expensive.

Regards

Conrad PA5Y

On 28 July 2016 10:34:10 CEST, "'Michael Scott' g3lyp@... [ukmicrowaves]" wrote:

Hi Conrad

 

A tip which Paul Wade published in MUD a year or so back was to use a small pipe cutter. I have had mixed success with it as it tends to round the edge of the copper which makes removing the waste bit more difficult. With care you can make a dent round the copper and use this as a guide for a knife or fine saw.

 

73, Mike, G3LYP

 

From: mailto:ukmicrowaves@...

Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 10:39 PM

To: ukmicrowaves@...

Subject: [ukmicrowaves] Dressing 0.25" Semi Rigid cable

 

 

Hello I have some N types to put on some PTFE based semi-rigid cable. It
has similar construction to RG402 and also has an FEP jacket. The
connectors are the correct ones from rf-microwave.com

The tinned braid outer is extremely tough and I need to make sure that I
can cut it very clean and square without any distortion. I suspect that
a very fine toothed saw of some type will be best.

Any advice?

Regards

Conrad PA5Y