[mitchntx]

I have a cheap 16" drill press.

I bought a metal hole saw, jigged up a piece of tubing and attmpted to notch the end.

The hole saw would just catch the tubing and bind.
It appears the table isn't stable enough as it will move slightly.

I looked at a tubing notcher. But the one I saw jigs up to a drill press and I can forsee the same issues.

I can plasma cut and grind, but damn that is labor intensive.

How about sanding rolls? rock cylinders?

What is out there?

[Cal]

I used a hole saw and drill press to notch my chromoly cage, and it worked great. I think my drill press is the same size as yours, but I held the work piece in a heavy duty drill press vise that was securley bolted to an x-y table. The X-y table is very heavy, so maybe it's mass helped as well. This worked so well, I could see no reason to buy a notcher. I think if you are having that problem, you don't have a stiff enough setup for holding the tube. Try to get the lock-down on the table tighter too. You also need the bi-metal, white painted hole cutter. Also, make sure the speed is set very low; I think I used 300 rpm. You do this because the diameter of the hole saw is much bigger than a drill bit, otherwise the linear velocity will be way to high.

Before I did mine, I talked to a shop that builds Legend cars, and asked how they did it. They use the drill press hole cutter method also, so I think it's a good method with the right setup.