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?

I took a grinding wheel spindle (for a die grinder) that was designed as a threaded screw (not your usual "button head bolt" that holds the disc on) and stuck 5 grinding disks on it and used a 1/2 hp air powered die grinder to notch by hand. I'd just cut straight in with a sawzall, then make 2 45-degree cuts with the same sawzall (leaving a "semi-notch") and then round it out with the grinder. Effecient? Not really. Did it work? Absolutely. It's cheap and saved buying a notcher.

That's how I did mine.

Heya, We bought a tubing notcher at Harbor frieght and had no problems with our cage. Don't chince on the hole saw blades cause it makes a difference. Cheap blades only works good for one tube. I love harbor freight!!!

My $.02
Liz

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.

Alright Cal ... sounds encouraging ...

I never got to 300 rpm ... I dropped it to 360, though.

I'm also gonna look at ways to further anchor the work table.
I used a ball peen hammer to tighten it down ...

And I was using ever so little force to drive the holesaw through.

It would start the cut and I could get a "smiley", but it never made it through the thickness of the tubing.

Similar to Trackbird's method, but use a chop saw instead. You can also use cutting wheels in a die grinder. I built my first motorcyle wheelie bar this way and it worked great. It's a little faster than a sawzall. Of course there is still the hand grind to clean up and make the fit right.

Yeah I think I had to really grunt on that table lock . . . usually put a large box-end wrench over the handle to get more leverage because I'm such a pu$$y, This drill press is one of the floor-standing units, right?

Yes, stands upright.

One thing I noticed was that the rack attached to the side of the main stand that the table rides up and down on via a gear or pinion drive, is not secured at all. It's wedged top and bottom with collars. So, it has no support to prevent it from rotating with the table.

Also, I'm gonna try and figure out how to use some sort of set screw or even a pin to better sercure it from rotation.

I also found a cone shaped grinding stone in a box of my Dad's stuff. I may attempt to chuck it up somehow, crank up the speed and see what happens after using either my chop or sawzall ...

Some of those old stone things are known for flying apart every now and then so I would keep the speed pretty low.

I'm captain of my school's SAE mini baja team and we're looking into buying a cutter that looks like a soda can and has teeth all the way around the perimeter. We saw a guy using one of them a while back but our budget was pretty crappy last year. I can't remember the name of it right now but you can chuck it in a mill and slowly move the tubing in as it chews away the correct shape. I'll see if I can get a pocture somewhere.

But last year we used a tubing notcher and some hole saws from Home Depot, the white bi-metal type and they did an OK job at best. We used 2 of them to build the whole car. Don't forget to use some type of cutting fluid to keep from binding.

if all else fails.. and you're cheap...

put a 4.5" - 7" grinder in a vise.. and just grind the shape you want... easy greasy

Big ass vice and a hole saw. Every few seconds throw a little all purpose oil on the saw. Worked like a champ.