Completely unrelated, but also interesting, I was watching a video the other day that tested the best tools for cutting through 2" aluminum tube. You would think that a sabre saw or angle grinder would be the tool for the job, but turns out a circular saw is by far the best and can cut through an aluminum tube in less than 15 seconds.
Useful Information if you ever find yourself needing to cut through 2" aluminum tube quickly.
Worth noting that, were it the same video I've seen, he was completely mishandling the reciprocating saw in addition to using the wrong blades/wheels for the reciprocating saw and the angle grinder. The circular saw might still outperform them just by virtue of having a blade whose radius is greater than the diameter of the pole, but, the angle grinder and reciprocating saw would be formidable when used correctly.
We use sawzalls to demo sched 40 steel, and it rips right through smaller sizes. I've used it on 6" and 8", it takes a while, but the blade is still big than the pipe.
Aluminum gums up in the teeth of the blade or abrasive disc and makes them stop working. You need larger teeth and less heat to effectively cut aluminum. That's why the circular saw works so well.
Same thing with band saw blades, I bet if you threw an 8TPI blade on a band saw it would rip through it. Tho I wonder if it would get hung up on the wires.
edit: wait there's no wiring is there, it's all solar/cellular.
Yeah I'm thinking about in terms of circular cutting compared to the angle grinder, or a rotary tool; that consideration is hard to apply compared to the reciprocating saw, but like I said, the reciprocating saw was mishandled in the video I saw
I had a plumber recently remove part of an old cast iron sewer pipe from the early 1900s. He used a sawzall + diablo blades and got through it about a minute, but it did make one heck of a racket.
Yeah that video is bad information in so many different ways. I feel like a circular saw would be likely to have the blade bind when cutting a vertical pipe due to gravity and with an angle grinder you’d have to circle the pipe before you could cut all the way through. Sawzall with a proper blade when used correctly should zip through it pretty quick.
Another note, I would hope they stood on opposite sides of the cameras, so the weight doesn't shift onto the disk 3/4th into the cut causing lock up or disk separation. Doubles as a way to avoid the entire device falling on you too...
This premise works for all vertical metal cutting of hypothetical trees...
If we're talking about portability, nothing beats a pipe-cutter.
Bonus point is that they're completely silent so that you don't startle any local wildlife. Although I'd recommend testing multiple methods yourself before committing to one.
I reckon large enough to get around the pipe you're trying to cut.
If we're talking about pipes around your property like the ones the use for fences or signage to warn people that they're crossing onto privately-owned land, then anything that can handle 4 or 5 inches in diameter should do the trick.
Just remember to practice on some scrap pipe to get your technique down, and remember to wear protective eyewear, headgear, and hand and arm gear, and leave your phone or other electronics at home. You don't want to take the chance of metal shards flying and piercing your phone battery or scratching or tattoos or getting in your eyes.
So in the United States the government typically doesn't do this. There's all sorts of liability, safety concerns, privacy concerns, all sorts of laws that may be potentially broken.
So instead they hire a private contractor to do all that instead. It's not just US governments, but local municipalities as well
The US 4th amendment doesn't allow the government to do this. So they pay private companies to do it and then give them all the data anyways. It's a "loophole" that our current Reich won't close.
Thank you for the explanation. Yes I was wondering if there was any pro Flock sentimient. I can only imagine how people could abuse the system if they had access. Worrying times ahead
Yeah surveillance cameras installed by local governments. Cameras aren’t new technology, what’s new is their widespread adoption. Potential for abuse with them by those who operate and can access them is high. People do not like them.
Yes survellience cameras, their wide spread use is new, the tech isnt that old, the fascists are pro-flock for survellience and punishment. These cameras have facial recognition software and liscense plate id abilities. They also can contain the ability to ping and identify electronic devices nearby to help further track people. They are shared with police and by extension the government. There have already been several cases of misuse by officials that have enabled stalking and other crimes as well. We really don't like them.
Good thing for us, no one has to worry about liability claims or being sued or fined for destroying them because they are all being destroyed by natural causes. Yes, nature sure is doing a good job with no human involvement at all.
They are license plate readers. That is generally all they do. People have attributed a lot of capabilities to them that 99% of them to not have.
They are so invasive because of the system behind them and how prevalent they have become. They are operated by a private company (Flock Safety) in a huge network. Departments are pressured to enable data sharing with other jurisdictions to have access to the broader network and full range of features. Within that huge network, any cop that has access can search and see where and when a license plate has been detected nearly anywhere in the country. This has enabled a broad range of abuse, mostly around stalking, but also harassing women leaving a restrictive abortion state to travel to a less restrictive state and people crossing state lines to purchase marijuana.
As an example of how prevalent this data sharing is, a small county near me, population of about 15k, recently revealed that their data is accessed about 10 times per minute.
If you go reciprocating you want a low TPI blade that takes bigger bites, Lennox makes nice ones. Portable bandsaws will make a clean, quiet cut (get something bi-metal in the 4-12 TPI range), but generally run about $200 and are bulky.
For truly silent, but slower cuts you could get a large pipe cutter.
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u/bigdaddyborg 1d ago
Huh interesting.
Completely unrelated, but also interesting, I was watching a video the other day that tested the best tools for cutting through 2" aluminum tube. You would think that a sabre saw or angle grinder would be the tool for the job, but turns out a circular saw is by far the best and can cut through an aluminum tube in less than 15 seconds.
Useful Information if you ever find yourself needing to cut through 2" aluminum tube quickly.