Pipe cutting (mild carbon steel pipes)

[5hant]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for some pipe, 3.5m in length. The material is JIS G3101 SS400, which is a Japanese mild carbon steel. The pipe is about 9cm thick (ext diameter), about 7.5cm hollow area (int diameter). The thickness is about 6mm.

Now the supplier can provide everything correctly, except the length of the tube. I want 4m, and he can only offer 4.5m or greater.

So I have two questions.

1. Why can he not offer 4m pipes?
2. Is there any reason why I cannot buy 8m pipes and then have them cut somewhere (else)?

I mean, is cutting pipes of mild carbon steel a particularly difficult thing? Can I take the stuff to a cutter and say.. "Now cut!"

(Please bear in mind that I'm buying several tons of the stuff, about a kilometer's worth of the pipe...)

Thanks as always!
Shant

 

[nickelkid]

Find someone to cut it, it sounds like your supplier oriented to only providing random lengths from the mill, not uncommon. That may be one of the reasons he has a low price.

 

[Bribyk]

If you don't require threads, a band saw or chop saw will easily cut to length.

 

[redpicker]

> 1. Why can he not offer 4m pipes?

I would guess that it is a material handling issue for your supplier. He probably has some limitiation (such as conveyers or supports built on 2m centers) that makes it very difficult to handle lengths less than 4.5m


> 2. Is there any reason why I cannot buy 8m pipes and
> then have them cut somewhere (else)?

Only cost.

You might try asking these questions to your supplier's representative. It's possible they won't be able (or willing) to tell you, but they might not be able to explain the reasons and also offer a processor that has the capabilities of cutting them to length for you.

rp