need some tips cuttin carbon fibre tubes

[doobie]

bought a set of the LALA arms off him couple yrs ago for my discovery pro when he was doin them on a thread here. finally come around to some free time to spare here and thought I'd finally start putting this thing together. I need to cut 4 of these 20mm tubes down in length and was wondering what the easiest and cleanest way to cut these and leave a nice finish in the process. kinda wonderin if one could use a plumbers style pipe cutter?? any tips guy's???

[Tronski]

All I have heard is underwater with a hacksaw blade in your hand. The dust is not good to breath in. I would imagine if you went slow it would be a clean cut. I did some arrow shafts and did not take my time they still came out alright.

[Kreskin]

Hey, wrap painters tape around it and mark it and cut it. I use a dremel...hacksaw might work..need the small teeth. Rotate the tube as you cut. You'll see what I mean and very light saw pressure. Don't inhale the dust or you'll be dead by morning.

[doobie]

I thought of the hacksaw but I don't think I could get a nice square cut. ya I've heard the dust can be nasty stuff in the lungs

[doobie]

thanx kreskin tape's a great idea the stuff looks pretty brittle

[Kreskin]

I would sand it if I wasn't happy with the cut.

[Derrick]

Tape helps, I tend to use my band saw, and score all around the cut. prior to cutting through. This keeps the tube from fraying.

[Beerwiser]

I coat the cut area with lots of vaseline and use a metal cutting disc, dremel or 6" makita. Works well.

[doobie]

all great tips!!! thanx. ill probably try scoring it with the pipe cutter, then tape it and see if I have a fine tooth blade for the bandsaw at the shop. if not ill hit it with the 6' Makita with a cutoff disc. then water sand the the cut nice and square using a sanding block.

[Roboforcer X2000]

You won't be able to cut square manually so leave 1-2mm for sanding to make it square. Exact square cuts can be done only on lathe, the rest is good enough for this application.
Masking tape around makes a cleaner cut definitely. I use either hacksaw or fretsaw, but not cutting all the way through the end- when you cut a tube half way, it starts splitting layers on the inside of the tube. Finer teeth hacksaw obviously better, but still... The trick is to cut the tube only until it is through the wall, turn it a bit and cut again, and son on. This way hacksaw teeth goes along the wall rather than across splitting layers.
That's how you cut when you're too lazy to change Dremel's bit, but if you're not as lazy as me, then cleanest/best cut of CF tube is done with Dremel with angle grinder like abrasive disc.
Of course you should cut in front of your hoover hose coz I doubt that you'll be bringing it to your bath to cut it underwater. I'd say your rubber duckies won't be impressed and you won't see anything anyway through your bubble gum bath bubbles