hey guys looking at upgrading my pulley on my 12 yr old electric downrigger. I bought the Scotty "Replacement Pulley kit" but it requires the tip of the boom to be cut off to insert the adapters,etc.

What out there can I use to cut the thick walled stainless steel tubing on the downrigger? Was thinking of a medium size pipe cutter but will it but a dent in SS?

Thanks again!

Yes the pipe cutters should work. go slow and increase the tension on the pipe cutter only a little at a time to avoid denting the ss boom.

I haven't used the pipe cutters, but cut stainless periodically with abrasive disc cutters quite sucessfully. A trick shown to me years ago regarding cutting a tube (applies VERY WELL to large tubes) is to take a known squarely-cut sheet of paper (longer than the circumference of the tube) and wrap the tube with it with the edge of the paper on the proposed cut line. By lining up the paper edge as it is wrapped around the tube, the line it forms will be a perfect 90 degree cut-line.

Zip disk on a grinder, make sure you use a disk that hasn't been used on carbon steel, or the stainless will rust, you can use tubing cutters on thin wall stainless tube, what's the od of the pipe and wall thickness?

i replaced my pulley on scotty with out having to cut off? Why not place on vise and use the vise edge as cutting guide using hacksaw.

I too replaced the old pulley when the cable kept jumping off and getting stuck on the axle. I used my heat gun on the boom and was able to pull it off.

Mine has the red tip insert and a roughly 1" x 1/4" SS small rod-tip coming out and looks like it also has a permanant non-removable rivet of some kind going into the side about 1/2" in from the edge.

Its solid and cannot be removed by anykind of visegrip,etc. Cannot put on a vise and cut with a hacksaw, unless I remove the entire boom from the downrigger,etc. I'm gonna call my plumber buddy to see if he has a heavy duty pipe cutter and go to town with that.

good luck cutting that thing with a pipe cutter, I had to drill mine to mount the rod holders and went through several new drill bits. hardest stainless i have ever worked with. you will end up buying your friend new wheels for his pipe cutter. abrasive disk is the way to go as i doubt a hack saw would do it either.

I sense a learning experience in the making.

Give Scotty a call and see what they recommend. They might have a simple solution.....

mine was an older scotty and when I replaced the pully there was a black plug in the end of the boom, I used a big punch and just drove it into the boom. Can't remeber how it was secured, a little screw maybe? But I used vice grips to chew up the end then just pounded it in, figured it wouldn't hurt anything in there.

Use a bandsaw or portaband. a pipe cutter will work to i use them at work and iv used them on rigid metal electrical conduit and they work. but yea they dull the blades and there not made for it but will work.

Stainless seems to change properties when it gets hot. Drill very slow and use a cutting oil often.

I cut s/s all the time ant typically use an abrasive cut-off wheel. Wrap a strip of paper as SH mentioned to get a straight line and go for it. The metal may turn blue on you a little, but you can clean it up. Just remember heat is the enemy.

S/S does not react well to heat and will burn up a drill bit in seconds if you go wyde clyde. I use a good sharp bit and "bump" (fast/slow, off/on senario) the drill while keeping good pressure on it. I drill 1/4" 304 s/s all the time and use the same bit over and over.

There are two types of s/s. 300 & 400 series. 300 is cheaper, magnetice and WILL rust. 400 is food grade, is non-magnetic and wont rust, unless as someone mentioned you use a cut-off wheel with steel particles in it.