hello and welcome to this next video in our series on trunking in previous videos we gave
a broad overview of this subject and in another video we looked at some common accessories and
also some slightly less common accessories that you'll use while you're working with this material
what we're going to cover in this video Jake so we're going to look at marking up
and cutting the trunking and we're going to look at two different methods of doing that
absolutely so we're going to see what happens when we cut it by hand with a hacksaw
probably the most important skill you can have when it comes to working with trunking but what
power tool are we going to use Jake i'm going to use the Milwaukee band saw absolutely so i'm a
little bit of a skeptic i'm not convinced that's going to cut trunking very well so we'll see if
i'm proved right or wrong now this may seem like a really simple thing to do but it's a fundamental
skill that you must develop if you're going to be working with trunking because if you cut things
incorrectly it's going to lead some big problems when you come to do your installation work on site
so i think we'll bring the camera in we'll get nice and close we will discuss the marking up
process and then we will show you how to cut nice and accurately so we have got all our tools and
equipment laid out in front of us ready to cut our trunking we've got a tape measure so we can
mark out the measurement that our trunking needs to be cut at we've got a combination square so we
can mark a line the full way around the trunking we're going to use a fine pencil to do that i'd
recommend using a fine pencil or a scribe what you don't want to do is use a marker pen so you end up
with a really thick line that way you won't know where your exact measurement is to cut
we've got a block of wood here to insert in the trunking when we put that in the vise
that'll stop the trunking from crushing in this vice we've got some magnetic soft jaws
to attach onto our vise again to stop us damaging the trunking while it's in the vise
we've then got our 24 teeth per inch hacksaw to cut the trunking the file for when we're done
to get rid of the sharp edges and we've got the zinc galvanizing spray to put that galvanizing
finish back on once we're done okay then Jake so we've said we're going to cut this piece
of trunking down but why do we need to can't we just volley it in at the length that it is
well a length of trunking comes at three meters we're not going to have every installation where
we need exactly three meters of trunking and that's it so we need to understand how to
cut that down yeah that makes sense and thanks for verifying the standard length of trunking
is three meters which may come in handy if you're sitting in a small classroom at a computer being
asked multiple choice questions in a timed environment that's three meters three meters
three meters of course some manufacturers do it at slightly different lengths but that is
the standard value so let's have a look at this then Jake so how are we going to start doing this
yep so i'm gonna cut this piece of trunking at 700 millimetres 700 millimetres again might that
be handy in certain circumstances with certain assessments yep definitely okay very good so
hopefully all the learners are taking note at this point now Jake you said you were going to
cut this at 700 millimetres and yet we've got a 70 on our tape measure there so why
is that that's right so 70 700 millimetres or 70 centimetres that's 100 millimetres 10 centimetres
excellent so that makes sense so 10 mil per centimetre gives us 700 mil right that's great
so we're finished with the tape measure we'll pop that down and we'll start with the next tool
so i've marked my line at 70 centimetres or 700 millimetres i've got my combination square i'm
now going to continue that line the entire way around the trunking okay and using the combi
square obviously means that that's going to be at 90 degrees on the trunking there yeah very good so
flipping the trunking over and obviously from that side you can then see the mark that you're making
and just carrying it on to the other side very nice and now we're on the third side
nice that you even marked up those little tiny lips there again that's important very good
and then we're just going to mark up the back face of this and there we've got one
marked up piece of trunking so we should have a line all the way around the meat up with itself
there we go happy days okay so time to start thinking about doing some cutting
so now i'm going to insert the block of wood into the trunk in before we put into the vise
and you're taking that just past the mark there i'm going to take it just past my mark
that's right yeah so we're not going to be cutting through the wood when we do this we've gone just
beyond where we're going to be cutting that makes sense so now that we've got our block of wood in
the trunking i'm going to take that insert into the vise and i noticed that as you're putting this
into the vice here Jake you're actually being very careful to make sure that those jaws are
gripping onto the timber on the inside and not that lip of the trunking why is that yeah that's
right and that's so we don't crush the trunking at all especially if we catch it on one of these
lips that's going to push that lip right in happy days okay so that's nice and securely
mounted in the vise yeah so now we're ready to start thinking about doing some cutting so now
the trunking's in the vise ready to cut i'm going to take my hacksaw and start cutting the trunking
okay so any information about this hacksaw blade here Jake in particular yeah so we've
mentioned in a previous video this is 24 teeth per inch it's a bi-metal blade very nice and
if we're getting really nice and close though you can see that actually those teeth they're kind of
point forwards don't they they're not symmetrical they do point in a forward direction that's right
yeah so they cut on the forward stroke so it's important to only apply pressure going forward
and not coming backwards yeah because if you do it pulling backwards you're gonna wreck
your hacksaw blade even worse than this one is already this is already in a bit of a state so
we'll forgive Jake if this isn't the neatest cut he ever does but you work with the tools is given
so we're going to put that onto our line now Jake and any tips on getting this nice and straight
and why we're not just cutting through in a wanna here yeah so i'm going to cut
one side at a time so i'm going to cut this side first once i'm full fully through this side i'm
going to flip the trunking in the vise cut the back side and so on um the reason i'm not going to
cut through all sides at once is if you if you're not familiar with cutting trunking you do you feel
it's a strong point of yours and this is really important to just do one side up once it's much
easier to keep your hacksaw straight absolutely yeah i always used to say to my learners if you
start straight you'll finish straight if you start one key or finish one key and of course
we want to keep this blade here we want to keep that cut at a nice shallow angle to the metal
so we don't get that dreadful screeching sound as we're cutting through this at a right angle
so i'm just going to start off the slow strokes till i get going
and as we as we said Joe just keeping that shallow angle
those back teeth create that groove there yeah so it's uh it helps your
hacksaw stay straight it keeps you it keeps you guided really excellent
so that's one side cut through i'll flip that now and continue
excellent so we just flipped that through 90 degrees and
now we're going to cut through this back edge
of course as you get a little bit more experienced at this you'll be able to cut through this perhaps
in a wanna maybe you'll be able to just move your hacksaw around instead of moving
the trunking around in every case however we are aiming to help people
who perhaps aren't as familiar with trunking as they could be
and so perhaps they're just starting out in terms of their skills on this type of material
there we go and that is a nice neat cut so we've got that last bit off there it's always a struggle
but we managed to get off without causing any kind of damage or denting
to the trunking there which is absolutely fantastic now at this point because we're
starting to handle the trunking with a cut edge now that edge will be super sharp so before we do
anything else we're going to pop some gloves on to make sure that we don't end up injuring ourselves
so we've got our piece of trunking cut i'm gonna go ahead and file that remove any sharp edges now
now we'll go ahead and take our zinc galvanizing spray and spray this cut edge up
so before i do that i've got my gloves and goggles on i'm going to put my mask on
that's absolutely excellent works obviously we don't want to be inhaling these fumes here because
they're pretty nasty but an essential bit of work now
there we go again one of those situations where less is more so we're not looking to be tagging
up the trunking with your uh graffiti there we're just looking for that nice spray up to make sure
that there's no cut edges left on display there that is top work Jake welcome okay so this is the
end of trunking that Jake just did a really nice neat job of showing us how to mark up accurately
how to cut it nice and square and then how to treat it after the cut to make sure that we
don't end up with any sharp edges or rust forming on there at all so that is really the main point
of this video covered but now it's time to close the video out with a little bit of fun so we're
going to have a go with the Milwaukee portable bandsaw and we're going to see just exactly if
this is any good for cutting through trunking so arm yourself Jake i am a little bit of a cynic
here i'm not convinced that this is such a great bit of kit but we're going to see if i'm wrong so
we've got that guard at the back pressed up nice and hard against the trunk in yeah on you go Jake
well it's definitely quick okay it's much quicker so let's have a look it's quick it's noisy
now in terms of squareness we think maybe a little bit of practice maybe in order so we've drifted
from the line a little bit there but i think uh maybe i think this is only the third time you've
ever used this so we're going to let you off with that and we'll suggest that with a bit more
practice uh it certainly is a lot quicker so we'll see how that unfolds as a part of the industry
happy days so in this video we've seen how to develop some of those absolutely fundamental
skills that you must have if you're going to be working with metal trunking Jake's showing us how
to measure up nice and accurately he's showing us how to cut nice and square and he's also showing
us how to treat that cut edge afterwards to make sure that it isn't prone to rust and to make
sure there's no sharp edges that could damage our cable so thank you very much for joining us again
Jake good to have you with us but of course there's plenty more content to come
in this series so stay tuned for that over the coming weeks as we feed that out to you but as
always we want to hear from you the viewer so do you have any questions or comments about what
we've done in this video maybe you disagree with some of the methods that we've used maybe you've
got a top tip or a really nice tool that helps you with your trunking installations that you'd
like to share with us whatever those questions whatever those thoughts please leave them in the
comments section below and of course Jake we'll get back to all of those for you but as always all
that remains to say in this video is thankyou very much for watching again that is my line