Tube laser cutting, quoted as the welded frame — not a pile of sticks.

Round, square and rectangular tube cut on a rotary fiber laser — length, holes, copes, miters and slots in one program — then MIG/TIG welded into the finished frame. One engineer owns the whole part, from the first stick to the squareness check.

Get my tube cutting quote →See profiles & sizes ↓

Quick definition

Tube laser cutting runs round, square or rectangular tube through a fiber laser with a rotary axis, so one program cuts each member to length and adds every hole, slot, cope and miter along the way — work that otherwise takes a saw, a drill press and a grinder in separate steps. And because the cut parts locate each other, it pairs naturally with welding: the same quote covers the sticks and the finished, welded frame.

One frameMembers that locate each other
Cut, coped and welded as one job — priced as the frame, not per stick.
±0.1mmtypical tolerance on holes, slots and copes — laser-cut, not drilled and ground by hand
Ø12–220mmround tube capacity; square and rectangular profiles run to comparable sizes
1 programlength, holes, copes, miters and tabs on every member — no saw, drill press or grinding queue
Cut + weldedMIG and TIG welding under the same quote, so a frame arrives as one part — not a kit

What comes off the line

Every slot cut in the same program that cut the members.

The perforations, obround slots and mounting holes are all cut before anything is welded — so the panels and members locate each other, and the frame goes together square without a jig.

Brushed stainless enclosure frame with laser-cut obround slots, mounting holes and perforated vent panels, welded into one rigid box
Laser-cut slots, holes and vent perforations, welded into a single rigid frame — cut and joined as one job, priced as the frame rather than the stick.

Quoted as the frame, not per stick

A welded frame is one part. Most quotes treat it as twelve.

Send a tube frame out the usual way and it turns into a supply chain: saw-cut lengths from one shop, drilled holes from another, hand-ground copes, then a welder who re-measures everything and builds a fixture just to hold it square. Send the same STEP file to OperGo and one program cuts every feature on every member, the joints locate themselves, and the frame is welded and checked under the same quote.

Saw, drill, grind, jig
  • Lengths saw-cut at one shop, holes drilled at another, copes ground to fit by hand at a third
  • A separate welding vendor who re-measures everything and builds a fixture just to hold the frame square
  • Instant quoters that reject tube outright — or price each stick as if it were an isolated part
  • No single owner if the welded frame doesn't come out square
The OperGo way
  • One program cuts length, holes, copes, miters and slots on every member of the frame
  • Tab-and-slot joints cut into the parts themselves, so the frame locates itself for welding — square without a custom fixture
  • MIG/TIG welding specified against the same drawing and priced in the same quote as the cutting
  • One engineer owns the finished frame — squareness, weld spec and finish included

What we run

From a single coped stick to the finished weldment.

Rotary fiber laser cutting

Round, square, rectangular and oval tube plus open profiles like angle and channel, cut directly from your STEP file — length, holes and cutouts in one pass.

Copes, miters & joints

Saddle copes where round meets round, miters at frame corners, and tab-and-slot joints that make each member drop into the next in only one position.

Welding & weldments

MIG for steel frames, TIG for stainless and aluminum — welded, checked for squareness and dressed where the finish calls for it, under the same quote.

Beyond the tube laser

A member that's really flat sheet moves to laser cutting, a curved one to tube bending, a solid bar to CNC — your engineer splits the job across processes at quoting.

The spec sheet

Profiles, sizes and welding we run.

Profiles & welding · Tube laser cuttingcut + welded
Carbon steel tubeMild steel and S235/S355 structural tube in round, square and rectangular sections — wall thickness 1mm to 8mm, MIG welded.
Stainless steel tube304 and 316L round and square tube, wall 1mm to 5mm — TIG welded, with welds dressed or polished where the part is visible or washed down.
Aluminum tube6060 and 6082 round and square tube, wall 1mm to 5mm — TIG welded; anodizing or powder coating specified under the same quote.
Profiles & sizesRound tube Ø12mm to Ø220mm, square sections up to 150×150mm, rectangular up to 200×100mm, from stock lengths up to 6m — confirmed against the exact machine at quoting.
WeldingMIG and TIG weldments built from the cut members, using the tab-and-slot and coped joints cut by the laser itself as the fixture. Weld callouts read straight from your 2D drawing.
ToleranceCut features typically ±0.1mm; hole-to-hole and cope positions cut in the same program stay in tolerance across every stick. Frame squareness checked against the drawing after welding.

Full range of materials and finishes on Materials & finishes →

Picking a process

The tube laser is the right call — until it isn't.

Tube laser vs. flat laser cutting →

Flat sheet runs on a flat-bed laser; closed profiles need the rotary axis. If your part is a plate, a panel or a bracket, it belongs on the sheet laser — this page is for anything with a hollow section.

Welded corners vs. bent tube →

A frame of straight members and welded nodes suits tight corners and complex junctions. When a member just needs to curve, one continuous bent tube is stronger and cleaner than cutting and welding it — that's tube bending.

Still not sure?

Send the frame and an engineer splits it for you — which members run on the tube laser, which get bent, and where the welds go. Opening this page doesn't commit you to one process.

Tube laser cutting, answered

What is tube laser cutting, and how is it different from flat laser cutting?

A flat-bed laser cuts 2D parts out of sheet; a tube laser adds a rotary axis that spins the tube under the beam. That means one program cuts each member to length and adds every hole, slot, cope and miter around the full circumference — operations that otherwise need a saw, a drill press and hand grinding, each with its own setup and its own tolerance stack.

Do you weld the frames too, or just cut the sticks?

Both, under one quote. The laser cuts tab-and-slot and coped joints into the members, the frame is assembled and MIG or TIG welded, checked for squareness and dressed where the finish requires it. You can order sticks only if you weld in-house — but the default offer is the finished weldment.

What are tab-and-slot joints, and why do they matter?

Tabs cut into one member drop into slots cut into the next, so every joint locates itself in exactly one position. The frame self-fixtures: it goes together square without a custom welding jig, which cuts both the welding cost and the risk of a frame that measures right stick-by-stick but wrong as an assembly.

What tube sizes and profiles can you cut?

Round tube from Ø12mm up to Ø220mm, square sections up to 150×150mm and rectangular up to 200×100mm, from stock lengths up to 6m, plus open profiles like angle and channel. Exact limits depend on the machine your job runs on, so your engineer confirms them at quoting.

What files do I need to send?

A STEP file of the frame or the individual members, plus a 2D PDF drawing carrying the critical dimensions and weld callouts. The programming for the tube laser is generated from your STEP geometry — no need to unfold or redraw anything per member.

What's the minimum order quantity?

There's no fixed minimum — price is what naturally limits a very small order, not a policy. One welded frame is quoted the same way a production run of them is.

What if some members of my frame are bent, not straight?

Then the job is split, not rejected: straight members run on the tube laser, curved ones on a CNC tube bender, and everything comes back together at welding — one quote, one invoice, one finished frame. Your engineer decides the split at quoting; see Tube Bending for how the curved members are formed.

Curved members? Tube bending →

When a corner should be formed from one continuous tube instead of cut and welded.

Flat parts? Laser cutting →

Sheet runs on the flat-bed laser, nested to cut cost — brackets, plates and panels.

See all capabilities →

Tube bending, sheet metal, CNC machining and everything else we run.

Materials × process

Materials we run in tube laser cutting.

Sourced, produced and finished under one quote. Tap a material to see the other processes it runs on — material and process are two axes you combine, not one nested inside the other.

SteelStainless SteelAluminumAll materials & finishes →

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