Pipe & Tubing Cutters, Saws & Knives

Fifty-four cutting tools for plumbing and mechanical work, from Milwaukee Tools (37), REED Manufacturing (15) and Mill Rose (2). The page holds two families that share a job site but nothing else: 34 items for cutting pipe and tube - 13 cutters, 17 replacement cutter wheels and reaming blades, and 4 PVC reamers - plus 20 general cutting tools: 11 utility knives, 3 blade packs, 3 saws and 3 snips and scissors.

A tubing cutter is chosen by clearance, not capacity

Every copper pipe cutter lists a capacity, and that number is the least useful thing about it. What decides the purchase is how much room the tool needs to make one full turn around the pipe. Milwaukee splits its copper tubing cutter range into four designs for exactly that reason. The mini cutters (48-22-4250 at 1/2", 48-22-4251 at 1") are the smallest sweep. Constant swing (48-22-4259 at 1", 48-22-4252 at 1-1/2") keeps the same handle arc as the pipe shrinks, so you are not re-gripping every two turns. Quick adjust (48-22-4253 at 2-1/2", 48-22-4254 at 3-1/2") trades sweep for speed on large diameters. A tube cutter rated for 2-1/2" is useless in a joist bay; a 1/2" mini is useless on a 2" main. Most trucks carry both.

Close quarters is a separate tool, not a smaller one

The close quarters tubing cutter is the one you reach for when the pipe is against a stud, behind a toilet flange or inside a wall cavity. It has almost no handle - you turn the body itself - and it cuts one size only. That is why they are sold in sizes rather than ranges: 48-22-4260 for 1/2", 48-22-4261 for 3/4" and 48-22-4262 for 1". If you are outfitting a truck, the 3-piece set 48-22-4267 covers all three for less than buying them separately. The trade-off is real: a close quarters cutter takes many more revolutions than a standard pipe cutter, so it is a repair tool, not a rough-in tool.

Cutter wheels are consumables, and they are material-specific

A dull wheel does not stop cutting - it starts crushing, which work-hardens the copper and leaves a lip the reamer cannot clean up. Milwaukee makes the cutter wheel replacements by cutter family: 48-22-4203 for the standard tubing cutter, 48-22-4256 as a 2-pack, and 48-22-4266 as a 2-pack for the close quarters line. The 48-22-4206 wheel is the one people get wrong - it is ground for PVC and PEX, not copper, and putting a copper wheel on plastic gives you a melted ridge instead of a cut. Reaming blades for the integral reamer are 48-22-4257 (3-piece), and 48-22-4255 is the standalone reaming pen.

REED wheels are named for the cutter they fit

REED does not name its wheels after the pipe. It names them after the cutter, which is why the listings read RS1B, 2RBS, OSS, SC1B, SC49-6, SC49-8 and SC59-6 rather than "1/2 inch copper". Buy by the tool you already own. The RS1B 2-pack covers copper, CTS and CPVC; the SC59-6 is the PVC wheel. The DEB4 replacement blade and DEB1 roller pin are service parts for the same family, and the LCRC12S shaft extension adds 11-1/2" of reach for cuts you cannot get a body onto.

Reaming is the step that gets skipped

Cut Schedule 40 PVC and the wheel or saw leaves a burr on the inside diameter. That burr does two things: it creates turbulence that shows up as noise and, over years, as erosion at the joint; and it scrapes solvent cement off the fitting socket as the pipe goes home, which is how a properly glued joint still fails. A PVC pipe reamer takes about four seconds. REED covers Sch. 40 PVC, CPVC and ABS at 1-1/2", 2", 3" and 4". For pipe already in the ground, the IC1SL internal PVC pipe saw blade cuts from inside the bore where no cutter will fit.

PEX takes a scissor, not a wheel

A rolling wheel deforms cross-linked polyethylene instead of parting it, and a deformed end will not seat square in a crimp ring or an expansion cone. Use a dedicated PEX cutter: the Mill Rose 73003 scissor action cutter, or the Milwaukee 48-22-4206 wheel if you are cutting on a tubing cutter you already own. A square cut matters more on PEX than on copper, because the connection is mechanical - see our F1807 crimp fittings and F1960 expansion fittings for what the cut end has to seal against, and PEX tools for the crimpers, expanders and go/no-go gauges. The Mill Rose 73002 is the copper counterpart, a 1" O.D. ratchet action tube cutter for spots where you cannot swing a handle at all.

Utility knives and blades

Milwaukee's FASTBACK line is eleven variations on one hinge. The 48-22-1500 is the compact body; 48-22-1501 the full size; 48-22-1502 adds blade storage in the handle; 48-22-1503 is the two-knife set; 48-22-1505 is the 6-in-1 with a driver in the handle; 48-22-1540 the 5-in-1. The 48-22-1530 and camo 48-22-1535 are spring assisted, and 48-22-1520 is the plain folding knife. Outside the FASTBACK family, 48-22-1512 is a self-retracting utility knife - the blade withdraws when you let go, which some job sites require - and 48-22-1516 is the compact side slide. Blades come as a 5-pack (48-22-1905), a 50-pack with dispenser (48-22-1950) and a 100-pack with dispenser (48-22-1900).

Saws, snips and scissors

Three saws: the 48-22-0012 compact hack saw for inside cabinets, the 48-22-0050 12" high tension hacksaw for anything you need to cut straight, and the 48-22-0104 rasping jab saw for drywall and the odd bit of board. Cutting metal studs, duct and flashing is what the aviation snips are for - 48-22-4560 straight cut, 48-22-4552 right cutting offset - and the 48-22-4047 jobsite offset scissors handle insulation, membrane and banding. For powered cutting, the Sawzall and Hackzall blades and hole saws are on their own pages.

Related

For the rest of the trade kit see press tools and jaws, wrenches and solder and soldering. The full Milwaukee Tools range runs to 764 items, and the complete tools department to 1,323.