Written by: Dan Craychee, product manager, Continental Pipe & Tube Cut-Off Machines
October, 2025- For over 40 years, Rabbit Tool’s rotary cut-off machines have been used by fabricators of all sizes for fast, clean cuts on round pipe and tube. In 2022, Continental Pipe & Tube CutOff Machines acquired a series of Rabbit Tool’s products, which work in the same manner as our core line of rotary cut-offs but are smaller and more economicalideal for customers that are not cutting constantly. Continental will now produce and support these machines, including new products, replacement parts and technical support. Because Continental is a manufacturing company, staffed with manufacturing people, we respect how operators can become a ached to dependable, older machines. We didn’t want to see a line of quality machines fade away simply because operators could no longer get parts and consumables.
SIMPLE OPERATION
In sales meetings, many customers reveal their struggles with labor challenges. Rabbit Tool cut-offs are simple, robust machines, with only a few settings and do not require programming. This ease of operation allows less-experienced operators to run the machines, as well as helps job shops and service centers manage personnel scheduling. Maintenance is also easy, and most customers maintain and service the machines themselves.
Continental equipment, including the Rabbit Tool line, uses the rotary cut-off method, with a smooth, beveled bladeno teeth. Unlike other pipe and tube cutting methods, these machines spin the pipe and roll a groove into it until it separates, revealing a smooth, burr-free cut. Other advantages include clean work areas and long blade life.
The Rabbit Tool line can be used for a wide range of applications, including cutting off the ends of pipes for chain link fencing, heat exchanger piping, custom exhaust systems, fire sprinklers and handrails for buses. It encompasses the Supercutter tube cut-off machines, DB-Series tube end deburring machines and PR-Series tube end pinch-roll machines. The K250 and K400 Supercutters can cut through tube up to 3-in. diameters, and 4.5-in.- diameter tube and pipe, respectively.
The deburring and pinch-roll machines support similar size pipe and tube. Pinch-roll machines are a new offering for Continental and are a good option for customers cutting thin-wall pipe. Sometimes in these applications, the end will crimp or pinch, and the Rabbit Tool incorporates a function at the end of the cut that removes, or reverses, this pinch.
Most Continental and Rabbit Tool cut-offs are performed in under 10 seconds, compared to roughly five minutes that it can take a band saw to cut a similar pipe. And Continental anticipates adding automation to its Rabbit Tool offering in the future. Continental’s equipment uses a rotary-cutoff method for a smooth, burr-free cut.
SERVICE AND SUPPORT
After the 2022 acquisition, the Continental team spent about a year incorporating Rabbit Tool parts—moving production from paper drawings to digital files. Continental has been making Rabbit Tool parts and manufacturing machines for over a year, and the new equipment is running on customers’ shop floors. We are also stocking blades and other replacement parts for customers that have had trouble finding consumables in the past. The goal is to help current and future users of Rabbit Tool products to keep their machines running for many years.
Continental is proud to have been given the opportunity to support a workhorse of a product line for a lot of customers—a line that has been used for years. We are focused on bringing Rabbit Tool to a new generation of users.
Continental Pipe & Tube Cut-Off Machines, 630/543-7170, continentalcutoff.com.
