Seeking a Special Chop or Cut-Off Saw

generic term is a 'cold saw'

$1300

Yowza- $5000 for the base model (but its a 14 inch, larger than the ones I posted)

Dave

Joe, Cold saws have been around for a while. Not familiar with the specific one referred to.

You can also do the aluminum/steel cutting just by changing the blade. These were really a big deal a few years ago. google for aluminum chopsaw/skilsaw? I did a quick search and couldn't find the really popular one. Aluminator is one trade name.

The one I remember a few years ago, they were using a simple hand skilsaw, with this wicked blade, and ripping through 1/4" & thicker aluminum plate like hard butter. It was pretty amazing. they were called shark, alumashark, raptor, something et...

ca

Joe AutoDrill wrote:

Brobo is the one I remember:

Joe, You are talking about a cold saw. The blade turns between 30 to 80 rpm or so. It is really a milling operation. The cut is very smooth and can be virtually burr free. I've owned 2 SOCOs, a Taiwanese saw but were quite good quality. The first was auto feed. I once cut 100 pieces of 1-5/8" cold rolled steel with it, and the machinist measured every one, because he couldn't believe a saw could hold +- 0.001" over 100 pieces!

The second one was a manual machine with a swivel vice and I cut mostly aluminum and stainless.

To cut a wide range of materials requires at least 3 different blade pitches. Too fine and the chip rolls up in the gullet, seizes, and BANG the blade shatters! Too coarse and the teeth get broken off easily. Blades cost about $90 but get resharpened for $10 a pop. After they have been sharpened maybe 10 times they will grind off all the teeth and cut all new ones, costs about $20 extra. So the blades last a really long time.

A dull blade can shatter as well. For production you really want 9 blades,

Cold saws are great. In my case I used it to eliminate the machining of both ends of round and rectangular parts by cutting to exact size with a beautiful finish.

If you have any questions, email me.

Gary H. Lucas

Scotchman makes a nice cold saw. I have one I use on aluminum, which works fantastically. I don't cut steel. Scotchman is American made.

Is Scotchman the same as Thomas?

Thomas makes a beautiful one, centering vise, 2 speed: slow and slower. Pricey, even used. Very heavy, nice to work with. Uses the weight of the motor head to drive through the work, with a arbor-press like handle to lift, or apply more force. Blades are pricey as well, $30+ just to have sharpened.

For thinner alum bar or tube, a regular chop saw + wax works well. or RAS. Can also use on thicker stuff, if you're careful.

There's another kind of saw, like a chop saw on effing steroids, pneumatic (iirc), that will cut through 3" bar alum in seconds, using carbide blades and high-velocity water mist. Sort of unnerving to use, tho, it's so ferocious--and loud, even with muffs.

You want a cold saw. I'm partial to the Scotchman ones. We used to use a regular woodworking miter saw with a stock fine tooth carbide blade to cut aluminum extrusions, but after someone used too fast a feed and sent a couple saw teeth flying into the wall, we finally looked into getting one. They basically work like a large slitting saw in a milling machine.