Saws for metal

For larger bar stock, the bandsaw is generally used.
For smaller stock, say 1", can you use a chop-type rotary saw? They are much cheaper, but I don't know about toothed blades for metal. I have one with an abrasive blade, but it isn't very effective or economic.
Also, I have to cut quite a lot of 1mm or less wall thickness tubing, up to 3/4 " diameter - any suggestions?
Thanks,
-- Peter Fairbrother

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What I use for cutting metal is my 9" angle grinder held in one of Aminster's stands, see link.
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Axminster-Angle-Grinder-Stands-20849.htm
It is brilliant, recently choped through a piece of 3" X 3/8" angle iron like the proverbial 'knife through butter', although it uses up discs at quite a rate when doing this sort of thing. It produces neat square cuts and does have the facility to cut angles up to 45deg. It is also a cheap way of getting a 'chop saw'. I also use mine with a saw blade for cutting wood.
A couple of words of warning though, when cutting steel you are producing a large amount of very hot metal fragments which will weld themselves permantly to anything in their way behind the stand. I built a crude shield from a cut open gallon oil can which catches the sparks and the grinding wheel dust, which otherwise would fly all over the place.
The other point is the way the angle grinder is fitted to the stand, I didn't think it was rigid enough so I obtained an extra large jubilee clip which holds the grinder tight to the stand.
Good luck.
John

On or around Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:19:40 -0700 (PDT), John
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I bought a cheap (ish) chop saw. Currently, it's still not quite got the right blade. Problem is that it runs fast, being designed for wood. It's got one of those many-small-teeth negative rake blades, and it will actually cut thin steel tube fairly well, but it'd be better with a more suitable tooth profile. It's also very noisy cutting steel. Good on softer materials though.
I daresay it'd run fine with a 9" angle grinder disc, provided I could fit it - spindle bore might be wrong size. Saw blades are mostly 30mm.

On or around Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:41:24 +0100, Peter Fairbrother
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I tend to favour those very thin 4½" cutting discs. Bosch do some 1mm thick ones. But I don't cut that much at a time.

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Our workshop at work uses a chop saw a lot for cutting mild and stainless steel stock. However the blade runs at I would guess no more than 1-200 rpm and is flooded with coolant. Also the stock is very firmly held in a vice. A standard chop saw for wood is going to run vastly too fast and has no hold-down device.

On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:41:24 +0100, Peter Fairbrother
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B&Q were showing a video promotion for one of their chop saws in our local store the other week - it seemed to be a fairly convential chop saw with a carbide-tipped blade, but they had it cutting pieces of scaffolding tube. Looked very impressive on the vid...
Regards, Tony

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Tony,
Was that perhaps the lightweight aluminium alloy scaffold tube?
AWEM

On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:41:31 +0100, "Andrew Mawson"
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Fair question Andrew...I assumed steel but I could be wrong. Will check next time I am down there.
Regards, Tony

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OK...found the beast on the web, complete with video. The angle looks to be MS, not totally sure about the scaffold dube but looks like MS as well. Take a look:
http://www.tradecounterdirect.com/productinfo.php?pidC0
Regards, Tony

Tony Jeffree wrote:
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I bought one of these 2 weeks ago as I have a lot of 50mmx50mmx5mm angle plus other stuff to cut at the moment and have been very impressed. The blade doesn't last as long at they claim, though that could be that the angle I have is tougher than the box section they tested with, as I find the 40mm box I have cuts much quicker than the angle. Even at £35 a blade it works out much cheaper than abrasive disks, but a local company has just quoted £4.20 to sharpen a blade which makes running costs trivial. I do however recommend good ear plugs if you haven't already deafened yourself in the past.

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Is there anything fancy about the motor? Does it run at different speeds for different materials or is it just down to the fancy blade? Just wondering as I've got a decent enough compound sliding saw and an absolute bobbins abrasive chop saw, so if I could just fit the fancy blade to my compound saw I'd be able to retire the chop saw.
Cheers, Rob

Robbus wrote:
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Speed is constant, but they claim they have a metal gear train designed to take the forces for cutting metal, while other saws don't, but I don't have any evidence to back that. As far as I can see the only real difference between a normal wood TCT blade and the Rage blade is that the Rage blade has rakers similar to a chain saw between the teeth which ensure it doesn't try to take too large a cut. If you are anywhere near Felixstowe I could lend you a blade to try on your compound saw if you like.

Hi Cliff,
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Hmmm, I didn't realise these things had any gearing between motor and blade, if they do then I can see why having metal gears would be a bit more robust in this situation.
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Very kind of you to offer, alas you're a touch too far, it'd probably be cheaper to just buy a blade than burn the petrol to get to you! Do you know what the bore size is of the top of your head? Not that I can remember the bore size of my blades anyway, and I'm even thinking that my saw takes a 12" blade but I can't see that fitting a 10" blade would be the end of the world. I do remember changing the blade on mine is an absolute pita as there's no way to lock the blade guard back, so growing a couple of extra arms is required ;)
Cheers, Rob

Robbus wrote:
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I just measured the bore as 25mm and I am pleased to say changing the blade is pretty simple as I am just about to get two sharpened. I will let you know if they work as well afterwards.

Cliff Ray wrote:
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Thing is - at £120-odd you're getting close to the cheap-but-okay bandsaw price range. If they fitted decent vices which hold both ends of the workpiece, of course ...
-- Peter Fairbrother

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I already have a bandsaw, but it is much easier to get a good 45 degree cut with the Rage3 even when the blade is getting worn. The main advantage though is that it is an order of magnitude faster than the bandsaw.
I agree with the vices comment, your can clamp on either side with the supplied clamps with one holding vertically and the other horizontally. This works much better than I expected after looking at the clamps, but there is a definite knack to using them and I may have cursed them once or twice. After cutting the material for its own bench, my saw now has heavy duty vices mounted either side and that has completely transformed it.

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:18:45 +0100, Cliff Ray
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I've used an Evolution 7.25" portable metal cutting circular saw, basically a hand-held version of the same thing, for a number of years (until some c*** nicked it a few weeks ago). I also have a Makita TCT chop saw with AFAIR a 10" blade. Both are good at what they do, they *almost* do what it says on the box, but it's very easy to chip the blades especially with the hand-held saw. The chop saw blade can easily be wrecked if you cut steels other than mild with it, though there's a Stainless blade available. Blades for the Makita are not supposed to be resharpened, though I have had it done with mixed success, they're not cheap so there's much wailing and gnashing of teeth if one gets wrecked.
Tim

Tim L wrote:
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Could you use a large-ish HSS slitting saw blade?
-- Peter Fairbrother

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:45:15 +0100, Peter Fairbrother
I suspect that the cutting speeds would be on the high side for HSS.
Regards, Tony

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AWEM