Abrasive Cut-off Saws...Opinions? Poll?

Two words: cold saw.

If you have budgeted that much, don't even fool with an obnoxious, noisy, dangerous, dust creating, sparking abrasive saw.

My 14" Makita was stolen a few weeks ago. Now I use the HF $149 band saw special, and like it a lot more. I can cut multiple pieces of materials at once. Turn it on, and walk away from it.

Try that with a chop saw.

Steve

I have not seen any brand of abrasive chop saw last more than a year in a commercial operation. They are ideal for field work since they are so portable. The noise, burring, and dust alone is reason to avoid them as much as possible. If field work is your application I would look at buying one with the expectation that it will burn up after a few months of use. 1500 dollars puts you into the range of a small mitering band saw or a used cold saw. Randy

What I want is a good quality 14"-16", high torque/low rpm under $1500..... what I need is your opinions on your specific favorites.....?????

TIA !

Harp AWS CWI, CWE

Harbor Freight, get the 1 year extended warranty, bust it, bring it back , get a new one.

Ive got a Kalamazoo..thats at least 15 yrs old. 10" blade, on a mitering turntable. 3hp motor. I change the spindle bearings about every other year. $20 buys both bearings with enough change left over for a Big Mac and fries.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

$1500 puts you in the range of a 1/2" capacity plasma cutter and you'll throw rocks at your chop saw.

I had a chop saw. Burned the motor out in less than a year. Now I have a small pile of spare cutter wheels.

I have one of the small band saws. They work well for the first few cuts, then the blade starts leading to one side. Then a tooth chips off the blade and it starts taking other teeth with it. A worn chunk develops and you can hear it going through the cut piece with each revolution of the blade. You can also hear more teeth breaking off and the blade leads more and more to one side. New blades aren't exactly cheap and they don't last all that long.

A saw is a necessary evil. Some things are just too thick to cut with plasma.

But I use plasma for cutting just about everything. Aluminum, stainless, cast iron, mild steel, sheet metal, even brass. You name it, plasma can cut it.

-- Jack

I agree with your statement about the band saws. however some small meassures can make it a very usefull tool.

I use $199 chineese band saw. which is converted into a wet saw. a small pond pump circulates water soluable cutting oil on to the blade before the metal. it cosiderable extends the life of the blade, and makes it possible to cut some othervise problematic metals like solid alu-stock.

a few step to think about on band saws.

1) give the blade and the metal cooling /lubrication by using cutting fluid. 2) use proper blade tension 3) align drive belt / pullys, this will make it a smoth /not vibarating machine, you will also get a straigt cut. 4) use proper blade guide clearance and proper distance beetwen the front and rear blade guides. 5) use proper blade down force 6) use proper blade speed 7) use correct blade (TPI, tooth per inch )

if you follow these guides and maybe more a cheap chineese saw will make some very nice cuts.

I try to limit the cuts with band saw to mild steel, and small stainless cuts, for anything else I use plasma , chop saw.

I have to admit the chopsaw is used the least. -stinks, noisey, over heats the metal.

OK....there is no questions that there are many better ways to cut than an abrasive saw....OAC, Plasma, Water-jet...the list goes on.....................but Gunner's response is what I am looking for.....guys with Abrasive saws....types & opinions... the research is for my friend, a weld instructor for a Votech program who already has a Plasma, Band-saw, cold saw & OAC available..........unfortunately, he must expose his students to the real world that includes crappy cut-off saws! He's had the Makitas, Hitachis, Dewalts, but not any others....so, I thought I'd solicit ya'lls feedback on different brands, etc.... sincerely appreciate all of ya'lls feedback.... TIA, Harp

Number 6 and 7 are the MOST important of the bunch..and are what kills most bandsaw blades when misdone.

I have two horizontal bandsaws that get serious usage. Neither has a coolant pump..though thats on the Round Tuit List.

I get many many many months of blade life from each blade because I understand and use proper speeds and feeds..and teeth counts.

As Im sure the readers know..the ideal is to have 3 teeth in the cut at any one time. Which boggles some peoples minds when they see me using a big meat ripping gnarly 4t blade to cut a 1" chunk of steel ..the same blade I crank up and blow through aluminum with. The recommended 10 or 14 tooth blades are recommended because they tend to be Universal tooth counts..able to cut nearly anything you stick in the saw (except aluminum etc..and they cut those..but tend to load up the teeth badly) I keep on saw with a 10t wavy set bimetal blade, and the other with the meat ripper for aluminum and bigger stock.

Then of course there is the Walker Turner variable speed vertical bandsaw.which has an assortment of blades hanging from a hook on the backside..for vertical work.

Bandsaws are slow. Sometimes painfully slow. And watching a blade slice a 3" round eats up a big part of your shop time...chuckle..so turn the bitch on..and walk away and go do something else untl you hear the CLUNK as the piece falls off.

Abrasive saws are FAST..quick and dirty. But they dont cut thick stock for shit.

As I do machining primarily..and welding (such as my skill level is..sigh)secondly..I have both types of cutting saws. A Cold Saw is a marvelous compromose between band saws and abrasive saws..and while much faster than bandasws..can be slow on big stock...and they are very costly initially. You can buy a truck load of decent used bandsaws and abrasive saws for the price of a decent used cold saw at present. In 10 yrs..that will be another story, as more cold saws become tired and go surplus.

Gunner

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Depending on how big a chunk of stock you are cutting..the two most common industrial chop saws in machine shops..is the various incarnations of the ZIP CUT

Often times you can find these for about $100. It worked great on material up to about 2" on a size, or about 3/4" solids.

Then there is the various models of the Kalamzoo. Mine is this saw..but on a miter swiveling base with dual fast acting vises

This will cut materials up to about 4" on a side..or 1" solids.

Nearly universally..you will have to replace the arbor bearings when you find one. Its just the nature of the beast. Shrug..but the bearings are less than $20 for the set at any bearing house..and are easy to change out.

The biggest challenge to a chop saw..is solid stock. It of course uses friction to burn or grind away the metal..and in solid stock versus say...square tubing...the least amount of metal the blade is actually eating..the better. Same with band saws actually

if you are cutting a chunk of flat stock..lets say..1/4x 2" flat..stick a piece of wood or a piece of round stock under the far edge of the material..so its tilted upwards. Now the saw only has to cut a much much smaller cross section, rather than the entire width of the material. Lets see...... hummmm \ news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I recently visited a steel supplier and saw an interesting saw. Picture a chop saw. Then replace a wimpy motor with a 3 phase 3-5 HP, 200-300 or so RPM. Then replace abrasive blade with a steel saw blade (possibly with carbide teeth). That would be the saw that I witnessed.

It cuts through steel stock like knife through butter.

i

Thats a Cold Saw.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

If it had coolant running into the cut, then that's what we are talking about, a cold saw...

I wish I had one...

thanx Gunner for your hint to lift up one side of a piece of square tubing to make it a diamond instead of two flats. This is a small hint, but one that I never had thought of, and I know it will make a difference as I cut a lot of this stock for the furniture I am making...

I appreciate these insights from this group.

If you do a lot of square tubing..make up a small V block thingy that is slightly narrower than the diamond width of the tubing, to lay the tubing in, and put it between the vise jaws. It will hold the tubing at the proper angle before tightening the jaws and make life much easier A piece of L steel laid on the point with a couple horizontal flats under it works fine.

Gunner, glad to help

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Dry cut saw. Clean cuts with relatively little noise and no dust. Cutmnets (that a real word?) are cool to the touch right away. I'd like a cold saw but dry cut saws cost less and take up less space.

Ciao, David Todtman