abrasive metal cutting blade

[mechanic]

I bought my first abrasive saw a Ridgid chop saw. I did some practice cuts and noticed the the sparks and mess was alot more than I expected. I also noticed the the cut was not straight. Slightly off. My question is? What do you guys suggest? Home depot took back the saw with no questions asked. They refunded all my money and asked if I wanted to buy another one. I have decided to wait until I research this first. How true are these saw and they really seem to eat up the blades on hard metal. I don't want the metal blade because they are too expensive to replace. I have a torch and sawzall. What do you suggest?

 

[notme]

your observation is right, they make a nasty mess and dont cut straight, its not that one say its all of them... invesst in a torch or a bandsaw if your going to cut alot of metal

 

[Danny1553]

X2 on the bandsaw. Got my first one a couple months ago; a 4 X 6 from Harbor Freight. Can't believe I've never had one yet, cannot live without it now. The ones from Grizzly, or Sears may be slightly better quality, I replaced the motor on my HF after 2 months with a Grizzly motor, but I'm still happy with it. If you use the saw for a lot of vertical cutting, the small saws have a limited "throat" distance, which limits cut-offs to about 3" on the left side.

Dan

 

[two_bit_score]

I bought my first abrasive saw a Ridgid chop saw. I did some practice cuts and noticed the the sparks and mess was alot more than I expected. I also noticed the the cut was not straight. Slightly off. My question is? What do you guys suggest? Home depot took back the saw with no questions asked. They refunded all my money and asked if I wanted to buy another one. I have decided to wait until I research this first. How true are these saw and they really seem to eat up the blades on hard metal. I don't want the metal blade because they are too expensive to replace. I have a torch and sawzall. What do you suggest?

What you are cutting and what you will be ding with it are important factors. Production type work? Rough farm welding for fence and repairs? What degree of precision do you require?

There is some degree of wobble on those chop saws. The band saw gets much better cuts and less 'mess'.

You already know what a torch does.

Leaves a plasma cutter.

 

[Just Bill]

I have a 14" milwaukee that does a good job.
It does cut square and gives a lot better edge than any torch that
I have used.
I do make sure the clamp is square to the blade and let the blade cut without a lot of forcing.
It does make a mess but so does a torch and grinder.

 

[moored4]

I bought my first abrasive saw a Ridgid chop saw. I did some practice cuts and noticed the the sparks and mess was alot more than I expected. I also noticed the the cut was not straight. Slightly off. My question is? What do you guys suggest? Home depot took back the saw with no questions asked. They refunded all my money and asked if I wanted to buy another one. I have decided to wait until I research this first. How true are these saw and they really seem to eat up the blades on hard metal. I don't want the metal blade because they are too expensive to replace. I have a torch and sawzall. What do you suggest?

Had you squared you fence? When you say slightly off do you mean front to back or top to bottom? The back fence should be adjusted to be square to the blade for a 90deg. cut. If your metal stock is long then it should be supported at the heavy end so that it is at 90 deg. to the blade.

 

[moored4]

Weather you cut metal with A/O, abrasive chop saw, metal chop saw, Plasma or band saw there is going to be waste. In the order above A/O will give the most, maybe, and the band saw the least wast/by product cutting. Metal work is not the cleanest thing that one does!

 

[Western]

On my chop saw , I use the thicker 1/8th blades. They don't flex as much with downward pressure. You would be surprised how much better they cut over the thinner blades.

 

[GE222]

For occasional cutting, a chop saw is OK. For any type of repetitive cutting with any kind of accuracy, use a metal cutting band saw that has been correctly adjusted.

I have seen people get descent straight cuts with a chop saw. The type of blade, how the material is secured, feed pressure, all contribute to the quality of the cut.

I personally don't like chop saws due to the sparks, mess and mostly the noise. I have used them with pretty good results, but I really prefer my band saw.

 

[bigdad]

On my chop saw , I use the thicker 1/8th blades. They don't flex as much with downward pressure. You would be surprised how much better they cut over the thinner blades.

Good idea! Just adjust for the loss in the width of the disk. Next ones will be thick.

Thanks

 

[dex3361]

I like the metal cutting cold saws. They are fast and cut accurately. Here is a link to some for looking at. They look like abrasive cut off saws but use a metal blade. They cut extremely fast. I have a cheap HF(less than $100) hand held model and I love the thing. I can cut a piece of 1/4 x 6 bar stock in less than 45 seconds.

 

[BHD]

I normally use my band saw, but did buy a abrasive chop saw for hard metal (things that take teeth off band saws, and for use on the welding truck, (just around the farm)

and I bought a Dewalt, (would have to look at the unit to get the number) but I have not had any problems with it not cutting straight,
and would recommend it to any one that had interest in one, plenty of power and easy to use, (yes it shoots sparks, and grit all over the place),
on a cut off saw, you operate opposite of a band saw,

on a band saw you usually try to cut the widest section (part of that is to support the teeth on the blade), on a cut off saw you normally try to cut the thinest section, the abrasive blades have much more problems on wide thick cuts,

so a flat iron you cut the edge on an abrasive saw, and band saw you cut the wide flat.

support your iron being cut so it does not pinch the blade unless you like blades that look some one took a bit out of them, and at that point they need to be disposed of, as to continue to use will be dangerous if the saw does not walk off the bench do to the out of balance of the blade,

 

[crazyal]

I would rethink the dry cut saw. It'll probably give you the best cut, both quality and straightness. From what I'm told ( don't own one yet) the blades last a long time as long as you let the blade cut. If you push too hard and you see sparks then you've most likely already overheated the blade and killed it. I know several people who have told me they have made more than enough cuts that the cost of the abrasive blades would have been higher.

 

[tawilson]

I also prefer the metal cutting saws to the abrasive saws. Add to the reason crazyal gave is I don't like metal dust. I'll take chips anyday.
I've got a Dewalt cordless and a HF 110v metal cutting circular saw. I had a Clarke metal cutting saw I got from TSC years ago for around $90 and finally burnt it up this spring. I went out to HF to get another one and it's identical to the Clarke except the color. I dug the Clarke out of the garbage can to save for parts. The Clarke came with a case I now use for the HF.

 

[Rio_Grande]

I can recomend one thing,,,

First I have a tortch, plasma, horiz bandsaw, chop saw, saws all and this suggetion is necessary for all but the bandsaw.

Get a large diamiter disk grinder. Before I broke mine that was how I squared every cut that came off the chop saw. I would cut everything 1/16 long and square it up on the grinder took seconds to do and made fitting a breeze.

I knocked my 24" disk grinder over and broke the cast stand. So for my critical parts I use the band saw. I need to see about putting that baby back together.

 

[JCByrd24]

Beating a dead horse here, but I highly recommend getting a 4x6 bandsaw. I bought a Jet and good blade locally (heard the blades that come with any of them are all junk, but I can't comment because I never used it) and after 3 months of the chop saw sitting on the shelf I traded it for a large bottle of good rum! The only thing the chop saw was remotely better at was thin or small stuff, like 1/8"x1 angle, exhaust tubing, or 3/8" round, but the bandsaw goes through those quick too. Mine was a Milwaukee and was a powerful saw, but abrasives just don't like cutting much more than 3/8" thick, so angle involves repositioning and tube of 1/4" wall or more takes forever. The bandsaw just chugs happily away until you hear the cutoff drop on the floor.

 

[petes]

A bandsaw with coolant at home would be awesome. We've got one at work we cut 60lb transformers in half with for inspection. It's clean (reasonably), cuts straight (reasonably), blades last a long time if you treat them well and can cut thick/wide stock unattended while you're off doing tack-up or measurements. Downside is it takes up a fair bit of space. I'm not sure if I'd like a dry bandsaw, although my local welding shop recommended a system that sprayed a very fine mist of coolant (powered by compressed air applied to a reservoir bottle) on an otherwise dry saw and claim it works just as well as a flooded cut.

At home I've got a 60A plasma, 14" abrasive chop, abrasive cut wheels on a 4.5" angle grinder for tight spots, and a good old hacksaw that I use a lot of the time. Grinders shoot grit/sparks back, the plasma shoots it down, both make about the same amount of mess and smoke. I built a small water table that makes the plasma much cleaner, and nothing beats it for cutting shapes or lines in plate, but it's not as handy for crosscuts on flatbar or angle as the abrasive chopsaw. If I could get around to making a fume/grit catching hood with ventilation for the chopsaw I'd like it more. It cuts very straight and clean. I'd love to add a horizontal bandsaw too, but not quite enough to give up the shopspace and $... The chopsaw is sure easy to put on a shelf.

 

[GT2]

The positive your missing is: its fast fast fast!
If you want to get some work done "NOW", its the only way to go. Or maybe a cold saw, don't know, never used one.
I have an older 14" Makita chop saw and it cuts straight within .010", don't know about you but that's close enough for me!
I did have a friend buy a "Chinese knock off" at a swap meet and it was junk.