Cut off saw

[sidebuster]

Is there any cut off saw out there that will cut angles accurately? I bought a Ridgid at Home Depot and am thinking about taking it back.

[Cgotto6]

I have a cast base Ridgid. It's the best portable sized abrasive saw I have used. If you are using the terribly inaccurate of a protractor it has built in that may be your problem. I always use a square or angle finder to set it. Once it's set I can keep cuts within 1/32" easy. If you have never used an abrasive saw before there are some tricks to using them. It's not the same as cutting wood on a chop saw. Having high quality abrasives is a must in my mind. I use SG elastic wheels in my ridgid.

[bigtow30t]

Some cheaper disks can wonder as you cut

[CharleyL]

A dry cut saw is a better choice than an abrasive saw. We have the Milwaukee and are very pleased with it. For cutting angle it's best to lay the angle down in the vise and cut into the top of the upside down V. The cuts are more accurate and the blades last longer.

Charley

[jmpgino]

Simply put, the chop saw is not for accuracy, I have tried thin and thicker BLADES as I call them and both wandered off, I have cut slowly and still have a problem and that is on straight cuts.
Angle cutting is bloody terrible and my model is a Milwalkee.
I suggest you take it back and shell out extra dosh for a dry cutter.

[tommy2069]

i always use my beveling square to set my chopsaws. also we used to buy new saws and take them off thier factory platform. we had a round plate with a vice on one end and we took the chopsaws and mounted it to a plate that would turn360 degrees basicly it looked just like a lazy susan . the factory setup on chopsaws limit alot of the angles we needed to cut boom laceings and the modification to the saw let us cut any angle wee needed to.i just bought a dewalt and i plan on doing that to it so i can cut the angles i need.

[Cgotto6]

My abrasive saw is very accurate, and at much less than half the cost as a dry cut it works good for certain situations. You have to use them carefully in certain situations to get them to behave correctly and cut straight. To say you can't use them accurately is just not true.

[CharleyL]

A good portable stand for a dry cut saw is one of the hand truck like saw stands intended for the woodworking miter saws. See the pictures of mine in post #19 of the following thread

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard/showthread.php?31598-dry-cut-saw-also-called-cold-cut-saw-Question&highlight=CharleyL

but I wouldn't buy the Delta stand if I was making another one today. DeWalt now makes a very similar stand that is almost identical to the Delta but it has some improvements that make it better for this use. Putting the saw on a Lazy Susan bearing makes it easy to adjust the saw to the stock for cutting angles and the stock can remain supported by the roller guides. You set the cut angle on the work clamp and then just rotate the saw to match the stock position and clamp the stock into the saw. We put our Milwaukee saw on this Delta stand several years ago and although the stand isn't really heavy duty enough for metal working it has held up surprisingly well. It folds and goes into and out of the truck very easily, and when not in use it sits on end in the corner of the shop, taking up very little space.

Charley

[sidebuster]

Cut off saw

Cgotto6, where do you buy these SG elastic wheels? Thanks

[tommy2069]

i seen where people complain about the steelmax it's a beast of a saw. my clamp on mine stopped clamping down til i figured out that if you hold the screw part down while clamping stuff it works just fine. as for the blades i only bought one dry cut blade for it and after it wore out i just switched to the regular abrasive chopsaw blades. now i get all my blades for free from a buddy .the shop he works at has one of them big industrial saws that use i think a 24" or larger blade and they replace it when it gets to 14" or smaller he puts them on the side for me and brings them to me when he has a stack of them.the saw will cut anything i put under it to me the downfall of it is it's weight that sucker must weigh atleast 50 or 60lbs if not more.needless to say it stays in the shop unless i have a job cutting drill pipe or a job running schedule 120 pipe on lift boats.i wanna make a portable stand like we used to do with our chopsaws at weatherford cranes then maybe i might take it to more jobs.

[Cgotto6]

I get them from my lws, central welding here in wa state. I have got multi flaps off amazon though so I think you can get most of their products there.