Need saw help - Im an idiot dont laugh lol.

[d-dawgg]

1. can you use a mitre saw for metal?
2. what is a chop saw?
3. how do you cut angles on a band saw?

[Scott T]

You can use a mitre saw for aluminum or copper with a standard carbide tipped wood blade, not for use on steel as it turns to fast unless you use a cut off blade. A chop saw is similiar to a mitre saw but generally the vise swivels not the saw.If you are talking about a horizontal bandsaw either the saw will swivel or the vise will swivel. Scott

[Mike W]

You can cut aluminum on a table saw if you feel brave. I have not done it.

[wrench3047]

I've seen it done with a carbide blade, and yes you need to be very careful. If you go to quickly it will stop the blade. When I seen it done It bent the AL angle, I was supporting the end and it pulled out of my hand. It stopped only about 1/8 from my chin cause it got caught on my carhart jacket.

Remember Safety Safety Safety

[Moviestar]

I have used the mitre saws from canadian tire(I see you're near toronto)

You have to use the cut off wheel type blade I think the saws come in 8" and 10" sizes

If you want a band saw you should check out princessauto.com (or .ca) they sell em

[hankj]

D,

Chop saws use abraisive disks rather than a toothed-type steel blade. There are also "dry-cut" metal saws that do use steel, toothed blades. Bandsaws have adjustabe vises that hold the stock at whatever angle you want to cut. If you are talking about portable band saws, there are miter attachments available for some brands; I don't know how well they work. A mitre saw blade spins way too fast to cut steel. It would be dangerous to try it.

Hank

PS: By the way, an "idiot" would not have bothered to ask the question....

[karish]

d-dawgg,

I have to disagree with you. You are not an idiot. If you were, you wouldn't ask questions, but rather charge ahead and make a mess of things and probably hurt yourself or others. You may be temporarliy ignorant of metal cutting saws, but that is 100% curable and you're well on your way.

There have been some recent threads on this board from folks discussing the virtures of bandsaws and chop saws. They are quite enlightening. I have a DeWalt dry-cut chop saw. Looks very much like a wood cutting saw. However, it roatates the 14" (35.6 cm) diameter, carbide toothed blade at 1,300 rpm. A wood cutting saw typically works at 3,900 rpm.

When I purchased my saw, it was much less expensive than a decent low-end bandsaw. From reading the referenced threads, that seems to have changed. A bandsaw would be very nice to have, but my limited garage space still drives me to the chop saw.

The vises built into these saws are a big concern. Most of the units I've seen on chop saws are poor, including the DeWalt I bought. I am lucky enough to have a machinist friend who built me a completly new base plate that allows the use of metal working clamps and fixtures like you might see used on a mill. Much nicer.

Good luck in your research.

[fun4now]

pic werth a 1000 words

the chop saw looks like a miter saw but the work is put at an angle insted of the saw moving to the side to make the cut.
in pic 2 you can see the miter gage for the chop saw, you set the fence to the angle then clamp down and the saw just comes strait down over the work. in pic 4 you will see the miter saw has a verry acurate swivel gage to alow you to move the blade to the angle of the cut wil the work stays strait against the fence at all times and the saw moves. as said earlyer the metal cutting blade spins a lot slower than the wood cutting blade.
i got my chop saw at big lots on a father's day sail for $ 49.99 it has a 15A motor and came with an extra set of brushes. it has worked realy well for me for almost a year without any problems. on my budget that is a good thing

the last pic is of my assembly line just because i thought it looked cool and had my camera out in the shop so you get to se it LOL

[Grumpy]

I guess after reading all the posts it should be quite evident that you must use the proper tool for the process. Your inviting injury otherwise. If tools were designed as multi purpose then you could change things such as rotational speed. They sure didn't put kick-back devices on table saws for the heck of it. Just my 2 cents. Just be careful once you lose an eye or finger or hand you'll never be the same.

[Gaslight]

I have a bandsaw for cutting metal. What I like about it is that it doesn't create any sparks, even dry cutting with a bimetal blade, and it cuts curved pieces, and rips the length of stuff. An abrasive cut-off saw would probably start a fire in my shop. The only real downside to the bandsaw is that mine does not make perfectly square cuts. Since I am generaly doing something else to the cut after roughing it on saw, I don't care. But if I was making trailers and needed clean miters, I would chose something other than BS. The trade-off is I can't rough a knife, or rip tubing on the cut-off.

[fun4now]

Gaslight

you should be able to get a square cut on the band saw have you tryed titening up the blade more to keep it from reflecting. it seems that i read that it needs to be tighter than 1 would expect to cut steel.
umm i could be rong but you might give it a try.

[Terence638]

I have found that on the dewalt saw when the material you are cutting gets to hot it will melt the plastic insert on the table. So for this reason i do not like it, but i did put a abrasive blade on this when i cut. I think i will try to cut the materila (aluminum pipe) with a carbide tip blade and see if it heats up too much.
Terence

[Bulldog]

Terence,
Your not using an abrasive wheel on a wood chop saw are you???

[fun4now]

Terence638

sounds like you put an abrasive blade on a wood saw.

you are looking for trubble, the wood saw's spin about 4X faster than an abrasive blade is rated for. if that blade fly's apart at 3000+ rpm's it is going to be uuuugleee

[Terence638]

Im not sure but I think I check the rpm on the disk i believe i did get a high rpm disc....but maybe not.
Terence