has anyone used one of these to make a cheap ($14) cutoff saw?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40613



they are also selling a 14" cutoff saw for $50
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44829



don't really want another large saw to store, but might go with it if the cheapy option is total crap.

whats the general opinion? Adapter or buy a whole new saw?

[Edited on 1/20/2006 by jestre]

Ive got one of the top stands you could have had for nowt. To far away tho.

They work but are very fidlly to set up and wont go all the way through 25mm rhs on a 4.5" disc.

Imho not worth the bother.

I bought one of those angle grinder adaptors but it won't get through 1" box section unless you have a 125mm (5" angle grinder and a virtually new disk. I then bought a cheap chop saw off ebay much like the one you have shown, it cuts through but rarely gives a perfect flat and level end, neither does the angle cutting work very well as the vice doesn't grip at anything other than a few degrees off straight on. I chopped most my chassis witht he big saw but did most the tricky angle bits free hand with a 115 (4.5" angle grinder with ultra thin disks again sourced off ebay. Overall result is rather more welding filler rod than I would ideally have liked but it is all stuck together and I don't have many welds that need grinding down.

Motto of the story is cheap tools are pretty crappy but no tools or the wrong tol for the job are even worse!

Caber

PS will accept any resonable offer for the angle gtinder adaptor thingy!

I had the top one which mounted the standard 4 1/2 grinder would not cut square spent a day on it then I binned it.

Spent a few quid on a metal band saw cuts first class, its very quite its a bit slow adjusting the mitre angle but and its a slow cut but it will cut unaided!!

quote:

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Originally posted by jestre
if the cheapy option is total crap.

[Edited on 1/20/2006 by jestre]

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i found it to be ok......... cuts relatively ok. don't try and cut all the way through, do it like with a hack saw, one face at a time.

Quick but noisey.

...nice sharp hacksaw blade and good technique.

I bought one of the stands for a 115mm grinder, and the slop in the pivot was simply unbeliveable. I shimmed it out with a few layers of coke tin and it would just about cut through 25mm box with a brand new disc, but never cut square.

For 16g tube a strong arm good method and Sandvik hacksaw blades are deadly..........and great excercise! In a way it`s quite sad that a lot of the worlds resources and pollution are going into cheap crap tools that go in the bin to start the energy/ pollution cycle all over again
Alex

Amazing how often this comes up!

Once your abrasive cut off saw is set up dead square, it is too much trouble to keep resetting it when you want to cut miters.

So, what I do:

Quick, dirty, noisy and expensive way:

Mark tube on two adjacent sides,
Clamp tube in vice so you can see the two marked sides with the cut line horizontal and the tube angling away from you,
Push thin slitting disc on small grinder through tube, just above marked line. If you brace your lower hand on the vice you can cut quite accurately.
Polish back to line and make cut face flat with a poly fan abrasive disc, checking by eye and or angle gauge.

Slow, clean, and cheap way:

Mark tube on four sides,
Clamp tube in vice.
Cut with hacksaw, turning tube over once you have cut the "top" and "front", so you can see the lines on the other faces .
Finish with file, checking with square and angle gauge.

Which method I use depends on the thickness of the material, time of day (noise factor) and if I have stock of discs.

What I find very useful is a carpenters angle gauge. This is a slotted block of plastic which has a pivoting steel blade secured with a wing nut. You can hold it into the area where you want the part to fit to set the angle, or set it with a protractor, and then use it to mark the tube and check it once cut. Stanly do a good one cheap.

Cheers

Fred WB

I have a £180 cheapo bandsaw which was utter crap when I got it, but I shimmed it all up to cut square and it's okish but with no coolant the expensive blades last 5 minutes.

I have recently bought an abrasive chopsaw for a repetitive job, and no, it's not accurate as "stock" but I got the protractor out and set the vice angles really accurately and scribed the base up with marks where the required angles are.

It is consistent now and does the job pretty nicely.

the angle grinder stand has always struck me as one of those crappy things that you might buy on a whim at a car show and then regret it when you get it home!!!

Only real use I could see was the small one did look useful for using a cheap 4.5" grinder in fitted with a thin disc and for cutting stainless braided hose neatly and fast, like a mini version of what the hydraulic fitters use.

ok don't flame me .........

i used it to cut my prop to size before welding!

(this is my tempory prop for fitting before i get a proper one made up out of the ends)

it did work ok - suppose it depends on what you want it for. I've not really used it in anger.

Depends very much on the make and how you use it --- with a 5" grinder they will just cut 30x30 --- I used for cutting my trailing links 2 cuts to a blade but that was cutting 30x30x2.5

With 25x25x1.5 you get a more cuts but you have to use you decent quality discs ie Bosch. If set up properly it cuts fairly square .

Didn't use it for my chassis did all that with an Eclipse hacksaw and Eclipse 24 tpi HSS blade -- yes just one blade cut 90% of the chassis cuts.

I have a 14" cut off saw and I welded a piece of flat onto the adjustment bolt to make it into a thumbscrew and put a round file through the groove it locks up so it can do more than 45* cuts as long as you don't cut anything too large, up to 40x40 seems o.k. I always scribe the piece I'm cutting for the angle and length so the scale on the clamp doesn't really matter. I also have one of the 4.5" things which I used for a couple of days before abandoning it. The gearbox on the grinder hits the top of the clamp before the blade gets through whatever you're cutting, it needs a bigger base and the clamp moving to the other side.