What??--No Plasma Cutters??
I have used chop saws at work,and they are named appropriately--they "chop" your work up pretty good,not a presision cut by any means--we used the one at work mostly for cutting hydraulic hoses to length when custom making them,and angle iron and other steel parts...but other than that,they are rather limited to what you can cut with them,only stuff that fits in the vise can be chopped....
I've used a sawsall to do lots of metal cutting,but its hard on the saw,your arms,and blades arent cheap and dont last long--it sucks when you fold a new blade in half seconds after you put it in--and beating it flat again with a hammer lets you keep cutting,but forget any accurate or square cuts,even with a good unbent blade....
Another way I have cut metal is by using an abrasive wheel in a circular saw--I have an old table saw set up for metal cutting this way--it works pretty good,but its hard to keep a cut square with any abrasive cutting tool--a hand held skil saw is handy with that kind of blade to cut out rusty bed panels,and trimming new panels to fit.....a lot cleaner cut than a cutting torch will make...
Band saws are nice--but most are too costly for he average Joe to affod,that only cuts metal occaisionally---I've seen a home built one that used space saver spare tires and rims,with fwd rear axle bearings for the hubs,and an old electric motor,it used industrial band saw blades the guy got from his work that were very long,and he cut and brazed hem together to fit his saw--it cut very well,but it was not a precision machine,it was crude,but effective..
I thought cutting metal was the worst chore there was,unless your cutting up scrap with torches,,its hard to make an accurate cut,and its physically demanding too---until my friend bought a Plasma cutter--then everything changed!!--you can cut anything with that thing up to 3/8 thick,and you can write your name in the steel with it if you want too!--I dont know how easy it is to make square cuts,but for trimming and craft work,its the best thing I've seen so far for cutting iron and steel--the bandsaw is still very close to #1 too though...
I have used chop saws at work,and they are named appropriately--they "chop" your work up pretty good,not a presision cut by any means--we used the one at work mostly for cutting hydraulic hoses to length when custom making them,and angle iron and other steel parts...but other than that,they are rather limited to what you can cut with them,only stuff that fits in the vise can be chopped....
I've used a sawsall to do lots of metal cutting,but its hard on the saw,your arms,and blades arent cheap and dont last long--it sucks when you fold a new blade in half seconds after you put it in--and beating it flat again with a hammer lets you keep cutting,but forget any accurate or square cuts,even with a good unbent blade....
Another way I have cut metal is by using an abrasive wheel in a circular saw--I have an old table saw set up for metal cutting this way--it works pretty good,but its hard to keep a cut square with any abrasive cutting tool--a hand held skil saw is handy with that kind of blade to cut out rusty bed panels,and trimming new panels to fit.....a lot cleaner cut than a cutting torch will make...
Band saws are nice--but most are too costly for he average Joe to affod,that only cuts metal occaisionally---I've seen a home built one that used space saver spare tires and rims,with fwd rear axle bearings for the hubs,and an old electric motor,it used industrial band saw blades the guy got from his work that were very long,and he cut and brazed hem together to fit his saw--it cut very well,but it was not a precision machine,it was crude,but effective..
I thought cutting metal was the worst chore there was,unless your cutting up scrap with torches,,its hard to make an accurate cut,and its physically demanding too---until my friend bought a Plasma cutter--then everything changed!!--you can cut anything with that thing up to 3/8 thick,and you can write your name in the steel with it if you want too!--I dont know how easy it is to make square cuts,but for trimming and craft work,its the best thing I've seen so far for cutting iron and steel--the bandsaw is still very close to #1 too though...
