[TheForge] Re: Chop Saw Irritation

[Loyd Craft]

At 04:34 PM 1/28/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>I have the same problem.  At first I thought it was a hard spot in the 
>steel but I notice that regardless of the material, it only happens on 
>thick stock (about 1" dia") and always in about the same place.  It can 
>happen on thin stock too if I am trying to cut it on the flat.

When you cut through flats, you're greatly increasing the surface area that 
the blade is in contact with and you have a proportionally larger amount of 
metal surrounding that which is acting as a heat sink.  You either need 
more pressure to increase friction which bogs down the motor or you need to 
just let it run its course which takes forever.

My first time running into this problem I was making a 45 degree cut across 
4 x 2 inch 1/8th inch wall rectangular tube.    Even with increasing 
pressure I swear it must have taken 30 minutes to cut through the bottom of 
the tube.       How silly of me to use a chop saw where a bandsaw would 
have been better - had I owned one at the time.   :)

My chop saw manual states that you should orient the material such that you 
are cutting through the thinnest cross section possible.   (discovered the 
passage in the manual after discovering 30 minute cut times)   If you can 
work out a holding jig to rotate the material you are cutting 45 degrees so 
you are sawing through a diamond shape in relation to the blade, or place 
flat stock on it's end rather than trying to cut across flat sections it 
goes a lot nicer.

I stuck my chop saw up in the loft and picked up a Multicutter saw.    It's 
a chop saw with a much heavier cast base and body, bigger motor, better 
vise and a carbide saw blade.    It doesn't have as much trouble with those 
cuts as an abrasives blade does, but it still has to work harder.  It also 
doesn't produce sparks.  Just metal chips.

The manual for that also suggests avoiding cuts on wide flat sections when 
possible.