looking to pick up something cheap. wont be under heavy everyday use. 90% of my garage is from HF. i trust buying this, will get the replacement plan. but my main question is this the correct type of saw? all the reviews are from wood workers. can something like this cut sch 10 piping with a nice decent 96 tooth blade? would this be considered a cold saw?




http://insidetrackclub.harborfreight...ide-98194.html

 

Saw spins too fast... to cut metal you want around 2500rpm.

 

yeah that is going to spin to fast.

 

i went to hf today to get a 10 gauge extension cord. played it a lil bit. seemed pretty nice. had alot of adjustments. i wonder if its possible to tune down the rpms. i did go into lowes and look at the saws they had, they spin just as fast.

 

No that won't work at all. You need a metal cutting saw like a chop saw with an abrasive blade or a cold saw with a low speed carbide tipped blade. IE:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...cStoreNum=3209

or

http://www.vansantent.com/Saws/Hyd_m...e_cold_saw.htm

 

Wire up an electrical cord with a rheostat in-line to have it spin slower.

The most important thing if you're thinking about using this saw to cut metal is to build a proper vice to hold the metal in position.

It could work.

 

it has holes on both sides where that lil arm is for a clamp on both sides. i have a coupon from a magazine for $120

i do have a ryobie chop saw.

 

Cold saws have multi-staged gear reducers to go from 1800 rpm down to 80-240 rpm. You wont have sufficient torque to cut anything like steel if you are trying to reduce the speed electrically.

 

so when looking for a suitable caw are their names actually cold saws?

 

Yes. You'd probably be better off buying the HF bandsaw and getting a decent blade for it.

 

Yes. Cold saws (like scotchman, kalaramazoo, kasto, adige, etc) come in a number of varieties, but they are all identified as cold saws. The low speed ferrous models are all gear reduced at the head (down to 20-240rpm), and the ferrous models all run at motor speeds (1800-3600 rpm) through some sort of direct drive belt. Many use VFDs to have adjustable blade RPM outputs within those ranges. We dont have a single ferrous cold saw that is less then a 5hp head. We also converted one of our original machines way back in the day that had a 3hp head non-ferrous head with a gear reducer head to cut steel and the motor lasted about 3 days before it went up in smoke.

 

Definitely DO NOT try and ghetto rid the miter saw. That is going to be a whole lot of work, and it's likely going to be inconsistent, unreliable and dangerous.

As mentioned, either get a cold saw, band saw, or stick to the chop saw. Not really sure how guys cut pipe elbows on a chop saw though ...

 

i guess ill just get the band saw

 

I use one of these saws for cutting aluminum and it works brilliantly, even with a wood working blade, I would never contemplate using it on steel, though.