Benchtop Cut-off Saw

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tdibiasio

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Joined
Aug 15, 2007
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78
Location
West Kingston, RI, USA.
So after an unfortunate incident with my table saw and my index finger knuckle last week, I am now searching for a better alternative for my segment cutting. I have found the following cut off saw from HF:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42307

Does anyone know what the cutting depth of this saw would be?? I like the idea of the clamping fixture that would keep my fingers away from the blade and allow me to still clamp the small left over pieces from blank trimming. Just don't know if it will cut through a 3/4" blank. Any practical experience would be appreciated, as I have found conflicting information on different web site (review on PSI site says it will not cut a blank and on another forum it stated that the max cutting depth at 90 degrees is 3/4".

Oh yeah in case you are wondering - my knuckle is a little thinner now then it was before. I took all the precautions I could think of, Incra Miter jig / clamped down blank/ just did not realize that the sacrificial fence that I made was a little to high to see the blade from behind. Note to self -> never take your eye off the spinning blade. I think this hurt my ego more than my knuckle - 16 years working on a table saw and never had an incident - NOT ANY MORE......
 
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Monty,

Do you think it would work ok if I trimmed the blank down a little less than 3/4??? Do you think the clamp will hold small pieces tight enough? Thanks for your response.
 
I've got one of those, I use it for cutting tubes, there is no possibility of using it for cutting wood more than 3/8 thick, I've tried. You might cut 1/2 inch if you have a long time to make one cut, but you will never get much thicker. The problem is not that it doesn't have 3/4 travel or that the clamp will not hold, the problem is that it will bog down.
 
I've got one too . It's great for cutting brass tubes up to about 7/16" . I've used it to cut some Majestic tubes that I used for CBs and finials and had to make multiple cuts to go all the way through the tube (slightly larger then 1/2") . Also the little motor could not cut hardwood without bogging down .
The Proxxon is a much better saw but still very limited on what it can do .
 
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Tony , just be careful with this saw . It has an unloaded speed of 9000 rpm , that is much higher then the rated speed of most 6" blades which were designed to spin at less then 5000 rpm .
 
I bought a saw like that from Penn State. The saw I got doesn't have the capacity to cut more than 1/2" blank without turning the blank multiple times and trying to match up your cuts.

I do mostly acrylics and after cutting blanks for about 30 pens, the motor just wore our and wouldn't cut much of anything, so I threw it out.

However, I am now thinking about buying the one from HF and use it to cut tubes --- and only tubes.

This is the one I got from Penn State:
TUBESAW.jpg
 
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Tom:

My take on this is that any saw is dangerous and cutoff saws are probably more dangerous than most for doing segmentation. This is more about the operator than the saw.

I did not see your original post so I don't know the details of your set-up; but IMO a table saw with a "PROPERLY" designed and constructed sled is about as safe a set-up as you can achieve.

Consider this as a lesson learned and not to be repeated and build yourself a good sled to go with your saw.:smile:
 
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