Post by kwrangln on Feb 18, 2007 23:35:08 GMT -5
Hey there. I dont get by the site as much as I used to, but when I find something good I try to stop by and share. Got something for the fabrication types this time.
First a little background. I'm in the military, and as such have to transfer every few years. The latest transfer found me with my own garage/shop for the first time. Great, but, I'm used to having a full shop at my disposal, and now I have to fully outfit my own shop on my dime. Not that bad, lil expensive, especially when you're used to having a govt budget for buying tools. Some sacrifices had to be made, such as a 180 mig instead of a 251, no TIG setup, and the real killer, going from a big bandsaw and Dewalt multi cutter to a regular ole chop saw.
The chop saw has been getting alot of use lately, and blades for it have been driving me nuts. Expensive for what they are, sloppy cuts, huge mess, and they just dont last. Since I've been using 2"x4" tubing for bumpers lately, it doesn't take long till the blade us worn enough that it wont cut through the 4" depth.
Then I found a post about chop saws on another forum and a mention of Bullet industries. They have released a carbide tipped chop saw blade rated at 4400 RPM's so it can be used in a regular chop saw. Best part is, its cheap, about the cost of 3-4 quality chop saw blades.
www.bulletindustries.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/99_144/products_id/449
It didn't take me long to give em a call and get out the credit card. 5 days later the blade arrived on my doorstep. Double packaged with packing peanuts and bubble wrap between the outer and inner box. Took me about a week to get a chance to try it out and see if it was worth the cash.
I'm going to do this as a heads up comparison between the Bullet blade and a brand new Norton Charger fast cut abrasive blade 14"x7/64" with a max RPM of 4365. The saw of choice is a Makita 2414 13amp 3800RPM 14" chop saw.
First up, some comparison shots. Of interest here is the fact that the Bullet blade is actually rated for a higher RPM than the abrasive blade.
Enough of the pretty pictures, lets see how these things cut. I used 2"x4"x3/16" rectangular tubing for all cuts.
First up, the abrasive blade.
Note the ammount of sparks thrown around.
Completed cut took 54 seconds or so, had to count 1 one thousand etc to time it. Here's the completed cut and the ammount of dust generated. Yes, I started with a clean area on the shop floor and swept up the dust after each cut. The things I'll go through for a review.
Then it was on to a thin cut, seems its not to uncommon to want to take just a little bit off the end of a tube. Note how the heat of the cut made a curlyQ out of the drop.
The drop measured .012 on my cheapo calipers.
I made a total of 3 cuts with the abrasive blade, and in the process took 5/32" off the overall diameter.
Now its on to the Bullet blade to see how it does. Same 2"x4"x3/16" rectangular tubing.
Much less sparks flying around.
Complete cut took 16 seconds by my counting method. Again you can see how much dust was created by the cut, it is a coarser dust so a bit easier to clean up.
Of interest was how long it took the blade to stop upon completion of the cut. With the carbide blade it took approximatly 40 seconds to spin to a full stop. I put the abrasive blade in to compare and the abrasive stopped in about 26 seconds. The extra weight of the carbide blade has a bit of a flywheel affect. It also took an extra second or two to get up to full speed. I always wait a couple seconds after hitting the switch before beginning a cut for the blade to stabalize after acceleration, so this wasn't a big deal for me.
Then it was on to the thin cut.
Again, about .012 by my cheapo calipers. Just alot cleaner and cooler cut.
Since I mentioned cut quality, lets take a closer look.
First the abrasive blade's cut.
VS the carbide tipped blade.
Both are pretty smooth, but the reduction in flash to have to clean up gives my nod to the carbide blade.
Overall impressions.
I'm glad I spent the money on this blade. I feel its turned my old chop saw into a comparable machine to the Dewalt multi cutter for 1/10 the price. Remember, I've used the Dewalt alot, and while its been 6 months since I've used it, my memory says this is just as good. Dont think I'll be going back to abrasive blades for a long time. Get one of these, you'll wonder why it took em so long to come up with em, and how you got by without em. These blades could very well be the death of the multi cutter type saws, no way could I ever justify spending the money on one after a simple blade swap got me the same performance.
While I'm only a few cuts into the hopefully long life expectancy of this blade, rest assured I'll update this post if I ever have any issues with it, and to update how long it lasts.
First a little background. I'm in the military, and as such have to transfer every few years. The latest transfer found me with my own garage/shop for the first time. Great, but, I'm used to having a full shop at my disposal, and now I have to fully outfit my own shop on my dime. Not that bad, lil expensive, especially when you're used to having a govt budget for buying tools. Some sacrifices had to be made, such as a 180 mig instead of a 251, no TIG setup, and the real killer, going from a big bandsaw and Dewalt multi cutter to a regular ole chop saw.
The chop saw has been getting alot of use lately, and blades for it have been driving me nuts. Expensive for what they are, sloppy cuts, huge mess, and they just dont last. Since I've been using 2"x4" tubing for bumpers lately, it doesn't take long till the blade us worn enough that it wont cut through the 4" depth.
Then I found a post about chop saws on another forum and a mention of Bullet industries. They have released a carbide tipped chop saw blade rated at 4400 RPM's so it can be used in a regular chop saw. Best part is, its cheap, about the cost of 3-4 quality chop saw blades.
www.bulletindustries.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/99_144/products_id/449
It didn't take me long to give em a call and get out the credit card. 5 days later the blade arrived on my doorstep. Double packaged with packing peanuts and bubble wrap between the outer and inner box. Took me about a week to get a chance to try it out and see if it was worth the cash.
I'm going to do this as a heads up comparison between the Bullet blade and a brand new Norton Charger fast cut abrasive blade 14"x7/64" with a max RPM of 4365. The saw of choice is a Makita 2414 13amp 3800RPM 14" chop saw.
First up, some comparison shots. Of interest here is the fact that the Bullet blade is actually rated for a higher RPM than the abrasive blade.
Enough of the pretty pictures, lets see how these things cut. I used 2"x4"x3/16" rectangular tubing for all cuts.
First up, the abrasive blade.
Note the ammount of sparks thrown around.
Completed cut took 54 seconds or so, had to count 1 one thousand etc to time it. Here's the completed cut and the ammount of dust generated. Yes, I started with a clean area on the shop floor and swept up the dust after each cut. The things I'll go through for a review.
Then it was on to a thin cut, seems its not to uncommon to want to take just a little bit off the end of a tube. Note how the heat of the cut made a curlyQ out of the drop.
The drop measured .012 on my cheapo calipers.
I made a total of 3 cuts with the abrasive blade, and in the process took 5/32" off the overall diameter.
Now its on to the Bullet blade to see how it does. Same 2"x4"x3/16" rectangular tubing.
Much less sparks flying around.
Complete cut took 16 seconds by my counting method. Again you can see how much dust was created by the cut, it is a coarser dust so a bit easier to clean up.
Of interest was how long it took the blade to stop upon completion of the cut. With the carbide blade it took approximatly 40 seconds to spin to a full stop. I put the abrasive blade in to compare and the abrasive stopped in about 26 seconds. The extra weight of the carbide blade has a bit of a flywheel affect. It also took an extra second or two to get up to full speed. I always wait a couple seconds after hitting the switch before beginning a cut for the blade to stabalize after acceleration, so this wasn't a big deal for me.
Then it was on to the thin cut.
Again, about .012 by my cheapo calipers. Just alot cleaner and cooler cut.
Since I mentioned cut quality, lets take a closer look.
First the abrasive blade's cut.
VS the carbide tipped blade.
Both are pretty smooth, but the reduction in flash to have to clean up gives my nod to the carbide blade.
Overall impressions.
I'm glad I spent the money on this blade. I feel its turned my old chop saw into a comparable machine to the Dewalt multi cutter for 1/10 the price. Remember, I've used the Dewalt alot, and while its been 6 months since I've used it, my memory says this is just as good. Dont think I'll be going back to abrasive blades for a long time. Get one of these, you'll wonder why it took em so long to come up with em, and how you got by without em. These blades could very well be the death of the multi cutter type saws, no way could I ever justify spending the money on one after a simple blade swap got me the same performance.
While I'm only a few cuts into the hopefully long life expectancy of this blade, rest assured I'll update this post if I ever have any issues with it, and to update how long it lasts.