Any advice on cutting square tube?

[trickbiker]

As for me in cutting square tubing I use a chop saw for a good square cut. Mickey

Of coarse this depends on the thickness of the tubing. If it is thick you will need the porta saw but if not the chop saw works fine for my thinner metals. Mickey

[Trip59]

I gave up, I surrendered to my perfectionism and sacrificed my frugalness this time. Bought a nice shiny new Milwaukee 14" saw. 6180-20, damn it's a sweet machine. I think I'm happier dropping the $200 on it than I would have been on a harbor freight horizontal bandsaw. I'll save my pennies and get a good horizontal down the road.

I debated a base for the porta-band, but decided if I did it I needed to buy a real porta-band and not a HF knockoff... the price drove above the $200 budget I had.

[67cudafb]

Harbor freight band saws suck if looking for nice straight cuts. I made stand for mine to make vertical saw, better control but not great. Chop saw works okay but Milwakee is wat to go.

[DVA]

I have this saw:

Evolution Power Tools 14' Mp Chop Saw Rage2 Abrasive Cutoff Machine & Accessories

Have made about 200 cuts with the provided blade and it is still good working order. It is not as nice as the Milwaukee but does the job. The only issue that I have is that the adjustment would not provide a good 45° cut so I had to adjust the clamp and check the angles with triangle before any cuts are made.

[EmptyNester]

As I said earlier in this thread - based on everybody's advice, I got an Evolution saw. It worked great for the welding cart I made.

I still wanted to try my plasma, but started on angle for my motor mount project. Here's a picture of the wood template I made and the results of a cut.



The initial cuts were really messy, but that's due to my inexperience with the torch. However, got better with every cut until it got reasonably clean. Still not as good as the saw, but I'm guessing I could get it even better with more practice.

[dazarooney87]

Gabe,

I posted pictures in the "Hobyist Projects" sub-forum of the "Projects" forum. It's similar to others I've seen on the forums here.

Rege

Looks good, well done.

[everlastsupport]

As I said earlier in this thread - based on everybody's advice, I got an Evolution saw. It worked great for the welding cart I made.

I still wanted to try my plasma, but started on angle for my motor mount project. Here's a picture of the wood template I made and the results of a cut.



The initial cuts were really messy, but that's due to my inexperience with the torch. However, got better with every cut until it got reasonably clean. Still not as good as the saw, but I'm guessing I could get it even better with more practice.

Make sure you have dry air and plenty of amp to move fast, should come out nice and clean. Not like the Evolution saw, but fast. Save that blade for important projects.

Which Evolution did you get? Looking at (think it was Rage 3) 10" mitre. Wish Amazon would take paypal.

[EmptyNester]

Make sure you have dry air and plenty of amp to move fast, should come out nice and clean. Not like the Evolution saw, but fast. Save that blade for important projects.

Which Evolution did you get? Looking at (think it was Rage 3) 10" mitre. Wish Amazon would take paypal.

I ended up going for the Fury3 with a smaller blade (8 1/4") because it was a sliding compound mitre saw. I liked the added versatility and it was only $150. I figured I could replace my non-sliding compound mitre saw I use for wood with it. Haven't tried it on wood though.

When cutting the channel, I realized that I didn't have the power high enough initially (it was around 20 amps). That made a big difference as I could cut much faster and clean at 30 amps. (That was the last one I cut.) It did make me realize I need a lot of practice, but don't yet have scrap to practice with. But, at least I'm past the "scared of it" stage and at the "healthy respect" stage

I use the air dryer that came with the PP50. I had been on the fence about adding another one. Would you recommend that? If so, any particular style/type/model?