Welding Tips and Tricks

You did good! 50% more warrantee and full retractable blade guard.

Well I guess I'll find out soon enough how this thing works.

Nice, don't forget the ear plugs

I don't really find it that loud. It's certainly louder than my bandsaw but that doesn't take a lot. But compared to other machines in the shop, in some cases you'd be hard-pressed to hear it over them.

Pretty sweet. I'm still debating what to upgrade to. I mean, I have my bandsaw so technically I don't need any "upgrade", but a metal chop saw is just so handy. My current one is ok though.

If you have a saw I certainly wouldn't consider this an upgrade. The vice is a bit on the chintzy side. I already had to take mine apart after two pieces. It is not intended to actually tighten on the part. It is nowhere near beefy enough. I can already see that's going to be an issue before it's over. In the marketing videos they also say there are pin stops for the 90, 45 and 22. Well that's no longer the case. The USA versions don't have those stops anymore. Mine has only a screw handle and a label with graduations for the degrees.

UPS delivered the saw but FedEx lost my 90 tooth blade. Come Monday if it doesn't arrive Home Depot gave me a whole laundry list of processes for recourse, none of which I have time for.

The new saw has the stops; you ordered the last of the old versions IINM.

Not the end of the world I suppose, but not shocking that I waste as much time as I did ordering a saw only to get something that isn't what I was expecting.

Checked the security footage and FedEx never even so much as drove down my street. So, they'd better be tracking down my saw blade come Monday morning...

BugHunter wrote:It is not intended to actually tighten on the part. It is nowhere near beefy enough.

I'm very curious as to how this is. Seems it is a thick cast piece, just like the newer version.

Posting pics from my phone. I'll type a description with it in a minute

Ok, pic one shows the vise. I need to remember to hold my phone sideways for any pic I post online or the site won't rotate them correctly...

Pic two... In that cast piece there's a half-round recess in which there's a super chintsy metal saddle. It's some sort of mild steel which is so soft you could mistake it for 7075 alum. It's held in place by two tiny tabs which are basically useless. If you look closely at the casting, there's a recess cast in which has stops for that "bearing" to keep it from rotating. It's allowed to move easily 15 deg so it just wipes those tabs out like they're not there. It's kinda visible on both sides of that casting, more so on the far side. There's a ledge which the half-round bearing sleeve hits edgewise to limit rotation.

The lead screw is super soft steel. That'll never last and I'm sure I'll be replacing that within year one. Same goes for the pawl which I balanced in that position for the pic. It want's to fall either engaged as it should or in the disengaged position also as it should. Those parts should be considerably harder in order to actually hold up.

That is 100% brand new and has made exactly 3 cuts on 3/4" x 1/16" square tubing. 1 straight and 2 45s. So I didn't wear it out. I had to rework that little saddle piece already because it jammed up when I went to open the vise after cutting. I really don't think I tightened it that much, but you literally can't tighten it any more than I could hold with my hand.

BugHunter wrote:Ok, pic one shows the vise. I need to remember to hold my phone sideways for any pic I post online or the site won't rotate them correctly...

Pic two... In that cast piece there's a half-round recess in which there's a super chintsy metal saddle. It's some sort of mild steel which is so soft you could mistake it for 7075 alum. It's held in place by two tiny tabs which are basically useless. If you look closely at the casting, there's a recess cast in which has stops for that "bearing" to keep it from rotating. It's allowed to move easily 15 deg so it just wipes those tabs out like they're not there. It's kinda visible on both sides of that casting, more so on the far side. There's a ledge which the half-round bearing sleeve hits edgewise to limit rotation.

The lead screw is super soft steel. That'll never last and I'm sure I'll be replacing that within year one. Same goes for the pawl which I balanced in that position for the pic. It want's to fall either engaged as it should or in the disengaged position also as it should. Those parts should be considerably harder in order to actually hold up.

That is 100% brand new and has made exactly 3 cuts on 3/4" x 1/16" square tubing. 1 straight and 2 45s. So I didn't wear it out. I had to rework that little saddle piece already because it jammed up when I went to open the vise after cutting. I really don't think I tightened it that much, but you literally can't tighten it any more than I could hold with my hand.

Very surprising!

BugHunter wrote:Posting pics from my phone. I'll type a description with it in a minute

Not sure if you're aware that the model you have is discontinued, I guess thats why it was cheaper. They changed quite a few things by the looks of it.

On the newer ones they switched to acme thread. I havent actually looked at the pawl closely, and there's definitely some wear showing. I should probably add some graphite lube to that. Same slide underneath, tho I can't see wear on that. I've had this saw for 5 or 6 months now. It gets used pretty much every day.

My vise does have pin stops, but only at 90⁰ and 45⁰. 22.5⁰ would be nice.

Overall I do like mine. Pricey, but makes very nice square cuts for a chop saw.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

I was already thinking of sticking in a piece of acme thread rod the minute I had it apart. I've got it on the shelf and it's easy enough to make a new pawl for it. I've got about every acme tap known to man.

Somehow I missed the notes on the product page where it said, "Oh by the way, this is the old piece of junk model with the vise that lasts for 2 clamps before it needs fixed, and the fence that hasn't got positive stops. Oh, that's right, they didn't point that out prominently.

I'll be happier when fedex gets my blade here.

BugHunter wrote:I was already thinking of sticking in a piece of acme thread rod the minute I had it apart. I've got it on the shelf and it's easy enough to make a new pawl for it. I've got about every acme tap known to man.

Somehow I missed the notes on the product page where it said, "Oh by the way, this is the old piece of junk model with the vise that lasts for 2 clamps before it needs fixed, and the fence that hasn't got positive stops. Oh, that's right, they didn't point that out prominently. [emoji38]

I'll be happier when fedex gets my blade here.

Ha! That would be honest advertising why would any store do that???

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

The 90 tooth blade showed up so at least that's not nagging me. I dread shipping claims. How they could have considered it delivered at 3pm Saturday I have no idea.