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SAWS
Yikes! This is the most dreaded tool of all. I have always respected saws because of their ease to chop away any body part such as a finger, hand or even an arm! Brand new saw blades are often so sharp that you can get a cut just by touching it. Imagine it while spinning? No thanks! So a word of advice, be most cautious when working with saws! It would be nice if you did not had to use them, but what good would that be? (The saw paradox!) The risk must be taken.
I have 5 saws. Two hand reciprocating saws, one hand disc saw and a table top miter saw. Wait a moment... I said 5, but the count adds only four! How could that be? Well the disc saw shown on the middle of the right picture does not work. Black and Decker! Smoke! Do not use a Black and Decker to cut aluminum, OK?
The four working saws have performed nice except for the Craftsman miter saw. This unit has an electric brake that stops the blade whenever the button is depressed. When I first bought the miter saw, the blade failed to stop after two weeks of almost no use! I took it back to Sears and they gave me a new one, no questions asked. I love Craftsman! Unfortunately, after a few months of not so hard use, the brake broke again. I did not took it to Sears since it is obvious that there is something wrong with the design. Or is it me?
I never used the miter saw to cut metals. I only cut wood with it. To cut metal pipes and rods there is an special cut off saw resembling a miter saw but with a cut off disc specially designed to cut metals. This is the only tool were I plan to respect its design since I don't want to loose a finger with it.
I used the reciprocating saws to do all my R2D2 cuts. Doors, lids, head sections, etc. They are also very useful to cut the fiberglass on molds once it is hardened. This type of cuts are not very fine since it is hard to do a perfect cut with your hand and a vibrating power tool! So try to cut away from the section you want to end and finish with a file.
The disc saws were used to cut the wood panels and aluminum plates. To cut aluminum, or any metal, you need to adapt your saw with an 7-1/4" cut off disc. Cut off discs are sold in different grades. Make sure, the one being used is for metal, not masonry. They both look similar but are not.
My dream? I still need two more saws. One of them is a metal cutting band saw and the other is a bench top cut off saw resembling a miter saw. Since I am about to undergo graduate studies in the US I can not buy more tools. But when I come back I will surely buy them!
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