In more dire need of an arbor press than any white man in history!

Harry Knutz said:
I use cutoff wheels and grinders for certain applicable cuts, But ANY chopsaw, bandsaw etc. would have been quicker, safer and more efficient for what he was cutting.
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I made a mistake when I said Jodi did the cutting. He filmed another guy cutting. That being said, I don't think you've seen the video.

First of all, I said, "When the job is right for one, it's a great thing to have." I agree it's not for every cut or every shop. He was talking about cutting in the field, not a million-dollar machine shop using the best industrial tools available. He said, "in the field." If you have a forklift and a huge Dumore band saw with a big infeed table, you can definitely cut I-beams faster than the grinder did it in the video. He was comparing a gas torch to a grinder, and the torch fell behind. The torch took about 30 seconds longer because there was so much cleanup. The torch moved faster, but the cut was so bad, a grinder still had to be used to fix it. For rough cuts, the torch would have been better, but he wasn't looking for crude results.

Second, he was cutting fairly big work by hobbyist standards. The smallest things he cut were 6"-square tubes. The biggest things were I-beams about 8" on a side. A 14" chop saw goes to about 5" square, and a dry saw, which I have, does a little more. Maybe people have come up with Rube Goldberg approaches to cut bigger things, but why would you knock yourself out to cut an 8" beam on a little chop saw when you can cut it right where it is, without rotating it, with a grinder? It would never occur to me to try to put an 8" beam on the dry saw. On the other hand, I never cut little things with the grinder.

You say any band saw would be better. Maybe you can cut 6" tubing with a portable band saw if you rotate the tubing and go in from the corners. I don't know. You are never going to get anywhere with an 8" beam. As for horizontals, most hobbyists have 4x7 band saws if they have horizontal saws at all.

Third, you can't cut plate with a chop saw or band saw unless the plate is small or you have a big vertical saw. Most people here don't have a big vertical saw they can shove a 60-pound plate across. I don't have a saw like that. I have a small horizontal, a plasma cutter, a propane torch, and the grinder. I made 18" cuts in 3/8" plate with the grinder in a few minutes, and it was a snap. I used the mill to clean some of them because it was handy, and I found out the unevenness was generally within 0.050". I thought that was a fantastic result for the effort. I can't do that with plasma.

I don't know what's unsafe about a grinder in the hands of a responsible person. Some characters won't use a guard or the right gear, and a lot of them get what they ask for, but people who do it right have no problems.
 
Chips O'Toole said:
I made a mistake when I said Jodi did the cutting. He filmed another guy cutting. That being said, I don't think you've seen the video.

First of all, I said, "When the job is right for one, it's a great thing to have." I agree it's not for every cut or every shop. He was talking about cutting in the field, not a million-dollar machine shop using the best industrial tools available. He said, "in the field." If you have a forklift and a huge Dumore band saw with a big infeed table, you can definitely cut I-beams faster than the grinder did it in the video. He was comparing a gas torch to a grinder, and the torch fell behind. The torch took about 30 seconds longer because there was so much cleanup. The torch moved faster, but the cut was so bad, a grinder still had to be used to fix it. For rough cuts, the torch would have been better, but he wasn't looking for crude results.

Second, he was cutting fairly big work by hobbyist standards. The smallest things he cut were 6"-square tubes. The biggest things were I-beams about 8" on a side. A 14" chop saw goes to about 5" square, and a dry saw, which I have, does a little more. Maybe people have come up with Rube Goldberg approaches to cut bigger things, but why would you knock yourself out to cut an 8" beam on a little chop saw when you can cut it right where it is, without rotating it, with a grinder? It would never occur to me to try to put an 8" beam on the dry saw. On the other hand, I never cut little things with the grinder.

You say any band saw would be better. Maybe you can cut 6" tubing with a portable band saw if you rotate the tubing and go in from the corners. I don't know. You are never going to get anywhere with an 8" beam. As for horizontals, most hobbyists have 4x7 band saws if they have horizontal saws at all.

Third, you can't cut plate with a chop saw or band saw unless the plate is small or you have a big vertical saw. Most people here don't have a big vertical saw they can shove a 60-pound plate across. I don't have a saw like that. I have a small horizontal, a plasma cutter, a propane torch, and the grinder. I made 18" cuts in 3/8" plate with the grinder in a few minutes, and it was a snap. I used the mill to clean some of them because it was handy, and I found out the unevenness was generally within 0.050". I thought that was a fantastic result for the effort. I can't do that with plasma.

I don't know what's unsafe about a grinder in the hands of a responsible person. Some characters won't use a guard or the right gear, and a lot of them get what they ask for, but people who do it right have no problems.
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I think this comes down to: "The best tool for the job is the one ya got!" I personally have a horizontal bandsaw and a cut-off wheel for all my stuff. Its a giant pain at times, but better than stubbing my toes walking by a cutoff saw I rarely use.
 
I agree with you about using what you have. I don't have a big band saw.
 
Harry Knutz said:
It amazes me how folks in Europe use cutoff wheels to cut everything, When the amount of time wasted and the money spent on the amount of wheels they must go through is insane. They could easily buy a saw and a plasma cutter over the lifetime of wasteful cutting they do.
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Do you want to hear my best European cutoff wheel story? One time I went 200 miles to see a guy selling cheap O1 steel in a form of a big 5in x 10in x 9ft block that weighted somewhere in the region of 700kg (1500lbs). I figured the guy (being located in a factory that manufactures steel staircases amongst other things) will have a band saw, but I took my trusty supermarket special 12in grinder(that came with bad bearing from new) and a 5-pack of cutoff wheels.

I wanted to buy about 300kg or 3ft of that bar in two chunks. The guy did have a band saw, but it wasn't his, he didn't know what blade it had, how fast it should be run, what is the crane capacity in that facility etc so I decided to use my portable tool and a crowbar (for rotating the 700kg bar of steel).

Short 3.5h later with a total of 10 cutoff wheels two cuts were made. I didn't even have to stop to get 5 extra wheels as I took one look at the material and I knew one pack is not going to be enough so the guy went to a local DIY supermarket and bought me another one. BTW, there are some cheap and good cutoff wheels available on the market. Also how fast wheels are used up depends a lot on your technique.

There you go. Sometimes the cutoff wheel is the best tool for the job. Also there is no faster way to grind of lots of metal on the cheap other than with a grinding disc in an angle grinder.
 
I had to cut up some one inch thick aluminum plate for a project that wouldn't fit on my HF 4x6 bandsaw and cutting wheels were gumming up almost instantly. I ended up cutting it with the mill and 1/4" cutters. I've used a table saw on half inch aluminum before but was leery of cutting one inch plate with it. There's always a way.
 
epanzella said:
I had to cut up some one inch thick aluminum plate for a project that wouldn't fit on my HF 4x6 bandsaw and cutting wheels were gumming up almost instantly. I ended up cutting it with the mill and 1/4" cutters. I've used a table saw on half inch aluminum before but was leery of cutting one inch plate with it. There's always a way.
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I use wax or soap if I have to cut aluminum with a cut off wheel. Helps to keep the aluminum from gumming up the disc. Sucks having to stop and reapply several times, but it works.
 
Dabbler said:
I watched the video, but I'll never watch his channel again, and he was on my rotation. I always felt he was on the edge, but that is way over the top in lack of -- common sense? understanding of machines? I don't know.
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I'm suspecting he's doing it on purpose, to increase engagement. How many machining and diy channels are there these days? Lots. If he releases a video and he puts in some blunders in he's guaranteed lots of comments immediately after the video launches. This extra engagement might make his videos much more promoted by the youtube algorithm.

Why do I think that? First, how convenient was that pallet and that this chain let loose not half a second earlier? Second, what was he doing with that bottle jack? Pressing stuff in? Why use a mill when he could just weld a rectangle frame from scrap lying around and put that bottle jack in?

Then the whole setup with the extremely porous stick weld, buying the tig welder(sponsored of course).

Finally, his tig torch technique... Seriously, I don't know what exactly he is doing there. Perhaps the video was sped up? I can't bear rewatching it to check. Why would anyone move the torch quickly back and forth? Again, I'm going to call it a youtube engagement raising technique.
 
brino said:
WTF?

Yep, I saw him with the hook of the engine hoist back into the end of the arm and thought "that's not smart!"......

then my thoughts were confirmed when he dropped the mill head thru the pallet........

After that I did look away from the train wreck.......I don't think I can learn anything from this.

Maybe later after a couple beers when I want to laugh at something I will finish watching.
Big maybe!

Brian
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When I do something stupid I can gain comfort from watching this, and realizing there is someone more stupid than I am.
 
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