Craftsman 'Twin-Cutter' saw

[TonyC]

I think it's very strange that they designed it with no baseplate. A saw that cuts metal smoothly should come with a method of following a straight line!

[James D. Clark]

Originally posted by TonyC
I think it's very strange that they designed it with no baseplate. A saw that cuts metal smoothly should come with a method of following a straight line!

From DaVinci's photo the saw has all the apperances of having been built from an offset grinder, not a saw. Wonder what happens if one blade drive fails? Could walk all over a person.

[DaVinci]

taming the beast...

Welp, this turned out to be the simplest, most effective way for me to add some precision handling to this new tool. Otherwise, it's a bit too unwieldy for my needs.

I attached it to the glide of my radial saw. It was a matter of adding a long threaded bolt thru the existing handle mount on the saw and boring a larger hole thru an existing hole on the radial saw. I can take it back off easily and use it like normal if desired.




And a closer shot of the cut. Very clean. This one took about 10 seconds on 1/8" mild steel.

[Qrazy]

Wow, great idea and adaptation!!!

[reedfish]

Looks to me like the blade is the same only smaller as the 450.00 14 inch chop saws that have carbide teeth. By the pictures it Seems to cut great. Being hooked to a radial arm saw, long cuts on 1/8th steel sheet could be done just like plywood?

[DaVinci]

Originally posted by reedfish
Looks to me like the blade is the same only smaller as the 450.00 14 inch chop saws that have carbide teeth. By the pictures it Seems to cut great. Being hooked to a radial arm saw, long cuts on 1/8th steel sheet could be done just like plywood?

I'm not sure if you caught this or not, but this saw has TWO blades that spin in opposite directions, not one like a chop saw.

In this setup, I can do any cut on metal the radial saw can do to wood. For example, I can slice from any angle by changing the angle of the radial arm...45deg., 30deg, whatever using the angle guides already on the radial saw. I can also do drop in cuts into the middle of the material.

Haven't measured yet, but I think it would be capable of cutting up to 18" wide plate in a single pass. I did one cut thru 1/4" bar x 2" wide as well. Or I could cut angle or pipe too I suppose.

[reedfish]

I caught the 2 blade thing. They use 2 blades because of the small diameter of the blades. 2 blades gives it the same amount of teeth as the 14 inch blade hence the cutting ability.

[Aaron]

The two blades are counter-rotating, and therefore MUCH less likely to climb/walk accross the material. This also should minimize vibration. It is a clever design, if it holds up. Time will tell.

[DaVinci]

Can you say...Guinea Pig?

Only downside so far is the amount of metal chips it throws. Gotta cover up...or feels like you're under attack

[atucker]

That's the only thing wrong with the carbide tipped metal cutting blades. My Dewalt MultiCutter (or whatever it's called) makes a mess also, but most of it does go out the back side of the saw. My son's dog, who thinks anything on the floor is to be eaten, didn't think it was good at all. I didn't know dogs could spit and spew as well as they do. Strange looking stuff compared to anything else I have cut metal with.

Allen T.

[hankj]

DaVinci,

Pretty clever!! I wonder who is making this tool for Crapsman? It looks an awfull lot like Skill/Bosch. I sure like the idea of cutting 16ga. sheet with something like that. Cheaper than a plasma cutter, which I will probably neve own unless the lottery comes through!!

Be well.

hankj

[DaVinci]

hankj,

Yeah, I bet it will do what you need. I like the idea that I can lay down steel, or copper, or other metals, tubing, angle, etc. and cut them like butter. Or it can cut plexiglass and other soft materials as well. Clean cuts, good precision, and it hardly heats the material.

I was hoping to see someone adapt it to a circular saw type base guide. I had an old broken circular saw, but I tossed it out recently. Darn, I could have salvaged the guide and attached it to this animal for experimentation. Anyone out there happen to have a broken circ saw laying around?

[Brand X]

My friend dropped one off for me to play with. He uses his for window frame cut backs. A table or fence on the saw would make it impossible to do those type of jobs. It went right though .250 steel no problem,but it did fill my shoes up with lots of chips.

[dda52]

That's my main concern, no base. Does it try to "eat " too fast or do the counter rotating blades compensate? I can think of a good many uses for it, I just don't want to drop a chunk of change down on another saw I have to fight.

[DaVinci]

Originally posted by Brand X
My friend dropped one off for me to play with. He uses his for window frame cut backs. A table or fence on the saw would make it impossible to do those type of jobs. It went right though .250 steel no problem,but it did fill my shoes up with lots of chips.

I don't know if we're talking about the same thing (fence or base guide), but I'm thinking a removable guide that simply allows you to control the saw (straight and true cuts) when desired. When you want to do the window frames, you pop the guide off. I hope to rig one up if I can get ahold of an old broken circular saw.

Regards