Chop Saws

Evolution Chop Saw Overview Transcript

Scroll Down To Continue Reading

Bob: Hey, Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today we're going to unbox this Evolution 380 (EVO380) Chop Saw. Well, let's get started.

Let's open this baby up and let's see what we have. This is our new chop saw for cutting rebar and other metal products.

Directions. Oh, look at that - Safety Goggles. Looks like a part for their vice. Some additional brushes, that's pretty good. Don't get that with a Dewalt. Replacement brushes, should they burn out. Ear protection. All right, well packaged. Everything, when this was shipped to us, was shipped in its original box and everything. So they're well packaged. The manufacture does a great job at packaging.

I'm going to turn on its side so I can slide it out. Trying to wrestle it out of here. So there she is, our new chop saw. I want to bring you through a few of the features of this saw, so I'm going to spin the table a few times.

This saw has, instead of a chain to hold down the arm, it has a little pull pin back here. You can twist it so it stays and it doesn't lock when you go down. Or you can set it to go into the lock position, push it down, and it locks in place. That's awesome. Saves a lot of time and effort.

You also have here a built-in Allen key. That Allen key is for the Allen lock in here and also a quick release lever handle. You can turn this on to a 45 (degree cut) if you want to. You just lift it up and then you move it back and again so this way you can get it loose enough so you can move it into a 45, like so, okay? Now if you wanted that position you just keep turning this, lift it up, come back, and lock it in place to the degrees that you wanted to cut at.

This Allen key is used to give more security and lock the socket cap screw so it doesn't move on you and then you can just slide this back into place, right here, perfect. You don't lose it. Carrying it from job to job. It's there and it's available.

Obviously, your power cord, which looks like it's a nice length. I would say a good five-six feet long - the power cord - which is very reasonable.

This is also very cool. It has a shaving catch bin here. So as you're cutting your steel and your metals, it's not flying all over the table. It catches the waste.

I'm spinning this around. This is pretty cool also. There's a quick release at this location here. You can either turn this or just release it. Once you get it to where you want, to lock the material in, you can then tighten it up nice and snug. What a great feature.

They also include, if you were cutting round stock like threaded rod or pipe, you have this attachment that slides onto the brace and then you're able to put your material between that to lock it in place. So it doesn't move around on you. Adjust it up and you lock it in place like so.

The blade, this is a 15 inch blade or 355 millimeter, actually it says: 14 inches, 355 millimeter, maximum speed of 1600 RPMs. So this blade is made for cutting steel and that's basically what it's for. I've seen guys using this to cut wood also. In our demonstration video we're probably going to try that and see what happens.

You have a nice handle. You have a kill switch here on this side right on the knee, so you're always using your right hand with this. Left hand? It's a little awkward. I guess you're going to reach back this way. You don't get yourself a good grip.

There also, to stop the blade to change it, is this locking pin. That's right here. You push that pin and it locks the blade so you can remove the blade. There's a guard at this location and you also have the guard that, obviously, closes and retracts when you're pushing down on on the material to cut it.

Basically, that is the tool.

Evolution Chop Saw Demo Transcript

Scroll Down To Continue Reading

Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. Today I'm going to do a demo on the new Evolution saw that we just got in. This 15-inch monster versus the standard abrasive. So let's get started.

So I have some threaded rod here; stainless steel, 304 stainless that I'm going to cut with the new saw. I'm going to push in the brace. I'm just going to line it up first and that's perfect. Then I'm going to tighten it down so it doesn't move around on me; nice and tight. So that material is really nicely (held) down.

Now i'm going to start it and we're going to cut through this and then after I do this we're going to do one on the abrasive chop saw.

It's nice. It's clean. Look at that. Beautiful. The nut, I didn't even have to do anything other than cut it. No chamfering. Absolutely amazing. No cleanup. Beautiful. Now I'm going to cut one on the standard abrasive saw.

Alright I have my abrasive saw here, and we're going to show you what happens when we cut on an abrasive. So now you get to see all this slag that's left over. That has to be formed you could not get a nut on here if you wanted to. You just basically have to get get a Uniburr or file it, grind it. Whatever you need to do to make that work. That's what you're going to get out of an abrasive unit.

So I'm going to cut a few more pieces on the evolution saw and show you a couple more examples. Technology, beautiful thing, here we go.

There we go. Put the nut on. The labor savings is huge. AND it's not hot, look, I'm putting my finger on here. It's slightly warm to the touch but there's no heat built up inside the steel like it would be on an abrasive chop saw.

Next I'm going to cut a piece of Kindoff. This vise that's integrated into this chop saw is really awesome. What a great design. Look how clean, no filing, no bastard filing. Really amazing.

I'm gonna cut one on a 45 (degree angle) now. Alright lets cut a 45. There's a little piece here. The leftover, the waste has a little burr on it but nothing bad. This piece, which would be the finished piece, nice and clean. So if you wanted to use that as a 45, There you go. I mean it's not exactly matched up properly here. I'm just demonstrating for you how nice of a cut it could be. Really amazing.

The next thing I'm going to cut I have about an 8 inch bolt here that I'm going to cut. I'm going to take off a few threads. That's beautiful. Very nice, no problem. A Nut'll screw right on to that.

Now I have a piece of steel. Let's cut this structural steel piece. This is about 3/8" thick. Let's see how it goes through that.

Okay, nice and clean. There is just some minor burrs that are here, very little. Just a quick file will clean it right up. But you can see how nice this is, the after piece.

That was the waste that I cut off and this is the finished piece. Very nicely cleaned. All the way around.

And lastly, let's cut a piece of wood. Not bad. If you had nails or any metal parts in your wood that you were cutting, perfect job. You know? Very nicely done.

Now I didn't set this saw at all. I just put it to zero. I didn't check it with a square. I didn't, you know, realign it it's how it came out of the box. And look at that. I'm using a square and that cut is 100% dead on. Right out of the box. You know, usually when you get these saws, you have to align them. You'll have to adjust them. Then put a square on, check if it's right. I didn't even do that and this is right on; this saw. The evolution 15-inch 380. It's gonna get a lot of work in this warehouse.

Thanks for watching.

Changing a Chop Saw Blade Transcript

Scroll Down To Continue Reading

Bob: Welcome back to Albany County Fasteners - Fasteners 101. I'm Bob and today I'm going to show you how to change a chop saw blade. Let's get started.

Alright so I have a chop saw here. This is a metal chop saw by Evolution. Most important thing when you change a blade is to remove the power. Never have this, the unit, plugged in while you're changing a blade. It's just not safe. You never know. Your hands are on the blade something could happen.

So I have a new blade here that we opened up already because it's sealed and what I'm going to do is, each machine typically has a lock down to keep it in the closed position and I'm gonna release the blade to go up.

This particular saw has its own Allen key attached to it. Most machines today always have them. This makes it simpler to change this blade. Also the key fits the door here.

We just flip that up and right on the inside here, I'll spin this around to show you, there's a little button you push down and that button, you can't see it there, it's right there okay. That button you push to lock the blade and you can see it's locked. I'm gonna take my finger off of it and now you see I can turn it. I push the button down and that locks it.

Put the tool in counterclockwise, take it out, there's a washer, there's your screw. Pull that retaining washer off, let it slide up and then what you're going to have to do is pull the guard up and then slide the blade out. Pull that right out.

I'll get my new blade and make sure you're putting the correct size in when you're doing this. This is a 14 inch blade. Also, you'll see on the blade here, it tells you the blade rotation. That's the rotation or the direction that the teeth should flow in and on each machine, so this is clockwise. So, I'm sorry counter-clockwise and this machine runs counter clockwise. So the blade, the arrows should be going in that direction to install the blade properly. If you put it in backwards then you're gonna have a situation where the blade will not cut your material.

Let the guard down, push it in there. Some blades come with a spacer. This blade fits the armature just fine, but you can get some blades that will have a different armature hole that'll be larger and you have to use the spacer. In this situation, we don't have to.

Put the blade retainer washer back on. Put the screw back into this locking washer and hand tighten. Push that button again. Snug it up give it a tug. Tighten it, that's it.

Give it a spin with your hand. Make sure it flows fine, close the shield. Put your tool back so you can find it next time and that's it.