Evolution Rage 2/4 chop saw experience?

[Midge]

Folks,

Decided I could use a chop saw in my little workshop, and bearing in mind I need to cut various materials - steel, aluminium and timber - haven't got a shed load of money or much space, I've been looking at Evolution Rage 4 (or the larger Rage 2).

Anyone any experience of these machines and in particular the aluminimum and steel cutting performance? Reviews appear OK from what I can see.

If anyone has used one, I'd also be interested in how far its limits have been explored. e.g. from time to time I need to carve up (usually aluminium) solid bar to length, ready to turn components on my lathe. The published specs refer to box section not solid, so aren't that helpful in establishing whether it is man-enough.

This isn't very often so I certainly can't justify the cost/space of a power hacksaw. I usually cut by hand or with an angle grinder/cutting disk, but this then takes a bit of time to face off as my machine is only a mini-lathe. To give you an idea, I was turning several components out of

1.5inch diameter bar today and that took some cutting even with a cobalt-steel hacksaw blade.

TIA Midge.

[The Medway Handyman]

Never used one. but did see a demo at a local B&Q. Very impresive performance when cutting steel, it does cut rather than grind.

I would have concerns about how long the blade would last.

Any TCT blade will cut alluminium no problem.

[Midge]

[Periproct]

I little late with a response but I'm almost certain that's what I've got (B&Q?). First job was cutting 4" x 3" steel angle which is 1/4" thick and it did a great job. Lovely clean cut and no problem even when it got to the point it was cutting both sides of the angle plus the web at once. (If that makes sense).

[Midge]

Well I took the plunge and my Rage 4 arrived yesterday so I thought I'd report back in case anyone was interested:

Rage 4 is nice and compact. The Rage 2 is a much bigger beast and I don't really have the room for that, nor do I mitre enough to need the full mitre saw they also make which is also a fair size (have a Magic Mitre for those jobs anyway). The Rage 4 can cut angles BTW so is ok for small/simple mitre jobs.

Initial impressions of cutting ability - it chomped straight through a 3/4 inch solid aluminium bar like it wasn't there, and it's also gone through several angle sections of 1/4 inch aluminium with equal ease.

It's got a good meaty clamp on it. Would have been nice to have a (removable) side stop too like you get on a mitre saw to be able to repeat cut to length but as I'll likely be mounting it to a bench, I'll make a separate one.

The Rage blade has like a broad guide tooth in between the TCT tipped teeth which I assume controls the cut depth and is reponsible for it leaving a very clean finish and the material you cut, cool enough to pick up afterwards. With Aluminium, if you overdue it, you can end up with melted globs of aluminimum stuck in the relatively small gap between the teeth. These can be difficult to remove but it's only happened once, and only to a couple of the teeth.

Steel performance is pretty good too and beats an angle grinder/cutting disk and its stream of sparks. Hardly any sparks with this.

It mentiones cutting bolts and other small jobs in the blurb. I'd agree with long lenghts of threaded stud - but the clamp is centrally hinged and not close enough to the blade to do cutting jobs where there isn't a fair bit of material for the clamp to get hold of. So no, you can't just lop a bit off a small bolt with it.

Don't even think of using this thing without eye (and ear) protection. With metal, it generates tiny chips which fly all over the place and you're almost certain to suffer sooner or later if you don't wear goggles. Credit where it's due, they include some foam ear plugs and some simple face goggles in the box.

So all things considered, its looking ideal for what I wanted.

HTH, Midge.