I do love the cold cut saws. Worked with one for a couple of summers. Maybe some day we will work with enough steel to warrent that, but not yet.
Mmmmm though, it just cutts like butter.
Out of college that was for nine months my career' - between it, the drill pess and in cleaning up other people's welds. Loved the B-Weld as it was called though I have no idea as to why. My curren shop has one and I recently sent one of my assistants over to it to cut some 1/8x3/4"
stock for use as spreader plates for U-Bolts. He blamed the tool for his +/- 1/16" tolerance that didn't help the show much in needing them at the last minute. This given even 1/16" tolerance over drilled holes. Took a
bit time and I should have supervised him better, this given I was raised on such a cold saw and my own boss would
line up at random at times four pieces I cut together and unless they were within 1/16" of the overall combined length, I would have to re-cut them. I was less than compassionate into my helper's blaiming the tool for his lack of ability in finding a way to make the tool accurate. Beyond that... believe me my boss was really really pissed with me more than once when he went to cut some steel with it but I had an aluminum blade in it and forgot to change the tag saying what blade was in it. The
current shop has a speed change they use verses blade change. Decent enough I suppose. They also don't have a good stop table set up very well which is absolutely necessary if you want to be accurate. The stop rod for such a thing is crap.
Such a tool is perhaps 1.5 times your budget and unless you have room for it's proper chop saw stop table needs, probably more than you need. Never been impressed with band saws for cutting especially larger lengths of steel - this even if liquid cooled. Porta Band, pipe cutter not really impressed ether - this granted it was in the ceiling of a theater and such a ceiling was lit with compact fluorescents. Meaning every time you powered up something big the lamps flickered and went out until done cutting in the dark. PortaBand was nice on the other
hand but I don't remember it overly accurate.
Super
Sawzall just as accurate in my impression dependant on the user and accuracy, though the porta band has a longer blade that stays cooler. Got this techinque of locking what I need to cut into a bench vise and cutting along the jaws of the vise which gives at least for smaller
stock very accurate cuts.
Used some abrasive chop saws over the years, if accurate in set up I think they are accurate enough.
Build a stop table for them. Different blades one can buy for them in grit perhaps in
thickness. Never noticed much of a wobble or
bend in cut as opposed to that of a band saw that can go way off in cut. Noisy yes, accurate and good cut I think also yes if set up right and the proper blade.
Saw someoe cutting aluminum on a table saw today with a fairly normal carbide wood or perhaps more finish blade. They also do it with the chop saw though also with not the blades they chop wood with for accuracy I hope. Depends on what you are cutting in also a vertical band saw able to cut steel or aluminum on need at times. Also used the band saw after college.
