Freehand cut off saw

Do any of you guys use any of the stihl or husqvarna cut off saws for scrapping? I was wondering exactly what the limitations are on these machines. Can they cut apart stuff like cars or commercial grade appliances as long as the material isn't greater than the maximum cutting depth? How well do they work on aluminum? How long do the abrasive blades last compared to cut off blades for angle grinders? I do own a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder but access to power can be limited and the cut off blades seem to wear out really fast.

are you taking about a gas powered chopsaw? I have a stihl, it takes a 14"blade. I can cut cars in half with one blade. A mobile home frame with 2(3 if my brother is doing it). Best $250 I spent.

Yes thats exactly what i'm talking about, one of the TS models to be exact. You got a great deal on that saw, these things don't seem to be any less than $1,100 new. Which model do you have?

Yeah these saws are great. I'm in the construction biz, and we use these to cut concrete...the TS800 (16") and TS700 (14"). I wouldn't suggest the 16" unless you're cutting really big I-beams, where a 14" is sometimes hard to get. The 16" saw is really heavy too. The trick to cutting metal is to let the saw do the work...don't push hard. If you're cutting cars, I'd use a sawzall. You can cut a whole car using one blade. Make sure you get the high quality, thick demo blades.

I was looking for something that could cut all kinds of metal like steel pipe, car bodies, aluminum, stainless steel ventilation hoods and appliance covers, propane tanks and old trailer frames. It would be nice if the reciprocating saw could handle all of this because it's 1/10 of the price. Are you talking about something like a 15 amp reciprocating sawzall?

As long as you have the strength and a little common sense, they are very nice though get a bit noisy. They get heavy pretty quick so would second getting a smaller one. The vibration on them can also numb out your hands during long term use. Use a pair of heavy gloves to avoid that.

I used them for landscaping alot and we cut metal and stone on our diamond ceramic / masonry blade.

I have found that the diamond masonry blades are one of the best all around blades. Not cheap but will out last many of the cut off wheels. They also do not wear down as fast keeping your cutting depth at a maximum much longer. They can run through about anything I have ever tried from glass to ceramic to aluminum to steel, to plastics.

I strongly recommend avoiding plastic as it requires cleaning the blade after. Aluminum does require cleaning the blade occasionally as well but not all that frequently. To clean the blade just use a piece of mild steel or rebar. this puts enough wear on the blade to clean off the crap and expose new abrasive allowing it to cut like new.

For aluminum, thin sheet / tin and plastic I suggest a reversed (put blade in backwards) fine tooth finish / plywood blade. Keep in mind with this blade having teeth it may jump / kick back a little. use common sense and you will be fine.

For cutting heavy material I would also suggest making a mister to mist the cutting area. The fastest way to burn out cutting wheels is to over heat it. Cutting using abrasive wheels generates alot of heat. Misters have a secondary advantage of keeping the cutting area cleaned so you can see what you are cutting.

Using a small compressor, a sealed container, some fittings, and a air hose you can make a pressurized mister pretty easily. I also like to use lengths of small diameter copper tube drilled with fine holes to make a long cut. Spring clamps work good to keep it pinned down where you need it. It takes a bit of playing around to get one built and working well, but when you do they are worth it. It may seem like more of a hassle but when you are burning through 1 of the disks vs 10 of the same disks the savings in disks should be worth the little bit of hassle.

I own several Husqvarna's, bought my first one doing concrete demo work. It's one of those machines that, once you see how much a hard job gets easier, you just need after that! They are a big boys machine, depending on materiel, blade and feed rate, a lot of twisting side torque. They can be hard to start, high compression engines, the Husqvarna's have compression bypass buttons, to assist in starts. I don't let just any worker operate. A new operator has to go through a learning curve of matching blades to his work. Our landscape guys use for pavers and light demo. Most times they run inexpensive composite blades, making what we call one and two cut block work fast easy (no setups). All production concrete, block and stone are diamond tip blades. I don't know about $250 machines, a good blade is in that range. We bill for these blades, customer gets invoiced percentage of blade wear fee. A good machine will be $1k and above. All safety gear required, we wear a hardhat/face shield/mouse ear setup, antivibration gloves and still hours running these machines will drain the best! So big jobs call for even bigger toys. We also use for 6" and 12" water line mains. There are water/air kits for these machines. As the man said a self made cooling line is required, if you don't have a cooling kit. Blade needs to be cooled unless you want to burn through money vise making it. I cutup my first car this last New Years Eave, using a firemans rescue blade, can these cut metal? Like a hot knife slices butter. This event started three months ago, my best friend owns a machine shop, rebuilding auto/truck engines. I needed a lift gate bolt for a truck. My friend is my go to guy anything automotive, he sent me to a contact of his. This guy runs a toll/wrecking company. Salvaging reselling truck parts and had all kinds of my needs other than simple lift gate bolt. While he went find my bolt, I watch a worker cutup a car with gas torch. I told him that seems like a hot and nasty way to work. He said tried and proven industry standard method, my daddy did it that way too! I shutup, not gong to teach old dog a new trick! I asked about utility service bodies and he said he had several. I ended up buying almost brand new utility bed for $2k and he would do the swap out (bolt free)! We had several more back and forth conversations about cutting metal with these saws. I was at a xmas party at my friend house, Greg (wrecker guy) by 2am drunk and egoed up. A bet and challenge is made. Torch vs. saw New Years Eve party Gregs salvage yard. I bought a Husqvarna NXS metal cutting/fire rescue blade. I knew there were lots of blades for these saws. The thought of fireman and rescue needs never occurred. Turns out this a prefered tool for gaining access through any materiel. This blade is extra heavy duty constructed and engineered self cooling holes. A long story short (very long) saw won, torch never had a chance! Lessons I learned a long time ago: 1. right tool for the job. 2. Always evaluate methods. 3. Willing to listen to new thoughts from others. I don't know if cutting up cars is cost effective with this saw. I know nothing about gas torch cutting. We each had a helper to assist us in dismantling. Cars were shells, no tires, interiors and engines removed, hoods and doors gone. A frame with side panels, cars twenty feet apart (should have been 40) on stable blocks. Had to cut sections so nothing hung over edges of prepositioned pallets. My friend and I never dismantled a car before that day. Competition, Greg owns wrecking business and assistent another professional wrecker. The saw not only cut faster, observers said we appeared to have better mobility (no lines) and a better visual advantage (I could see my cuts). This blade could have used a cooling hose, but approved for wet or dry cuts. I put the saw down a lot to help move cut sections away. Greg just kept blasting away with torch, preventing his helper in keeping cut sections clear. His torch shot sparks everywhere. My saw sent a rooster tail, I could make accurate controlled cuts, with helper even holding/stabilizing. We were done and drinking long before Greg realized even his helper was having a beer. As we watched old dog work and we all laughed. I do have new blade on a saw, going to keep around the house. If we have the big shaker someday, have saw and blade that will cut anything. Next time I retire one of the old work saws, going to see if Greg wants to trade for truck parts! I had to laugh again when I saw this post today, cuts metal and everything else. NOT A SAW FOR EVERYONE!

Hey, Big,

Are they using the saws in that yard now? Just wondering if the old dog was shamed into new tricks!!

As another use for these saws is to cut the copper windings off of each end of big electric motor stators. I used a grinding disk and put the disk right beside the steel motor frame. There are probably better blades for this application but it worked just fine. It is a little tedious but I'll bet it didn't take an hour to get two 80 lb chunks of motor windings!

Jon.

Sawmilleng - I need to go check with him, turned into a big drink fest for us guys. Most of the ladies, including mine left, atmosphere of wrecking yard not very comfortable for more needy types! I enjoyed the company and beer, had a great time (next day was a little slow for me). Old Dog was very interested in the saw, wants to try one, so I will let him take it out for a "RIDE'. I think it may be the way to for a dismantler of vehicles. I know little on the subject, just when I saw the worker cutting with torch, he looked exhausted. Everyone there but self, for most part was in that line of work. Had never seen that kind of saw before, don't know why, they been around for awhile. Lot of guys on forum may be able to have some better way to go about it, I know we have people that do this full time. Plan to visit Greg (old dog) soon as he's a good guy and better source than I had for truck parts. I always look to make hard jobs less difficult, efficient process, work conditions, safety and people are all factors reviewing looking for a better way. It's a dead end "trap" to keep doing anything, just because "that's the way we always did it"! Tried and true methods may be best, should not keep you from considering other possibilities. I know I have trapped myself many times, that's why I'm here.

yesterday i was given a car to scrap for the first time

its a Peugeot 404 which was popular in the 70's and early 80's
i ts basically a rust bucket now and of no use

its all rusted up inside as well

i did try a few guys but they live far away so they declined