Cheap cut-off saws- worth buying? (pic)

There are a bunch of these 14" cutoff saws on ebay. They seem to go for around $70-$90.

Anybody have any experience with this (clearly cheap Taiwanese) chop saw? Like, does the motor burn out after a month, etc. Harbor Freight has had ones like this as well.

A chop saw is a pretty basic thing, and this is probably something that going on the cheap might be OK.

• a typical chop saw on ebay...

T_Bone

As far as the picture.. It doesn't look like there's much 'there' to me. My Uncle bought a lot of this 'caliber' of stuff before he passed on a couple years ago. It's all in the scrap pile now. The 'good' stuff is now 40+ years old and still working.

I'm not exactly swimming in money but I'd still spend an extra $100 and get a Milwaukee and have something that will last a lifetime.

Frankly I don't like abrasive chops saws much, they are noisy, throw lots of sparks and slow on anything with much thickness at all.... and after you're done you have to grind the feathered edge off to boot.

But, unless you can justify the $700 (min) for something approaching a decent bandsaw or the $1,500+ for a cold cutoff saw, they're what you've got to work with in this price range.

Another thought - Take a look a the Milwaukee hand-held metal cutting bandsaw. I've seen some backyard fabricators put them to good use.

bb

If you do enough fabrication to warrant the expense of a chop saw, or if (like me) your threshold of aggravation is extremely low, I'd say you'd be better off to spend the money and get a good one.

I'd be willing to bet the bearings and motor on that $90 saw are junk, and won't last long with any level of use to speak of.