Hi Guys,
I was recently informed that there was a Harbor Freight Tools store in nearby Charlotte, NC, so I made the trip to check it out. I saw an item that I saw online but couldn't decide based on a picture if I wanted it. Well I saw it
at the store and I got it. It is a "Mini Cut-Off Saw" model 42307. The price was $23.99. However, when I looked at the sales flyer in my bag I found out
that from Aug.11-21 the price will be $17.99 -Oh well my bad timing
I got it home and installed the blade and plugged it up. The unit is small and comes with a clamp to hold it to your bench. It has an easy to use vise to hold the piece to be cut and the vise base can swing and lock the piece up to 45 degrees for angle cuts. I set it at 0 for 90 degree cut. The maximum width of the vise opening is 3/4" wide so I put in a 3/4" X 1/4" thick balsa piece in
the vise and locked it. Turned on the saw, engaged the safety and lowered the saw. It produce a smooth and accurate and square cut that doesn't even need sanding. Next, I locked in a 3/8" x 1/2" maple motor mount and began to cut. You can tell that the saw's motor is not super powerful and it was bogging down a little so I just slowed down and added another 3-4 seconds
by lowering the saw a little slower. The results were perfect cuts.
The blade is not much thicker than a large razor saw blade so the cuts are
very precise. Next, I loaded 2 pieces of motor mount and locked them in and cut them. This load exceeded the blades capacity and the bottom outside corner of each piece was left with a small uncut area. The motor had no problem cutting 2 pieces of maple stock as long as you lower the blade slowly. I haven't tried it on aluminum and brass tubing because I want to get another blade just for that work and not dull my wood blade but I think it will cut tubing just fine.
Given the speed, the accuracy and the ease of use of this saw I think my razor saws may become rusty from disuse. Replacement blades are around $4.00 which seems like a good value.
To sum up this is a specialty saw to cut sticks, strips, motor mounts and other smaller pieces of wood as well as tubing using straight and angled cuts.
The vise and the angle adjustment both function well mechanically which to me takes this saw out of any "toy tool" category and makes it a useful hobby tool. It is a specialty saw but for this price why wouldn't you want one?
I look forward to using this tool to speed and improve my hobby work.
Till next time.
Pat Robinson
Topic: Useful New Tool (Read 932 times)