Today's video is a comparison of the DeWalt DW872 Multi-Cutter and the Evolution Rage2
cold cut saws. Compared to an abrasive chop saw a cold cut saw does not produce
the dust of the abrasive chop saw and is able to cut a variety materials
including ferrous and non-ferrous metals. I purchased that the DeWalt about 18
months ago and Evolution sent me the Rage2 saw about 6 months ago and since
that have been using the Rage2 exclusively up until the last month when
I started to do a head-to-head comparison between these two saws.
I struggled to figure out how I should compare these two saws
mainly because I've cut a lot of steel with the DeWalt and to do a fair
comparison I'd have to replace the blade. These blades aren't cheap and so I can't
afford to replace the blade just for a YouTube video. So I thought I'll focus on
the specifications of the Rage2 saw and not compare it directly to the
DeWalt saw. However, a lot of people have already done that and they've done that
better than I would be able to do myself. So, instead I came up with a comparison
which I think is unique and I think is fair and that looks at only one metric
and that is how well do these two saws perform the single task that I need
them to do for my work and that is to cut thick aluminum stock like this which
is 1 by 6 inch. This particular piece is used as a fixture plate on my CNC mill.
Skipping right to the conclusion of the video, the DeWalt saw does a far better
job cutting this sort of material than the Rage2 saw does. It's possible that
with a new blade the Rage2 saw would perform better but the Evolution
aluminum specific blade is about 107 dollars and when you add that to the
purchase price of the Rage2 saw you're close to the purchase price of the
DeWalt saw. Add to that I have no idea where the evolution saws get service
but that the DeWalt saws can be serviced at
the DeWalt service shop, which is just a few miles down the road. The rest of the
video is a comparison between the two saws using similar cuts supporting the
conclusion that that the DeWalt saw is better for my purpose. Your purpose may
be different and maybe the Rage2 saw would be more appropriate for you. Again,
single metric: how well do they cut aluminum stock like this. Both saws do a
great job cutting thin material like quarter inch aluminum and steel
DIN rail. You can actually feed this all quicker than I am here. I wasn't sure how
it would handle the DIN raill on edge like this. The cuts are pretty burr free.
A little light filing is all that's needed and certainly a cleaner cut then
abrasive chops saws gives. Where these saws really excel is making quick
square cuts in to material like this aluminum angle. The cut is clean and
nearly burr free. The Evolution saw let's thin material like this steel stock be
clamped without any support. The DeWalt saw needs some backing material for thin
stock because of the design of its clamp. See the angle of the clamp against the
fence? We'll come back to this in just a little bit. First I want to look at the
clamp and fence of the Evolution saw and as the clamp is tightened it actually
lifts itself and the material off of the bed. And this might not be a big deal, you
just have to be aware of it because it can affect the squareness. Because the
faces of the clamp and fence are parallel on the Evolution saw a V-groove
plate is installed onto the clamp which pushes the round stock into the fence
and holds it in position. Compare that to the DeWalt design that
has an angled face on the clamp and doesn't require any additional hardware
to hold round stock. This is actually a clip from the original review I did of
the DeWalt saw, and this is a 2.5 inch or about 64 millimeter
piece of 1215 steel. It takes about a minute to cut on the DeWalt saw and
a nice thing about these saws is once the piece is off it's cold
and unlike abrasive blades there is no dust and sparks. If cutting long material
just support it at the end. Now we're getting into the aluminum cutting
comparison between these two daws and the Evolution Rage2 saw, at least the blade it
comes with, has a real problem of chip buildup on the teeth. Any time saved by
using this saw to cut thick aluminum is lost because of the frequency of needing
to clear the teeth. Now compare that to the DeWalt saw, and the blade it comes
with, which has no trouble cutting through even thicker material. The
Evolution Rage2 blade, barely a quarter into the material, is already showing
chips packed on to the teeth. The Evolution Rage2 blade is marked as
being for aluminum but there's something that's just not quite right. I'm not sure of
the correct terms here but we'll say that every other lobe on the blade is facing the
other direction and only half of the lobes have carbide teeth. The backward
facing lobes might be a way of limiting the feed rate into the material but the
blade has half the number of teeth so maximum feed rate is also half. Compare
that to the DeWalt blade which is a much more wicked looking blade: more teeth,
sharper teeth, and much more room for chip evacuation. The difference can also
be seen in the chips that are being thrown from each blade. This is the
Evolution Rage2 blade, included with the Rage2 saw, and this is the DeWalt blade
included with the DeWalt MultiCutter. Because of the additional teeth there are
more chips but the chips are also longer and there is no problem with chip
packing. To minimize the number of teeth engage with the stock, this (vertical) is the
recommended orientation. Because of the blade guard design a lot of the chips on
the Rage2 saw are carried around the guard and ejected out the front.
The DeWalt saw is much more successful throwing the chips out the back. This is
a quick and dirty comparison between horizontal and vertical orientation of
the stock and its effect on cutting speed. The downward pressure that I apply
is mainly dependent upon the sound and the feel of the saw and any one who's
operated us all like this will understand. And that is to say that I'm
trying to be consistent with my use of the saw instead of consistent with the
exact pressure that I'm applying. So, again this comparison is completely
unscientific, but I think it's pretty fair to say that the vertical
orientation, if you can do it, will result in a faster cut. Okay, so after checking
to make certain all the teeth are cleared of packed aluminum chips, I'm
going to make the same cut that just took about 20 seconds on the DeWalt saw using
the Rage2 saw. Because of the design of the Rage2 blade, with half of the
lobes having teeth and the other half not, we might expect the Rage2 saw to
take roughly twice as long as the DeWalt saw. The saw is shuttering quite a bit
now and there are few chips being thrown out the front of the saw, so I'm pretty
sure that all the teeth are packed with aluminum now. And that was the circuit
breaker tripping. The only time that I'm editing out of these clips is the time
that I'm spending to reset the breaker at the panel and removing the buildup
off of the teeth.
Okay, we're back to cutting for the time being.
And the breaker tripped again.
And again.
Okay hooray. There is maybe 90 seconds spent cutting and then several minutes
spent resetting the breaker and clearing the teeth. I wouldn't be at all surprised
if on this cut the DeWalt saw was ten times faster than the Rage2 saw. I
really feel that the Rage2 saw with the blade it comes with is unusable for
thicker aluminum stock. There's going to be people who say well you need to use
lubrication. I tried all that. I tried blade wax, I tried WD-40, and none of it helps.
Eventually the teeth are packed with aluminum and it no longer cuts. Besides,
if the lubrication helps the Evolution saw, it will also help the DeWalt saw and
likely maintain the advantage that the DeWalt saw has. If we look at total costs
the DeWalt saw is $435, the Evolution Rage2
saw is $220, and a new blade to make it useful with
aluminum is a $107, and the Evolution EvoSaw380 which
seems to address some of the problems with the Rage2 saw is $379.
Keep in mind, I mainly only cut aluminum, but after using
the evolution Rage2 saw, I would be really hesitant to buy another cold cut
saw. If I didn't already have the DeWalt saw, I would have no idea how well cold
cut saws can work. Remember, Evolution sent me the Rage2
saw to do a review of and I just can't afford to shell out the $107
to try out a blade that may or may not improve its aluminum
cutting capacity. By the time the cost of the blade is added to the Rage2
purchase price, we're close to the cost of the EvoSaw380 and that saw has the nicest
base of the three saws on this summary page. Given the experience I had, I'm
partial to the DeWalt saw but there's a lot of people who have had good
experiences with the EvoSaw 380. Evolution may be closing the Rage 2 saw
out. I didn't find much information about it on Evolution's website and if you're not
cutting aluminum material then the Rage2 saw may be a
good purchase, if they start to discount the saw. I'm not sure what else is worth
mentioning, but I'd be glad to try to answer any questions you have, otherwise
at the end of this video or in the video description I'll include links to video
reviews of these saws. One final comment, if you do get a chop saw, consider
budgeting for a bandsaw because small cuts like these are not going to be
possible to do safely on a chop saw.
Thank you for watching and I wish you the best of success, wherever you are. I'll be back soon with another video.
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