I have been to ace hardware, harbor freight tools store and look for chop saw and a drill bits and i wonder what kind tools to drill a cork and eva foam ? and i want to know if they can cut a balnk on chop saw ? well i has see a nice small chop saw at harbor freight tools for 25 dollar but will it work or will it damage the graphite ?
other things i wonder if any drill bits from store will work on cork ? pliot drill bits from flex coat seem expensive so i wonder store have a good drill bits ??
Josh

I wouldn't cut a graphite blank with a chop saw. I see a destroyed blank in your future. I would ut a piece of masking tape around the place to be cut and use a hacksaw.

My.02

Cut them with a chop saw all the time, using fiber blades.
Wrap masking tape around blank so your cutting mark is about center of tape (to prevent splintering) and you shouldn't have any problems.

mine is a small chop saw bought from the same place you mentioned.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2010 12:24PM by Steve Gardner.

Josh,
Great idea. I highly recommend it, with the proviso that you remove the blade and replace it with an abrasive wheel.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

The abrasive wheel has no teeth on it and will not catch a blank and shatter it as a blade might.
The abrasive wheels that I use are tool room - very thin - wheels that remove very little material from the item being cut, and it takes very little power to make the cut since so little material is being removed.

[www.grainger.com] -- these wheels are thicker - 1/8th inch but less expensive.

[www.grainger.com] - These are the best ones to use. They are reinforced, very thin, and leave very clean cuts.

Note, in the picture I have illustrated the build up of the saw base, as well as move the work forward by the use of channel. By raising the work piece, the saw will continue to cut as it wears down from 8 inches to 4 inches. Then, by moving the work forward, the work will be directly below the center of the wheel and thus will continue to be cut as the wheel diameter gets smaller due to wear.

---
Another nice benefit of obtaining such a saw, is that you can use it for general construction and trim work with the right saw blade.
With the use of the abrasive wheel, it does a wonderful job in cutting pvc pipes as well as cardboard shipping tubes which I use all the time to ship rods.

I also use the saw to chop both steel as well as aluminum for projects that I use in the shop.
If you chop steel, it is a good idea to use the less expensive wheels, because the steel will wear the wheels fairly quickly.
Rod blanks, on the other hand wear the abrasive wheels very very slowly and you will be able to use the same wheel for cutting many many blanks.

Go for it, you will cut quickly, safely, and cleanly with a chop saw.

Take care
Roger

The only thing I use is a mini chop saw I bought from Harbour Freight and put an abrasive wheel on; I think everything was less than 40 bucks, and I've used the same wheel to cut many, many blanks. I do wrap the blank with masking tape where I'm cutting to prevent splintering.

Walt Davenport
"Roadhouse Rods"

I guess I am crazy using my dremel tool with a $15 diamond blade.

And to think for a couple more dollars you can do lots of other things with the dremel too!

I do recommend taping off the cut like Steve mentioned. Not only does the tape stop splintering but it also gives you a nice line to cut along.

-----------------
AD

Any concern over the heat generated when cutting with an abrasive wheel? I see guys concerned with heat guns and that is nothing compared to all the smoke I saw using a cut off wheel on a die grinder to trim the butt on a recent rod.

Josh Clark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have been to ace hardware, harbor freight tools
> store and look for chop saw and a drill bits and i
> wonder what kind tools to drill a cork and eva
> foam ? and i want to know if they can cut a balnk
> on chop saw ? well i has see a nice small chop saw
> at harbor freight tools for 25 dollar but will it
> work or will it damage the graphite ?
> other things i wonder if any drill bits from store
> will work on cork ? pliot drill bits from flex
> coat seem expensive so i wonder store have a good
> drill bits ??
> Josh

Unless you are going to be building a LOT of rods you may want to hold off on the chop saw for now. A Dremel tool with a cut off type abrasive wheel will work, as will the edge of a "fine" wheel on a bench grinder if you use a light hand and turn the blank slowly in the opposite direction of the wheel's rotation. As suggested, wrapping tape around the blank is a good idea.

Regular drill bits will work, but you'll want to turn them in REVERSE so they don't grab the cork and pull it into the drill and wreak the cork.

Russell Brunt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any concern over the heat generated when cutting
> with an abrasive wheel? I see guys concerned with
> heat guns and that is nothing compared to all the
> smoke I saw using a cut off wheel on a die grinder
> to trim the butt on a recent rod.

Unless the wheel on the die grinder used to trim the butt of that rod was "clogged" with metal, etc. there shouldn't have been much heat and little if any smoke - some of what you saw was probably graphite dust.

If a grinding wheel or cut-off wheel is glazed it should be dressed with a wheel dressing tool, or a silicone carbide stone/ wheel dressing stone so that it cuts cooler, cleaner, and with less pressure.

Dan

Josh,
I also picked up one of these Mini Chop Saws:

[www.harborfreight.com]

I removed the "stuff" from the top of the work surface and simply screwed a 1/4X1/4 aluminum angle behind the cutting wheel to act as a work stop.
I didn't want to make any angle cuts, so the straight aluminum angle worked very well.
I then removed the 2 inch toothed blade and use a 3 inch abrasive cut off wheel to do the actual cutting.

This is a very small saw, and will fit on the corner of any bench.
I did mount the saw on a 2X10 - simply to get some mass to the saw and to avoid having to clamp it down. I put rubber feet on the bottom of the 2X10 to keep the saw from sliding on the bench.

After much use, I had some issues with the motor so I reached into my junk box and picked up a higher speed industrial motor that was in my junk box. I mounted this motor on the saw in place of the original motor and have continued to use it ever since.
I use this small saw in my " clean room" for little trim jobs. I keep my big chop saw - in my "dirty shop" for the bigger cutting jobs.
Since this saw uses the equivalent of a sewing machine motor, you can use a typical sewing machine foot pedal to control the speed of the motor if you want it to run slower.
Because it is much smaller, I typically use this all of the time to chop the poly arbors and cork that I use when assembling reel seats.
A razor knife will work for this job, but the mini chop saw works much quicker, and cleaner.

Take care

Roger

A very inexpensive alternative is a ring of tape as a guide and a triangle file. Turn the blank as you go. Very safe since no power tool is needed. Takes about 30 second to achieve a cut through most thin walled blanks.