Folks on the forum are so bright. I brought up the idea of using an inexpensive $10 clamping kit to convert an angle grinder to a small chop saw.
Several forum members responded by saying that this particular clamp kit had gotten poor user reviews.
As long as I had a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder laying on the bench gathering dust, I decided to take a chance , order the clamping kit and give the conversion a try.

Bottom line - the hinge assembly and clamping bolts were marginally all right. Everything else in the kit was of poor quality.
So, I took the hinge assembly, machined the surfaces and added shimw to true and tighten the hinge assembly. That part was now all right.
I mounted the angle grinder, and then after finding the necessary length, trimmed the 6 mounting screws to length to leave a clean appearance to the saw.
Finally, I took a piece of wood, a piece of 1/4 inch steel with a lip bent on one side and a piece of angled aluminum to create a new base for the grinder.
After assembling the grinder, making a few adjustments, the chop saw chops true and straight with no play and it is a nice small compact piece of equipement that fits nicely in the rod building area.

So, yes, the forum members were correct when the stated that the clamp had received poor reviews. As received- the clamp is iffy at best. But with a bit of time and machines and materials, the angle grinder was converted into a nice small chop saw ready for long use in the rod building area.

By the way, this grinder will cut pvc tubes just fine for shipping rods, cardboard tubes for shipment, or 1/2 inch steel bolts, if you need it to bolt something big and heavy.

[www.rodbuilding.org]


Take care and cut safely

Roger

Now that is thinking Outside The Box. I like the way the handle can be used to lower the saw.

Don;t know if you thought of it But lock-tight could be used on any bolts to keep them from loosening up

Bill - willierods.com

That looks like it would work just great. I did a little snooping and found a 7" chop saw for cheap.

[www.amazon.com]

_________________________________________
"Angling is extremely time consuming.
That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane

Check the Reviews before you buy it Some not good ??

Bill - willierods.com

Bill,
Yes, most of the reviews were not good, and as I said, I had to throw away 1/2 of the clamping fixture and make an entirely new base due to its poor quality.
With respect to the clamping bolts - all of the bolts are double nutted which does an excellent job of locking.

The handle is another thing that was very poor on the original clamp. The handle that came with the clamp setup was a cheesy bolt with a plastic tip on the end.
The handle that is in the picture is the nice handle that came with the angle grinder. The hande fit nicely into the 1/4 inch hole in the clamp, which was the same size hole as on the grinder itself.

This is an example of why we call outselves custom. If we don't like something, we simply change it until it does the job for us.

Roger

If you have a 10in. miter cut off saw there are 10in. abrasive cut off wheels that will fit on them.
I have used this set up for cutting 1/4in. all thread rod along with other cutting tasks related to rod building.

John

I have an 8 inch chop saw, a 10 inch chop saw and all work just fine.

One of the nice things about this small angle grinder, is the small foot print on the bench. It only takes up about an 8X10 inch area.

Roger

Harbor Freight has a very cheap 6" chop saw that has worked very well for me - normally is about $40.00 but sometimes $25.00 on special

I wouldn't want to do much metal work with it, but it works great for cutting blanks and the like.