I keep a ton of 1″ mild-steel square tube in the shop, ’cause it’s pretty much the basic building block for most home fabrication projects. And I’ve spent waaaay too much time either cutting and notching tube to close up ends or making ugly corners. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to be able to miter the corners like you would a piece of wood? You can, it seems, with the Evolution Rage 3.
It’s built pretty much like standard wood miter saws, with two big changes: First, it spins at around 2,500 RPM instead of 3,500+ like wood saws. Second, Evolution fits it with their special Rage blade, which they claim will plow through steel, aluminum, and wood. Specifically, their website claims the saw/Rage blade combination will produce up to 750 cuts in “mild steel box section.”
Tech specs are what you’d expect in a 10″ saw: a max cut depth of 3″ at 90 degrees or 1-9/16″ at 45-degrees, and a max cut width of 11-13/16″ at 90-degrees and 8-1/4″ at 45 degrees. Evolution lists a duty cycle for it, too, at 30 minutes. It’s not exactly quiet, though, checking in at a claimed 98 dB(A) under load.
Street pricing seems to vary wildly, but expect to pay in the $300-$400 range for the saw itself and anywhere from $30-$65 for replacement blades. (At least Sears carries them, so if you needed one in a pinch it looks like you can get blades locally. Still, online prices look a lot cheaper.)
10″ TCT Multipurpose Sliding Miter Saw [Evolution]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Street Pricing (Replacement Blades) [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]