evolution saws

[engineerone]

so i admit i should not have been there, but in the yeading B&Q looking for wall paper

and they had a guy demonstrating the evolution rage saw.
can't remember if that is the one colin cott has, but i looked a little further.

the guy showed me it cutting a piece of 2x2 with a couple of nails in it, cut through the nails and wood across the length, very well, with no sparks, and when i touched the nails, they were cool.

so quite impressive for a saw about 100 quid, and with blades at around 20. apparantly you can use the same saw for metal cutting alone, with a special blade, and they have recently introduced a diamond blade which can be used for paving slabs.

apparantly they are a sheffield company who have been getting made, and selling metal saw through BOC shops for some time, and i guess new owners decided to expand the market place for the stuff.

anyway, seems it might well be a decent site saw if you are renovating.

final thought, they are actually re arranging the store at yeading, and finally laying things out in a sensible way

now they have a section containing drawer slides, and accessories alongside all the hard ware.

finally got some 300mm slides for 3.48 pair. interesting cause they carry an american branding, liberty hardware of salem north carolina. can't see them being made in the states, but just shows the value of the dollar finally they also have some samples so you can see how the drawers work, they also no carry full extension slides, plus keyboard slides.

paul

[engineerone]

so the slides are made in china, which just shows,
it's cheaper for b&q to import from an american company
which makes a profit than do it them selves direct

paul

[mailee]

When I first saw this saw a thought occured to me that it is not the saw that cuts metal it is the blade. Surely any power saw will cut metal fitted with the correct blade to do so. Most quality saw blades will cut through the odd nail or two without flinchng too so what is so special about this saw?

[Scrit]

True, it's the blade, but the feeds and speeds for metals are generally slower than those for wood, so how do they manage that? I have some DW "Demolition" cobalt steel blades for my recipro saw which will saw through lust about anything (gtear for removing old stud walls), but clean-cutting they aren't. From what I've read the Rage saws aren't the best quality of cut on timber, but may be OK for refurb work providing you don't want to put the stuff you're taking out back in. Anyone here bought one and care to comment?

Scrit

[engineerone]

the sense i got from my discussion was that for the first time you had a blade which would cut either wood or metal, so as i said, like scrit, seems great for renovation type work, for instance cutting through floor boards and even joists,(allowing for its ability to cut to a depth)

i must confess i was not too impressed with the wood finish, for instance the break out at the end of the cut, but at least you did not have to be scared of the blade chipping and breaking if you hit a nail

the other claim was that their motor is a better quality, not sure what that means, since it is of course a direct drive system,
but i too would be interested to hear from those who have actually used one.

paul

[jfc]

I have a blade that can do that in my Elu flip over but it cost around £120

[engineerone]

so one evolution and a spare blade

paul

[jfc]

At the end of the day if the saw is £100 it's going to be crap for heavy use . I blew a SIP saw up in 3 hours , i dont call that heavy use . I also snapped the handle of a SIP heavy duty mortice machine and sheared bolts that hold ships together as replacements . Bad design i would say on SIP's part . What i'm saying is if you buy sh*t dont expect it to last .

[engineerone]

so far have saved my money, but i see so far no one has admitted to owning one either

i wonder about sip too, some of their stuff is ok, other bits just don't seem to work at all

i agree that paying peanuts doesn't work most of the time, but
paul

[mailee]

Hmm, you sound a bit heavy handed JFC. ;D

[onlyme]

The Evolution range has been around for years, but generally as a more expensive trade machine. The one that B&Q sell is a lesser quality version of the trade one that is still available.
I'm pretty sure that Evolution made this version especially for B&Q and needed to bring the price down so they changed quite a few of the pricier parts!

I don't know about the B&Q version but on the trade version there are different blades available depending on the material being cut and the different blades will make a difference. There are blades for cutting steel, stainless steel, aluminium and wood. I don't remember the wood cutting one being fantastic but I was only rough cutting anyway so didn’t pay that much attention to the wood cutting side of it, but the steel cutting blade was amazing - no sparks and the steel being cut could be picked up straight away - no heat!

Never used the B&Q version so not sure how it compares but the trade one that I used was fantastic and would highly recommend one - and they seem to last, I borrowed it 2 - 3 years ago from a mate who has a metal fabrication business and the same machine is still going strong and is used most days. Blades are pretty expensive but they last quite well.

It’s a combination of the machine and blade that allows it to cut metal so well. The speed has to be right and it cuts a lot slower than other circular saws. If you put one of the evolution blades on any other circular saw then it might cut a bit of metal but because the speed is too fast you will either damage the blade or will have bit’s of teeth flying off everywhere!!
The metal cutting blades will have different cutting angles and a different grade of tungsten than the wood cutting blades.

[thatsnotafestool]

I'm tempted to get the cheapest one going - under £100 IIRC. Having pulled out about two years worth of firewood from the cottage, it would be ideal for cutting up as I wouldn't have to worry about nails knackering up the chainsaw blade.

[seaco]

Do they do different size evolution saws as B&Q in Taunton are selling one for £59?

[andy king]

I looked at the 99 quid one a couple of years ago, after seeing it at a tool show.
It was pretty well built, but (probably) coming out of China, had the usual cheaper adjustment knobs etc, that detracts from the overall quality.
The blade has a negative rake blade with a chip limiter type profile. Evolution don't claim the blade will last forever, but they do claim it will cut up to 50 metres of 6mm steel.
I had an old home made router table top kicking around that was 3/4 ply with a 450mm square 4mm steel plate let in, so a good enough test.
I must admit, I was expecting a rough ride, but it flew through both, no sparks, no drop off in power, and a clean cut in the steel, leaving little swarf like chips.
The finish on the ply was OK as I was going with the grain.
Having cut about 18 inches of steel I didn't expect the blade to be up to much, despite the claims. Hitting the odd nail or two does an ordinary one no favours, and only the blade profile seems the difference here, although the speed of 3500rpm is about 1500rpm short of a standard one as well, but the cut is still fast enough.
Anyway, after cutting the steel, I tried it on some 45mm oak, and the cut was still as sharp and as quick as before the steel, so pretty impressive. Whether it will hit the 'up to 50 metres of steel' as claimed is one i can't confirm, but it does do exactly what they claim in cutting steel and timber.
If they beefed up the adjusting bits and pieces, it would be all the better for it, but always the Chinese short cut on these areas it seems.

Andy

[engineerone]

thanks for a decent set of comments andy, that seems to bear out what the guy was saying.

paul

[paulchapman]

Full details here www.evolutionpowertools.co.uk/uk/index.html

[mel]

andrewking said:

The finish on the ply was OK as I was going with the grain.

Andy

Andy i don't want to pedantic , but

what kind of ply goes with the grain ??

or am i being pedantic

mel

[engineerone]

top and bottom maybe mel depending on whether you cross cut or rip

actually the guy showed me a laminate worktop
and that looked quite clean too.

paul

[andy king]

engineerone said:

top and bottom maybe mel depending on whether you cross cut or rip ??

paul

Yep, as Paul says here, exactly that Mel.
ply may be cross laminated, but there'sstill a long grain cross grain orientation when you cut through the face veneers, which is what I meant.

Andy

[pewe]

I have been using an Evolution rage for about a year.

I use 2 different blades in it - the standard multipurpose blade supplied, and a 40 tooth wood blade for cutting ply, laminated board etc.

As Andy has said, the standard blade gives an acceptable cut for most things, but when a quality cut is needed I use the 40T.

When I spoke to Evolution and raised the point that surely any saw would cut steel using their blade, they raised an interesting point.
They said that a saw blade does not 'slice' material like a knife, it chips it like a chisel (fair comment) and the impact created by the 'chipping' would destroy most circular saw gears very quickly if used regularly for cutting steel, but their gears are designed and manufactured to withstand the punishment as the Rage uses the same gears as their more expensive industry saws. They also said that it is the body and base plate of the saw which have been engineered out of less expensive material to bring the saw down to a price more acceptable to the light trade/diy market.

They also told me that the saw was not designed and manufactured specifically for B&Q, but B&Q placed the first order which was large enough to facilitate the saw going in to production in volume, which lowered the initial entry price. You will now see the saw being offered by other suppliers (such as Screwfix, Jewson, Machine Mart etc) in the UK, the number of which Evolution expects to increase significantly in the future as a result of their marketing presence at trade shows etc.

They are now also exporting the saw to the States.

[dalo218]

As an aside i have an evolution mixer which gets regular use [and abuse ] mixing plaster ,also 99 Quid from screwfix, its a good machine well up to the job. At a trade show last year i watched the demo of the saw and was very impressed but to be honest for £99 it seemed to good to be true. I wasnt in the market for a new saw as my old skill is still going strong but if i needed one i would have been tempted. But who wants to cut metal any way!!!

[dirtydeeds]

i had a look at one of these things in B&Q my overwhelming impressions were

its an awful green colour

its heavy

but altough its heavy the depth and angle setting pieces are very light duty