joshuabardwell
Elite Member
I have a project that I may be doing soon that will involve cutting about 250 pieces of 3/4" EMT. The last time I did this, I used a 14" abrasive chop-saw, which worked really well in a lot of ways, but one thing I didn't like was how long it took. I could only cut one piece at a time and each cut took maybe 5 seconds, plus the time to set up the next piece in the jig. Really inefficient.
I have one of these Diabolo metal cutting blades that I originally got for cutting corrugated metal roofing. It says right on the side of the blade that it is for EMT, so I am sure it will do the job, but given that the blade is $40 a pop, I am not so sure it's the right choice. 14" abrasive wheels are maybe $7 each, and if I recall correctly, I will use 2 or 3 of them on this job.
My question is, if you have one of these Diabolo metal cutting blades, what kind of life can I expect out of it cutting EMT like this? I would really like to be able to just line up a bunch of pieces of EMT, clamp a board across them, and then run a circular saw down a straight-edge to cut tens of pieces in a single go. It would save so much time! But if I'm going to burn out this $40 saw blade in the process (or, god forbid, more than one!), I think I'll just suck it up and use the chop-saw.
In case you're curious, the project is building a geodesic dome. You can read more about the first time I built a dome here.
I have one of these Diabolo metal cutting blades that I originally got for cutting corrugated metal roofing. It says right on the side of the blade that it is for EMT, so I am sure it will do the job, but given that the blade is $40 a pop, I am not so sure it's the right choice. 14" abrasive wheels are maybe $7 each, and if I recall correctly, I will use 2 or 3 of them on this job.
My question is, if you have one of these Diabolo metal cutting blades, what kind of life can I expect out of it cutting EMT like this? I would really like to be able to just line up a bunch of pieces of EMT, clamp a board across them, and then run a circular saw down a straight-edge to cut tens of pieces in a single go. It would save so much time! But if I'm going to burn out this $40 saw blade in the process (or, god forbid, more than one!), I think I'll just suck it up and use the chop-saw.
In case you're curious, the project is building a geodesic dome. You can read more about the first time I built a dome here.