www.protoolreviews.com: In looking at a chop saw vs a miter saw, we can quickly see these are two very distinct tools. They not only serve different purposes (metal-cutting vs wood), but they also function very differently from one another.
Despite this, we can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard the term “chop saw” used to describe a miter saw. It’s not a huge deal, but we always try to educate our readers (and those new to the trades) about the differences.
4 comments:
I would not say that I am a person who tends to have many "pet peeves", save one. For some reason that I do not know, I hate it when people call mitre saws chop saws. Whenever someone would mistakenly call a mitre saw a chop saw, I would correct them. Inevitably they would always ask what the difference was. I would usually refer to the angling of the blade to make angled cuts, and state that chop saws are found more often in metal shops while mitre saws were found more often in wood shops. Although that particular statement doesn't really have much to do with the saw itself. Seeing an article like this that lays out all the details is nice to read. However, the article states that chop saws are designed only for metal and that you would need a hybrid for cutting wood. This is false, as there are chop saws that exist, which aren't mitre saws, that are made for the purpose of cutting lumber. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this article.
I clicked on this article because I am always looking for new more descriptive ways to explain the difference between a Miter saw and a Chopsaw to a lay person. In my experience most people use that word interchangeably which irks me because there is a difference between them. I appreciated that the article laid out the differences in bullet points and side by side. I felt like it was a very clean and straightforward way of presenting the information. The article did state that chop saws were meant for metal but I have known many a theatre who have chop saws for lumber, and I have used many of them in my lifetime. So I think that the article should have clearly denoted that they are made for both but that the chop saw may be more common for metal working.
When I first started doing woodshop, I learned that this saw was called a miter saw. When I moved and started doing theater at my new school, they called it a chop saw, which I had never heard before. I had looked it up and all the results I found told me they were the same thing. But they’re not!! It is interesting how the wrong name spreads. Because I am guessing no one in my high school has used an actual “chop saw” (one that cuts metal), but somewhere down the line, someone called it that, and then everyone else has been calling it a chop saw since. I never realized a chop saw could use an abrasive blade to cut metal. I guess I always thought it looked the same but was just made of a different material. I did not expect it to be an abrasive blade.
In my high school, I was taught by the English teacher that helped build the sets (we did not have a scenic professor or staff or class) that it was called a chop saw. In fact, i had never even heard the word miter saw until I got to CMU. However, it made a lot of sense because you can make mitered cuts with the saw, so I like that it's called a miter saw. But yes, I was surprised to learn it was not a chop saw. So I would say to all the people that are annoyed or irked by people calling a miter saw a chop saw that not all of us had the same education in wood and metal crafting and some of us had teachers which would give us incorrect information, and maybe you were the only person in that "wood shop" class so there were not other classmates to bounce ideas off of and fact-check haha.
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