Whenever we intend to choose a saw for cutting metal, we hear mainly about two saw names every time, well those are cold saw and Chop saw.

These two saws are the best for cutting metals, and these saws are so perfect that you won’t get the subtle differences and fall to compare between Cold saw vs Chop saw.

Don’t be confused. I will give you detailed information about the cold saw and chop saw. From there, it will help you find which one is the best for your needs.

The comparison table of Cold saw and Chop saw

Choosing factors	Cold saw	Chop saw
Cutting Edge	Fine	Fine
RPM range	20-100	1300-3500+
Floor standing	Yes	Yes
Slotting capacity	Yes	Yes
Base construction	Steel	Steel
Blades	Carbide	Abrasive, Diamond
Changing Blades	Easy	Easy
Beveling Cuts	Easy	No
Weight	Heavy	Heavy
Noise and Vibrations	High	Medium
Thick Materials	Limited	Well
Workspace	Less	Less
Wastage Amount	High	Medium
Safety	Comparatively safe	Moderate

Cold saw vs Chop saw comparison list

When you compare cold saw vs band saw, you may get confused while finding which one is the best among them and which will work better according to your needs. Let’s find out.

Cold saw

Chop saw

Similarities and Dissimilarities between Cold saw and Chop saw.

Body Structure 

Cold saw has a powerful motor and mostly cuts metal. This saw uses carbide blades that are mounted on the top of the hinged arm. On the Side of the arm, there is a long-size comfort handle that helps to up and down the blade easily and freely.

Chop saw structure is mostly the same as cold saw, but the handle of this saw is attached with the hinged arm, which ensures better grip and comfort. With the handle, you will get a trigger switch. Pressing that switch, you can easily run the blade to cut.

Blades and Cutting types

The cold saw uses stainless steel carbide blades with enough strong teeth to cut steel, pipe, iron, threaded bar, steel plates, etc.

Using this Cold Saw carbide blade, you can do almost all types of cuts like cross cuts, beveling cuts, rip cuts, and those will be accurate, smooth, and straight.

Chop saw is not behind on the cutting section from the Cold saw. This saw blade cuts ferrous metals, iron, steel, bronze, and other metals, and the build quality gives long life and fast cutting.

Varies types of cuts you can do, like cross 90-degree cuts easily. 

Cutting depth

In the modern cold saws, you can easily adjust or customize the depth of a wheel and can cut as you need. But it can cut up to 4 inches in depth on any material.

In this Chop saw, depth cutting is not quite impressive. It can cut its blades 1/3 diameter.

You can get more depth cuts on these two saws. For that, you have to remove the safety guard of the blade, which is quite risky. 

No worries, on this both saw while finishing one side cutting, you just have to flip the material and start cutting again. Using this trick, depth cutting will be easier and smoother.

Cutting edges and angles

As I told you earlier, the Cold saw and Chop saw are quite the same on the structure. For that, Both saws are enabled for perfect cutting edges. You can cut edges as fine as you need.

Cold saw can do up to 45 degrees straight cut, and Chop saw cuts from 45-90 degrees in any direction.

To cut on various angles, you just have to move the miter lock to any angle you want, and then you are ready to cut as you need.

Changing blade

Changing blades on both saws is quite easy. You just have to lose the locking screw, remove the head door, then lose the bolt, remove the blade flange and then remove the blade.

That’s it. Do the reverse process to attach the blade. Look, a newbie can do this easily. So, don’t worry about fixing, upgrading, and cleaning the blade. 

Kerf and wastage

The blade used on the Cold saw had a large and wide kerf. For that, while cutting it makes huge wastage of material and creates more dust.

On the other hand, Chop saw uses mostly plane circle blades which don’t have kerf, and that’s why it does not waste materials like a cold saw and creates a low amount of dust.

Noise and vibration

Cold saw and Chop saw, which are motorized machines, and as it cut metals mostly. For that, it’s apparent that it will create noises and vibrations. There is one more thing here that some make low ,and some make high noises and vibrations.

In this case, a chop saw creates a little bit less noise than a cold saw. But you can use a headset to protect your ear from noises while cutting. And to prevent vibration, you have to work on the ground floor; it would make less vibration.

Demolition work

These cold saw and chop saw are mainly for cutting metal and aluminum. But you can cut other materials like wood, plastic, and fiberglass. It won’t perform less.

Maintenance

Maintenance of both saws is quite easy. You just have to do some steps after cutting, like Clean the machine, Check the disc if it is broken, replace the disc, and sometimes use oil inside the gears and motor. 

That’s all, and these won’t take much time to maintain.

Safety

Nothing will give you 100% safety. Though these saws had a safety cap on the blade’s head, but the spark and the dust came out somehow.

On the cold saw, it creates less spark but creates dust and sound. On the other hand, Chop saw creates a huge amount of sparks and medium noise, and less dust.

These things can harm your body, so while working, try to wear a mask, goggles, headset, and hand gloves.

Budget

Because there are a number of similarities between cold saw and Chop saw, you may feel confused about which one you should buy. Here the budget can make a great factor.

A good quality cold saw comes with $1000 – $1500+, and Chop saw comes from the $780 – $1400 price range.

FAQS

Conclusion 

Even after using these for a long time, I don’t see much difference between cold saw and chop saw. Because these two are almost the same. I have seen many people have trouble distinguishing between these two. And for this, I wrote an article on this.

I gave you all the important details to easily compare them and choose which one you want as your need.

I hope you get helped by reading this article.