Evolution S14CPS 14" Heavy-Duty Metal Cutting Chop Saw | 3,500+ Cuts with EVOMAX14ST Blade | 14" Blade Compatible | Industrial Power Saw, Soft Start Motor, E-Brake, Precision Shadow Line Guide

I’ve been cutting 3/16” x 6” wide metal plate into 2” pieces with an abrasive cut wheel on my 4” angle head grinder for students to practice welding on. That has been a terrible ordeal to say the least. It takes forever to cut a piece out then you have to grind the burs and sweep up the metal dust from the cut. Not to mention all the sparks you’re blowing out. But now - this Evolution 14” saw has made a world of difference. It cuts FAST, it cuts STRAIGHT, it cuts CLEAN. It does put off cut chips but much easier to clean those up. No more grinding off the burs or hoping the cut is straight enough to work with. I only wish I had purchased this a long time ago. Adjustments for angles are easy enough to set up. The shadow light is very accurate. It’s not as loud as I thought it would be. Plenty of power for smooth fast cuts. I’ve been checking for accurate degrees of cut and it’s all good so far. It seems to built like a tank. Nothing wiggles. It functions 100 percent like it is advertised. I should get many years of use out of this saw.

Only had unit a short time, so this is an initial review. Will update over time. Unit is heavy, and heavy duty. Don't love the plastic handwheel on the vise screw or the fence angle adjuster. Not sure if there's a steel handwheel underneath the plastic; or if it's a plastic wheel molded onto the end of the leadscrew. Big difference. We'll see. Vise is cast and much heavier duty than the typical stamped steel you'd expect on a Milwaukee or Rigid abrasive saw. Soft start is really soft. Nice feature considering it's a 15A motor and you'll probably be running it on a 10-15A breaker and probably thru a long extension cord. Was expecting more from the spindle brake. It takes a solid 3-4 seconds to stop spinning. Guess that's fine, especially considering the blade guard does a great job fully covering the blade. I'm afraid the electronic complication of the soft start and brake will cause a breakdown in the future - we'll see. Shadow line is sweet. LED lights shining onto the blade causes blade to cast a shadow down onto the workpiece EXACTLY where the blade will cut. Simple, effective, accurate. Love it. Only made a few cuts thru 1" square 0.063" wall steel tubing so far. Using absolute MINIMUM down force, the saw cuts thru in about 10 seconds and leaves a beautiful finish. Cool to the touch and only a faint whisp of a bur that can be knocked off with a single light stroke of a file. So far so good!

The saw works very well. I just wish it was a little easier to adjust for angles. Oh yea, watch out for this saw when it decides to throw a piece of material. It becomes a missile. Probably best to not have anyone on the cut end of this saw.

The saw itself is perfectly fine. Upon receiving the new unit, I tested a few items I had laying around the scrap bin. 1" sq tube...fair but not fast. 2" pipe w 1/8" wall thickness. Probably a minute or more per cut. Very slow compared to what I've seen on other people's videos. I called evolution and they suggested I purchase the older, more aggressive blade.....NO. I decided to try a harborfreight metal cutting blade and I was able to chop a 1-3/4" piece of steel bar stock in the time it took the "New" 80tooth Evolution blade to cut the thin pipe. I'm sure the 66 tooth Evolution blade for another$100 would do fine....but I just paid Evolution $600 for a brand new saw with a brand new blade.. I'm not bashing the saw, but not impressed with the new black blade.

It's so sad that you can't buy a quality chop saw anywhere. I tried four brands of abrasive chop saws and they were all garbage so I decided to try an evolution. Honestly the thing cuts beautifully it works great, but they cheaped out where it really mattered. The base and vice on this thing are unacceptable. If you tighten the Vise at all the whole base twists on you and throws your cut off. If it wasn't for that I would get completely straight cuts every time. If I can't get straight cuts the saw is absolutely useless to me. I'm going to rebuild the whole base and fortify it, but it's so sad that I have to do that. It's even sadder that it's not possible to buy quality even when you're willing to throw money at it.