Breaking Point: We "Saw" it Coming

You can't say that.

All right, welcome. My fence lives breaking point is here. We are jazzed to have you guys live. We're back in the shop right now. We're going to be checking out these uh looking at these sawzalls. I like to call them sawzaws. They're call reciprocating saws. We got we got Brooks in the background. We got Sean hiding back there. Get over here, Sean. He's going to be running the back end for us, helping us get some of these blades on these saws and and getting them up and operational for you. Brooks, what? Yes, sir. How often do you use a saw? Uh not as often as you would like me to, that's for sure. I'm a grinder kind of guy, but there are applications when you need to put in a a 12, 14 inch blade and start cutting stuff. So, I would probably say one out of every 20 cuts is a sawzaw. Yeah. And I think uh you know, at a fence company, we use a lot of saws. I we're always cutting something off and either whether it be nails, wood coming out, or even get right down to the ground and using a longer saw blade, you cut a post off flush with the ground. There really isn't a lot of stuff besides grinders to try to get down there and that this which give you a lot of sparks and stuff. So, um, we actually went out, we went to Harbor Freight. We actually use a lot of Harbor Freight tools, um, at Las Vegas Fence. Do you use any Harbor Freight tools at all? Uh, grinders. I go through a lot of grinders, so maybe this will this will be a good video for me to uh to show. There are some few a few tools I use. Yeah. So, we picked up the three main brands that Harbor Freight uh Harbor Freight had. They got a Warrior, they got a Bower, and a Hercules. And it's in that order on on the price level as well. So, Warrior is a 6 amp and then uh the Bower was the uh was that the the 10 amp or the 12? Bower is 10 amp. That's the 10 amp and then we got a 12 amp for the Hercules. So, um we're going to we're going to test these things out and see what's going on. But besides that, they all got their own brand of sawzaw blades. So, uh that's that's pretty interesting as well. So, the uh Warrior comes with a not comes with, but you got to purchase it separately. And uh looks like it was about $9 and you get five blades. and uh it's the Warrior brand. And then uh the Bower one is a fourpack for $11 and the the Hercules is a three-pack for $11. And what I did find interesting was the second I went and opened up the uh the blades on these things is the Susan, right? So which one am I going to look at? Right. Camera A, camera B. All right. So the blades for the Bower and the Hercules were almost identical. And I mean, right down to the teeth lining up, the design, the patterns, and they're both $11 except one is a three-pack and one is a fourack. So, I find that pretty interesting. But Brooks, you brought up a good point. What could be the difference? Uh oh. The type of material that they use um to give it a little bit more durability, right? Uh even though they look exactly the same. And and and the uh the one with the fourack says three times life, fourpack. One says four times life durability with the three pack. So, I guess we're going to try to find out. So, we're going to load these things up. I'm going to first unpack this uh this warrior one. Now, this is a $25 uh reciprocating saw. I want to say reciprocal. I don't know why. Reciprocating saw, but again, I call them sawzall. So, we're going to open this thing up and see what it comes with real quick. But, uh just looking at it, it's the 6 amp one. And it's the only one that has 180°ree, if you can see this, 180°ree rotating uh handle. So, I think that's pretty interesting. So, we're going to open this thing up. I was probably showing the wrong camera on that one. I think you were showing the TV. Oh, is that what it was? Like, hey, I went past the camera. So, right out of the box, um, comes with some, uh, cardboard and a little box for your cats to play with or something if you got one. I assume Brooks got cats, but uh, plastic wraps around. That's it. So, no blades in there, right? Uh, didn't see any. So, this one comes with no saw blades out of the pack, but it's it's a nice sturdy little box. Uh, looks like a quick release. You can turn it pretty easy. That's kind of nice. I have a Milwaukee that does that and there's about one and 50 times that it comes in handy, but when it does just to get leverage on it that particular way. So, I mean, you could turn it sideways and get right in there.

So, that is kind of nice. You're not trying to hold it upside down. And it looks like it goes all the way around 180. So, that is interesting. Let's get Sean here to load a blade in this thing and let's give it a shot. Huh. So, drop in the comments though if you've ever ordered some a saw or picked up a saw blade from um from Harbor Freight or which what your favorite brand is and uh you know if you had a good or bad experience because I like to get some feedback uh to people on that. We go through a lot of these and I think at us we either get the Bower or the Hercules. Probably a lot of the Bowers. And uh getting into the the Blades, the Bowers is a $55 one and I don't know if it's the same at all the all the different uh stores around the country but it's $55 for this one, $99 uh for the Hercules. So that means it's $25 for the one we're about ready to try out. 55 and 99 going up into the 12 amp. Now, we're going to load these things with the saw blades that the manufacturer is I don't know if they make them or they produce them or whatever it's going to be, but we're going to load them with the ones that they actually um sell. So, this is the $9 pack of five blades, 14 TPI, so 14 teeth per inch. And uh is that what you loaded in there? Okay, perfect. And we're going to cut this piece of 1 and 5/8 schedule 40 pipe. And we're going to see how many cuts on each one of these things we can get before the blade wears out basically because obviously there's not enough time to run this thing until it blows up. I guess maybe it will. We'll find out. But should say, hey, it's labeled warrior. It's labeled warrior though, so I guess it's probably going to hold up. Let's get some uh safety gloves on here just in case something gets sharp. Always uh wear your eye protection because even though it doesn't have sparks, um it does sometimes spit out I don't know if you ever seen that, it does spit out a little shard of of steel or something at you. So, it's, you know, it's you can't replace your eyes. So, uh, definitely wear something. Did you find an interesting fact on that? Uh, it's a 90-day warranty. So, I think, uh, some of us, uh, like warranties, so, just to know that it it does have a 90-day warranty, and it looked like it came with an Allen wrench, which is to take the guard on and off. Okay. So, it came with an Allen wrench. I didn't notice. And then 90-day warranty, but if you get it at Harbor Freight typically, and I think they tried to offer me warranties on these things, um, but, uh, you pay like another 10 $10, $20. Did you get the extended warranty? I didn't get any warranty. Damn, you should have got it. I should have got one. Yeah, what we're going to do to it, right? But but nonetheless, uh yeah, I didn't get it, but I do have that. And you can exchange it up like three times, I think, no matter what on Harbor Freight. So, that's kind of cool. So, let's try this thing out. And uh back at home, count, but we're going to be counting. I think Susan's in the background. She's going to be keeping track at the end of this. We're going to let you guys know which one got the most cuts using the manufacturer's blade and the manufacturer saw before the blade basically started going dull when it starts to get a little more difficult. So, we're going to see how this goes. Scientific right here.

What did counteractly say? One. All right.

Oh,

Hey, now I could tell it's already starting to uh not, you know, not go through quite as smooth, which is interesting. Looks a little little bit slower. Yeah, it is. But but keep in mind, I'm also not using the whole blade. I'm going to be doing it the same from uh the same spot right at where the where the actual saw hits the steel because obviously we're not going to be coming out here and shaking the post a lot. So, that's three so far.

Four.

Last five. And I'm putting a lot more down pressure on this now. It was going a lot easier in the beginning. So, try for six. I'm going to try for six. But that was uh that was a workout on that one. It wasn't the same workout in the first couple.

Okay, we're going to call it five because that was uh was that five before? Five and a half. That was five because uh I was actually putting a way more pressure than you would ever be pushing before you would be swapping that blade out. So, there we have it. So, drop in your comments. What did you guys think we were going to be getting on that? I'm curious. Susan, pull up any comments where somebody made a guess. Let's Let's guess on the uh Bower. Bower is the next one up. Yeah, the Bower. Dollar-wise is the next one up. Yeah, it's $55. So, this was a $25 saw. Um it does swivel, which is nice, but um I wasn't too impressed with the number of cuts we got out of their blades with that. So maybe switching to another blade would have made a difference. Did it feel like it had good power though? It had the power. It had all the power you needed. So maybe on another one we will uh we'll test it out and see uh switching blades and kind of run them until on the next test run them until they start to actually blow up almost on us. So we've got the Bower. It looks like uh it doesn't have a swivel uh quick tool quick release just like the other one. 10 amp motor which uh I don't know why you almost need the 10 amps really because the other one seemed to have quite a bit of power. So, let's open this thing up. See what comes in it. This one goes to 11. Yeah, but this one goes to 11. So, you know, one disappointing thing though is I don't have all the cardboard like I got in the other one. Yeah. You know, you have to know how to read. So, but this one did come with a uh looks like a blade. It was a uh 14 TPI blade, a short one. So, that's kind of Oh, two of them. So, that's kind of nice. No, just one. It's just a thick blade. This is probably twice as thick as the Warrior ones. And uh it has the Allen wrench help with

That. You know, it's got a sturdier feel to it, though. A lot more uh meat meat to grab, it feels like. And this one, did that other one have a lock? Yeah, it did. The same kind of lock. So, let's give this one a try. What's it locking? The trigger. Yeah, the trigger. So, again, this is going to be the $55 one. I don't know if it's a $55 where you're at, but uh that's probably the most common one that we purchase here. As you can see on the table, if you can see that, we've got just a bunch of them sitting here uh either working or don't work. And uh we do sometimes get the warranties because we swap them out and you go through stuff at the fence companies. But, uh we're going to do that. You're going to use a uh a bower blade on that. Okay. So, what did you do? You bought the I guess I'm not clear on the blades. You bought the brand of blade that corresponds for each one. So, they sold the Warrior, but they sold a pack of Warrior blades. So, and you could definitely see a difference in the blades. You can definitely see a difference in the blades and just how big they are. Uh the Warrior blades are actually a lot thinner as well, if you can kind of get an idea of that. So, I definitely think these Hercules ones and the Bower is going to cut a little bit better. We're going to find out. But they're the same thing. They're both what? 9 in. We're going to give this one a try. Oo. You know, you can already tell it's got some some sort of shock resistance in it. That helps a little bit. Oh, and the handle. Yeah, you can already feel it. 90-day warranty as well for anybody that's interested. A 90-day warranty. Nobody asked though. Yeah. probably in the comments somewhere. So anyway, we're going to give this a shot. Uh hopefully everybody's counting at home. Let's get a guess. Everybody drop a guess right now in the comments. The other one got five. Basically five and a half. How many do you think this one's going to get? Drop it in the comments. Let's see who got the closest.

One. too, you know, and it's uh it definitely doesn't doesn't feel like it has as much shock when you're hitting it. And uh you know, I mean, it's a nice case. I like the color scheme, too, but not that that makes a difference, but uh you definitely can feel that it's going down a little bit better. And do any of these have any kind of power? Oh, it does say variable speed on that. Oh, the other one was just one speed. Uh I don't know. Look. Oh, no. This one says variable speed. Yeah, it looks like you can adjust the speed whatever you want with the trigger. Okay.

That was three. Almost swung down and hit my leg. So, I guess I should have had some leg protection, huh?

Four. And you know, that doesn't feel any harder than the other two, two or three. So, it really hasn't gotten uh more difficult yet, which I'm surprised because you can actually see the wear on the blade. But this one also had a lot more paint on it. Right. Is that That's the one that came out of the package, not the factory. No, this this is the one that uh I bought the pack of it. So, for $11, these are the ones you get a pack of four. So, um if it does cut the same as the Hercules ones, no matter which one you get, it would probably a better deal to get this one because you get for the same price, you get four blades.

What are we at? Five.

That was six. I was feeling it. I'm feeling it. That was six. So, we got one more, but I have a feeling that uh it's not going to get that many more.

Seven. Lucky seven. That's what my guess was. Seven. Was it seven? Yeah. Where did you guys have at home? Uh Susan, I have to pull a few of those up. I'd like to see it again.

That's eight. I don't know you guys. That was uh I was putting all my weight into that one. What do we got? Who do we got pulled up? Someone said nine. Who was that? Seven. Susan said nine. So I got to stop before then. So don't want to be wrong with her. I got to make sure she's right. I guess. So that was a tough one though, you guys. I was putting a lot of weight down on that one. So again, we're using the Bower from Harbor Freight and we're using the Bower Blades 14 TPI and it's a one in whoever just tuned in, it's a 1 in 58 schedule 40 uh piece of pipe. This is just some scrap from our yard. So I don't think that it being oxidized or anything like that would make a difference, but nonetheless, it's uh uh it's it is working, but I'm feeling it.

Do it

For okay. Is that eight? Whoa. That was that lock. My hand was on that. My finger was on that lock and it didn't want to let go. So that was eight, right? Nine. That was nine. I wouldn't I mean you would have replaced the blade for sure. probably after the last one or the one before. So, uh you did get a little bit more uh than the the Warrior, but maybe the Warrior would have done done this with a different blade, right? So, we'll have to do that in another test, but for now, we're checking them against uh their own blades. So, Bower again, the first one we tried was the Warrior 6 amp. Still, it it felt like it had just as much power, Brooks. Oh, yeah. I didn't know much much, you know, I didn't feel much of a difference. Well, but the blade gave out. So, uh, and another couple of things, uh, while we're at it is the manuals. They look the almost the same with the exception. Well, the manuals look exactly the same except the pages and two pages in the middle, which is specifically to the product. And I just noticed one thing which I wasn't aware was a thing that this has a 7/8 inch stroke and that one has an inch and some inch and an eigh stroke. So, I wonder if that has to do. It's going further. So technically that would give the blade more time to cool and you would have more teeth. It's using more of the blade even when you're pressing against it, right? So um that in theory could give you a little bit longer life just based on those two things. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. What is that about a quarter inch of blade it's using more than the other one? Yeah. 78 156 1416 and an eighth. Yeah, it's another quarter inch. Yeah. So quarter inch of blade being used more on this one. Um again, we use them all the time. I we don't have Sean, you use these in the field all the time. What What's your number one issue about these? Any problems? No, no problem. They just run and run and run. Oh, that's what y'all use here at the shop. Yeah. So, uh that was a good example on that one. But we're going to try though Hercules. Hercules is the most expensive uh saw that I call them saw still, but that they have over at um Harbor Freight. We got a 12 amp uh same variable speed it looks like. Uh it's it's going to have uh the blades were three three blades for 11 bucks opposed to the four blades for $11 from uh from Bower, but let's give it a try. I mean, I know we bought some of these things. Um I guess the more expensive one probably be their battery operated ones, right? I don't know. I didn't price them out. 100 bucks for Harbor Freight product seems pretty expensive. Okay, so what do we got in there again? Uh just the saw wrapped in a piece of plastic. It feels heavier though. If you were to feel this one in your hand or unless I'm just getting tired, you guys, maybe everything starts to feel heavy after a while. Right. This one goes up to 12. This one goes to 12. Aren't they making Aren't they making a new Spinal Tap movie? Yes, they are making Spinal Tap 2 and I'm ready for it. Okay, so you guys, this has something else. What What do you think this is? Some sort of guide? Hanging hook. Oh, to hang the thing. And the only reason why I know that is because I just read number eight on the Look at that. You hang that thing right there wherever you want. That's kind of nice, I guess. Not I don't know. That's a little weird. It's pretty heavy though. So, I don't think I'd be wanting to wear this thing around the job site too much. No. But we got another hook here. So, or another Oh, look at that. This comes out, which is That didn't come out the other one. Maybe so you can get in a tighter spot or something. I don't know. My Milwaukee came with that, too. And I hated it because Oh, it's adjustable. I eventually lost it. So, this Oh, it does. So, this is adjustable for everybody that can see this. Turn this way so you can see it. This thing comes out the top of it and then you can adjust the the length of it. And it looks like it's got a light there as well coming out. I can see some LED light bulbs. Light. It's looks like LED light bulbs though. It's not even plug. But I can see the LED light bulbs. Oh, and I don't see a I don't see a button on this like the other ones that locks it. It's on the thumb. Maybe. I don't see anything. So maybe it locks when you go in when it's activated. Let's give it a try. Let's get that. Let's get a blade on that thing. Get it out there. Yeah. Let's move this thing out. I have a feeling that thing we're going to need a

Little bit more pipe. Oh my god. Help me, Jesus. So, yeah. Yeah. So, we went through the Warrior. Let's take a look at that one again while he's putting the blade on that. So, we got the Warrior. Man, I'm telling you though, it's it's it doesn't weigh much, but it had quite a bit of power and it didn't have that that thing didn't move around. Well, the the box says this has got 60% more power. You know what? Those Allen wrenches probably loosen the Allen wrenches will loosen this up and you could probably move this and adjust adjust. Oh, you think that's where the adjust for adjust? That's probably it. They just didn't have a button. Nobody's going to do that. You're not going to keep that Allen wrench there. So, that's about useless, huh? Yeah. You got Right, man. But I'm telling you, you grab this thing, it feels strong. There is a light. You can see it. Why you got to argue with everything, Brett? It has a light. Okay. Maybe it's heavy because of this hook thing. So, let's try this one out again. We got the Hercules. Now, you guys, it's the $99 topofthe line Harbor Freight Saw reciprocating saw, whatever you want to call it. top of the line with the Hercules blades in it, which are three for $11. Let's give it a try. This one didn't come with any blades. I tell you though, maybe it's the weight or something, but when you push it, you don't feel it moving the saw around at all like you did. And if they're getting smoother and smoother the more heavy and the and the larger they go. So, let's give it a shot. Keep counting home. Everybody take a guess. Susan still says nine cuts. I'm going to say 18. You said 18. Man, I don't got the energy for 18. So, I'm probably going to as soon as it gets more napped, it's going to act like it's not working anymore. Let's give it a shot.

Okay. You know what, Greg? What's that, brother? And I mean, I've been I've just cut what, 15 or so, and so I'm a little little wore out. And I can tell you right now, the extra money to go from the 55 to the 99 is worth it just for how it feels to hold it when you're cutting. Oh, it's not. It is almost And the other one's just kind of you're vibrating your hands a lot and you can feel it and maybe that's making it a little more difficult as well. But this thing, you don't you don't hardly feel it. It looks like it's it's a lot less work for you. So, I think if if I was to go and actually buy one, I would spend the extra money probably and go to this just because of that, whether it cut more or not.

Yeah, that was just I'm telling you it was like it felt a lot less energy going into it. And this thing seems to be moving. Have you noticed that? It's probably adjusting. It's pivoting and following the steel on the round pipe. And I don't remember the other ones doing that, but I would like to circle back and see. I think they just need a little bit more work. They were just a little stiff, huh? This one's just uh they seem to be working

Better. What is that? Three.

Four again. It's not wearing out as much. So, that's kind of nice.

Six.

Seven. Starting to feel it a little bit though. There's no doubt.

Eight. And I'm telling you, it kind of feels like we were on six or seven on the other ones. Of course, I'm just It's all just me probably thinking that in my

Head. Where we at? Nine.

10. Before I keep going, does anybody want to change their guess and drop another guess in the comments?

We're going to have to slide that pipe out a little bit. Think so. Yeah, let's slide it out. Sean, how many you at right now? How we at? 11. How hot's the blade? No, I'm just kidding. It's not. Okay. Yes, there's a groove down there. Let's get that thing locked in. There we go. Oh, I wasn't expecting to have to move that. Were you? A lot of cuts.

Yeah. Okay. I would probably stop there, but I'm just curious because again, it wasn't wearing me out as much. Go, go,

Go. That's probably about it because I'm putting a lot more weight. About as much weight as I put down the other ones when I stopped. So, what are we at? Like 13. 13. So there you go you guys. Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy better tools. And that's kind of the same thing, right? It is. You know, that was really cool. So again, let's recap these things real fast before we let everybody go on that. So, uh, we got the Warrior. The Warrior. The Warrior. It's like a $25, uh, $25 saw. I'll tell you, it's a lot easier to hold right now because it's light. My arms are tired, but it's the Warrior. Brooks, what are your what are your thoughts on this? Uh, so if I was sending my guys out and I needed something that wasn't worried about them beating up, I would uh I wouldn't hesitate. Send them with the stack of blades and go at it. Yeah. Yeah. If I had a quick project, 360. Oh, yeah. The rotating that's kind of a big deal, the 180. But if I had a project and I just wanted to throw some uh I had a couple extra guys. I wanted to get some saws and cut cut down some uh you know, cut down some some wood or cut some nails or something. I wouldn't hesitate to throw a couple of these out there. You don't have to worry about it. If it breaks, it breaks. Throw it in the trash, right? And $55 or what did I say? $25 for that one. And the blades, the blades are $9. Uh, and you get to get a a five pack on that. So, that's if you use theirs, but you could swap it out to something else. And, uh, we got the Bower next. What do we got? Bower was our $55 one right here. Floss Brooks. What do you think of the $55 one? It's red. I love everything red. So, that's it. uh the 180 degree thing wouldn't be that uh big of a deal for me and in Texas heat um I might look at something I might just be hesitant just based on price. Yeah. Um because time is a factor. So if it goes down on a job or uh if I've got to take it back for warranty or whatever, I would think twice. Yeah. And I kind of like that that one didn't have this lock that kept locking on me, the the Hercules. Because you notice how every time I kept trying whenever I was done cutting it would swing down and almost grab my leg because you can't help you can't help but but when you're squeezing this pushing that at the same time it just auto it's a natural it's a natural feeling it's that you push it down without even knowing it. So I would uh I would definitely say it's worth going to this from the other one if you can budget it in just because it did cut a little bit more. But it wasn't that much that much of a difference was it? I say this is the winner though you guys. The Hercules if you can budget it in. uh do it. Get the Hercules. You can't go wrong, I don't think. Um again, it's only $99. So, um and these are probably the ones I'll be switching to on our trucks. Uh and we get the warranty, uh typically when we get them, so you can replace them up like three times no matter what happens. Doesn't matter if they cut a cord or anything like that at Harbor Freight. This one's half price. Yeah. And that one. But as promised everybody, we got a little bit of bonus material to show you because uh you know, it is called a breaking point. So, we got to break something, right? What are we going to break? We're going to show you. We're going to cut one of these bad boys up with another one. So, Susan, let's play that thing and let's show them some bonus content. We're going to cut this bad boy saw or your reciprocal saw open with this reciprocal saw and we're going to see what's inside of it.

We're about halfway through. Look at that. Woo! Yeah, we got a little smoke coming in.

There you go. You ever wonder what was inside a reciprocal saw? You just saw right here on my fence life's breaking point. That was it. So, this is the saw we cut cut a little bit ago. And in case you're wondering what the center of it was, it was a solid rod that shoot all the way through this thing. Brooks, did you see it? Yeah. It was a solid It's got to be what? A good uh 38 half inch. 3 in half inch rod. And then uh as you take it apart, it just kind of fell. Not take it apart. We cut it apart. I guess it didn't fall. So, uh, it probably won't do this in the field on you, but, uh, it looks like you got your what? Your motor in there and, uh, some some winding, stator, rotor. Yeah. Bam. Look at that. It almost still works. You see it? It's brand new. Yeah, you can see get it to spin. So, there you guys have it. Thanks again for tuning in. Stay stay tuned for next week. We're coming back in a couple weeks with another My Fence Life Breaking Point. Uh, if you have some suggestions, some tools you want us to check out, but we've got a list of them that we're going to be doing for you guys. Uh, stay safe everybody. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.