Prazi USA PR2000 Beam Cutter for 7-1/4-Inch Direct Drive Saws

by Prazi USA

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Prazi USA PR2000 Beam Cutter for 7-1/4-Inch Direct Drive Saws cut angles up to 45 degrees. The vertical foot-plate and built-in sight allow smooth, exact square cuts and ensures gliding manageability while cutting perfectly straight lines. With a 12-inch cutting capacity, you can professionally execute the following cuts and many more: rafter pitch cut, miters, stairs, arches, log cuts, compound angles, bandsaw cut, notch 6-by-12 panels and ripping.

Product Description

Item number 4979-12, Grading is cover/record: EX using Goldmine standards. Please see seller profile for abbreviation descriptions.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0000224S9
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: PR-2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,027 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)
  • #51 in Home Improvement > Power & Hand Tools > Power Tool Accessories > Saw Accessories > Circular Saw Accessories

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a Miracle but a God Send, December 1, 2002

By 

Tom Sadowski (Maine, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prazi USA PR2000 Beam Cutter for 7-1/4-Inch Direct Drive Saws (Tools & Home Improvement)

The Prazi beam cutter is not a miracle tool. It won't give you ideal results without any effort or skill on the part of the operator but it is a valuable piece of equipment that can cut a beam easier and better than most alternative ways to go about the job.

I bought the Prazi beam cutter to attach to my old Milwaukee worm drive saw. It arrived complete and took about 25 minutes to install. If the instructions had been easier to interpret, the installation would have gone smoother. Never the less, if you are the type of person who is at the point of carefully cutting large beams in your building career, you will be able to figure out how to install this tool onto your worm drive saw, no sweat. The only major problem I had was the fact that the older Milwaukee saws do not come equipped with a blade lock button. In order to tighten the beam cutter properly, you have to be able to lock your motor shaft down. I ended up opening my oil filler hole in the gear housing and jamming a hardened steel pin into the drive gear. This worked well but I felt that I could have sheared off the pin with just a bit more torque.

Starting the saw surprised me because I expected an out-of-control chain saw feel to it but instead I was pleased with the speed and overall stability. I typically have been cutting 8 inch spruce beams. I always nail or clamp a fence to the beam to guide the saw. This allows me to concentrate on pushing the saw without worrying where it is going. Crosscuts (6 to 7 seconds per inch on my 8" beams) seem to take less effort than rips as I will often find myself pushing the saw hard on a long rip to keep things moving. The cuts are sometimes hard work -but a breeze compared to any work with a handsaw on the same piece of wood. Again, the Prazi beam cutter is not a miracle tool: you still have to keep it sharp and oiled, you have to make sure your saw's plate is at 90 degrees to the blade. I draw a line where I anticipate the blade will enter the wood and then, after a few moments cutting, verify that the blade entered the wood at the angle I desired. You may have to shim under your plate to achieve the desired results but I find that at the bottom of an 8 inch beam, the blade usually enters the wood within an eighth of an inch of my target. When I am careful I can get the far end of the blade within a sixteenth. Once the cut is underway, the blade hold fairly true to a plane and does not wander from the top to the bottom of a cut as is typical of a reciprocating saw in a deep cut.

The resulting cut is chain-saw smooth. That is to say that it is a bit bumpy and yet consistent. My blade creates ridges and valleys about a sixteenth of an inch high and wide across the cut. It can easily be smoothed with a few passes of either a power plane or a block plane which will produce a very respectable finish. There is no way to get as good a cut with a regular chain saw. It just jumps around too much and the cutting angle is usually inconsistent. I know this first hand.

By and large, when I need to cut a beam I use the Prazi beam cutter. I will not go back to any of the hand tools I used or even the "cut both sides half way with a circular saw" method because the results I get with the beam cutter are better. Not perfect, and not effortless but better and faster. Bottom line: if you need to cut beams, buy it. The price is right. So it may not be a miracle tool but it is somewhat of a God send.

Other notes: You must remember that your converted saw is no longer the safe worm drive circular saw it once was. There is no blade guard that automatically sweeps down every time you finish a cut. The saw is long and can easily slice through a saw horse, work boot or thigh should one get in its path. Cuts must be planned more carefully and the setup should be stable and accessible. This is a different tool. Take some time to evaluate your safety before using it. Secondly, after you install the beam cutter, you'll be thinking about getting a new worm drive saw so you can leave the beam cutter on your old saw. Finally, when you pull this puppy out of your tool box be prepared because a lot of people on the job site are going to jump back and say "Whoa, what is that thing?"

Tom Sadowski
[e-mail]
11/23/2002

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars MORE TROUBLE THAN IT'S WORTH, April 26, 2004

By 

Christian Noe (Darien, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prazi USA PR2000 Beam Cutter for 7-1/4-Inch Direct Drive Saws (Tools & Home Improvement)

I got it in record time with cheap shipping and the price was great too.

I bolted it to a new Skil mag 7 1/4 wormdrive saw. The mag is not light by any means and it shook badly. After dismantling and reassembling no less than 10 times I determined the part that bolts on where the blade usually is was .010 loose. Fortunately, I had my vernier caliper stuck in there with the socket set, allen wrenches and a set of feeler guages now minus the .005 which is cut and wrapped around the bolt to take up the slop. Ah, smooth running, hardly.

The camillion chain starts to change color and begin smoking like the "Dice Man" unless you stop and oil the thing every couple minutes, some type of "rigged" oil feed is necessary. It is also necessary to frequently check the chain tension to avoid it's falling off. The chain tension issue is caused by the chain adjuster/tensioner being useless, not a screw like a real chain saw.

The vibration of the chain through the chain drive sproket produces volumous vibration and chatter certain to remove unwanted fillings from your teeth. It is impossible to keep the work area free of wood chips, I found the need to sift through chips to find bolts that continued to fall out even after they had been secured with thread locking compound.

Far be it from me to follow the safety instructions. I removed the safety bar for the plunge cut I was doing. When holding the saw in front of you the imbalance of the saw sends the 12 inch chainsaw blade toward your leg where a momentary lapse of attention could really impare/and or/improve your love life. Use extreme caution.

Time is money. A slightly better tool would be twice as fast. I rough cut 10x10 PT into tapered columns with square tops and bottoms. Power planing, belt sanding, routed flutes, wire wheeled and sandblasted to finish, the Beam Cutter's slow production and rough finish just part of the labor intensive process.

Boys gotta have toys. This is more toy than tool, consider an electric chain saw.

Prazi would do well building an electric chainsaw fitted with a plate similar to a circular saw. Who am I to say, I'm no expert, I've only been doing this for 30 years.

Anybody want to buy a Prazi Beam Cutter... cheap?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars don't rip cut, July 23, 2002

By 

Bruce Olson (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prazi USA PR2000 Beam Cutter for 7-1/4-Inch Direct Drive Saws (Tools & Home Improvement)

I purchased the PRAZI PR2000 Beam Cutter for the expressed purpose of ripping 8' x 8" x 8" western red cedar beams down to 7" x 7" and for saddle notching the top of the beams to accept a 4" x 6" lintel. I found the PR2000 did a fine job on cross cuts but was not suitable for the end grain rip cuts. The tool became very difficult to control and hold on line and the tear-out is completely unacceptable. I am sure there are applications where this tool shines but for my saddle cuts and ripping applications in this particular material (Western Red Cedar) it receives a failing grade from me.