I've had my Milwaukee chop saw for almost 15 years now. It's cut more steel than all the garage fabricators here combined probably. I've replaced the brushes in it twice now, but that's the only issues I've had with it.
The cheap band saws aren't worth the money in my opinion. They are better at some things and leave a cleaner cut. If you were lookin to spend more than $1k I'd say look into a good used band saw.
It's to bad nobody (tool companies in general) are making tools like they used to. Actually thats the reason I started this thread and didnt just go buy a name brand saw. For example, I used a $20 HF angle grinder to build 2 rigs (replace brushes once). Half way through the 3rd build the HF grinder died, so I upgraded to a milwaukee. The project isnt even done and the milwaukee is already failing. Not mechanically but where the head bolts to the body two of the four mounting points have broke. Who would of thought a HF grinder would out live a milwaukee
In the end Ill probably just go with a standard composite chop saw and make do. Until I can afford a good band saw
