Finally switched to a hydraulic cutter after 12 years with a cable one

I was at the Green River project last month and watched a guy finish a 2 inch steel line in under a minute while I was still fighting with my old cable cutter. He let me try his hydraulic unit and it cut through like butter, no busted knuckles or strained arms. Anyone else made the switch and regretted not doing it sooner?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thea1mo ago

Did that hydraulic cutter handle the same blades or did you need new ones?

hollyl251mo ago

The hydraulic units I've seen usually need a whole different blade setup, not cross compatible with manual cutters at all. Wren's right about reliability though, I had a coworker's pump die halfway through a big job and we had to borrow a manual cutter from another crew to finish up. Even with the fancy hydraulics, those old school manual cutters still have their place when you need something that just works.

wren6381mo ago

... except I gotta be the guy who still runs cable cutters on purpose. I've been through maybe 6 hydraulic units with my crew over the years and they break down way too often. Seals blow out, hoses leak, pumps fail. Meanwhile my old cable cutter just sits in the truck for years and always works. Plus with hydraulics you're stuck if the battery dies or the pump goes mid-job. I get the appeal for big production work on heavy steel but for most of what I do, a quality cable cutter with sharp blades gets it done. I've watched guys mess up a simple cut because their hydraulic unit needed bleeding.