For my money, the best rebar tool is the hydraulic bolt cutter. It’s affordable ($150), lightweight and silent. With a dozen pumps I can build up enough pressure for the blade inside to cleanly slice right through a 3/8-inch (aka #3) rod. I love that no extension cords or batteries are required. I use this cutter frequently for small jobs. Then there’s my little Makita angle grinder with a cutting wheel. The advantage here is that it’s small enough to use while on a ladder. The model I have includes a 7.5A motor with 4.5-inch disc space. This is a low to mid-range model that sells for $60. Angle grinders come in much larger sizes, but for rebar there’s no reason to go bigger. I’ve found the thin cutting wheels works best. The wheels are only $3 each and cut quickly. Avoid using thick wheels—the additional friction will make each cut take five times as long. If you’re going to cut a lot of steel, you’ll ultimately have to break down and purchase a $200 chop saw, which looks like a miter saw for wood, but uses a large carbide blade similar to the cutting wheels on a grinder that can make clean cuts through steel. Because of its size, I can cut several sticks at once, and it provides a locking jig so I can get straight or angled cuts that are more precise than the angle grinder or hydraulic bolt cutter. The trade-off is that it’s extremely loud and heavy to lug around. Of course those aren’t the only ways to slice steel, but here are the reasons I don’t like other common methods: Metal blades with teeth – band saws, hacksaws, and sawzalls use relatively expensive metal blades. For small jobs, these work, but in my experience, these blades wear out too quickly to be a cost-effective way to cut large amounts of rebar. Plasma or oxy-acetylene torches – These tools are often used to cut metal, but I find they leave a lot of “slag” or waste around the cut that I then have to clean up with the grinder to cut a smooth surface to weld. Plasma also took a long time to cut through the rebar and used a significant amount of electricity. The oxygen and acetylene gases are so expensive I’ve never considered using it for any rebar or thin metal cutting. I save the gas for cutting the big stuff, like 1/2-inch steel. Hand-held electric rebar cutters – These are similar to my hydraulic cutter. The difference is that it doesn’t need a human pumping away to prime the hydraulics. They come in both a wall outlet form ($300) and battery form ($800). There’s no real down-side to these other than the cost.
