I am not familiar either with metal pots or this tool. But I’m curious as to why you need to cut the sides of pots?

Nursery pots are not difficult to cut through. An old pair of pruning shears, or even a sturdy pair of scissors could do the job.

On the few occasions I've needed to do so, I just use an old pruning saw (same one I use to cut through heavy matted root balls). Works great!!

btw, if the plant's roots are so congested within the confines of the nursery pot that you need to cut, then disturbing/loosening the root ball is a good thing, not bad.

The situation is this: not being experienced with dragon fruit, I stuck cuttings in 1 gallon pots and placed them around some bigger plants growing in 15 gallon containers. Of course, I then sort of forgot about them and by now they are apparently well rooted and growing up the same supports as the older plants. There is no way to remove them and replant without damaging both the branches and the roots that have undoubtedly grown through the bottom holes. But I thought if I cut away the sides of the pots that would give me access to the bottom which would enable me to carefully cut around whatever roots there are and add some loose potting soil. Hence my need for a cutter with minimal clearance inside the pot. Aviation snips or even mini aviation snips have been suggested but I just remember that nice simple tool that ran down the outside of the pot and made a clean cut without much impact on the roots.

Hah, trust Ebay to know what I was talking about. Unfortunately it is $150 so not going to heppen. But you can see the principle.

That happens to me as well. I try to remember to put a saucer under pots to prevent it, but sometimes I forget. Things grow fast here. I've used old pruning shears and a heavy duty box cutter to remove the pot from the roots. The bottom is the worst, IMPE.

You could also try some of these:

P.S. The good thing about dragon fruit is that it roots very easily, so if you lose some of the root ball, I don't think it would be too harmful. I have pitaya growing up my oak trees from pieces I put down around the base years ago.

Ironically I ended up using the exact same aviation snips you pictured, along with a mini hacksaw. But you're right, the bottoms were a bear and ultimately I gave up and decided with the last two plants that if they were happy rooting through the holes in the bottom, I would let them be.

You looking for one of these? https://www.ebay.com/itm/133620918811

Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking of. It's just the price is a tad steep (a tad?!) and for today's plastic pots is probably overkill. I just wish they were some simpler, modern correlative. I am probably showing my age, but I remember when you could get can openers that basically worked on the same principle. Ah, well. I just ordered a new stash of 18 TPI hacksaw blades and will hope they do they trick. Thanks for hunting this down!

Nandina, normally I do lay my pots on the ground and roll them. But these pots already have roots growing out of the bottom and into the ground. So there's no way to do anything but cut.