I am looking to get a good metal cutting bandsaw, Does anyone have any good suggestions. I live in the dallas area are there any surplus stores that would sell this or should i buy new.
How big and how much do want to spend? If you just want a 6 incher, the foreign made one a Harbor Freight is perfect. Cost is about $200, little table stand up for verticle use. I've used mine for about 15 years, blades are cheap. But if you want a BIG one, look for a machine shop auction. I also have a 10 inch Johnson, saw that is, made in 1950, works like a champ.
Depends on what you consider "good", what you want to do with it and what you want to pay. For hobby type work, Wilton is a good choice, if you want the real deal, look at DoAll, Kalamazoo,Wells, not cheap, but they will outlive you. Keep an eye on your local Craigs List, I've seen many saws on my local C/L, for (what appear to be) a good deal.
Buy a good used AMERICAN made piece of old IRON - you'll never regret it I promise. Sure guys "get by" with the sum flung dung variety and if just getting by is good enough well then I suppose I can't argue, but you'd never EVER sell me on that chinese **** - damn leaded paint of the **** is probably killing you slow like anyways. Seriously - once you use QUALITY tools you're HOOKED. The self proclaimed hot rodders using that **** always puzzled me. They want it and they want it NOW so they settle. **** - I can go find some old iron - m***age it a little and then have one hell of a machine - sounds alot like building a cool old hot rod doesn't it!!!?? Start with a "yugo" and soup it up and it's still a yugo. Start with a rotted out "duece" and when you're finished you HAVE something.....AND as a hidden bonus you help support OUR economy - not CHINA'S!!!!! If I sound biased I guess it's because I am. Old 14" Powermatic's I consider a bare minimum. Delta, Grob and of course the holy grail the Do-All with built in blade welder - oh **** I thin I just wet myself thinking how freaking awesome those DO-All's are. And YES there are ton's of other "off brand" ancient iron that to this day still ROCK!!!!!!!!!! Choice is yours!!!!
I've got an off-shore (Harbor Freight-type) one that I picked up at my swap meet for $100 in like-new condition. It's perfect for me. The stand, on the other hand, is made of aluminum foil. If you do a web search on Harbor Freight 4x6 bandsaws, they have a real strong following. Lots of sights show home-grown upgrades (lubrication systems, adjustments to the clamping vise, and many, many new tables/stands). I think Metalshapers.org and the Miller Welding sight have a bunch of posts on them. Between that and a good hand-held sabersaw, there isn't much you can't cut in your shop. -Brad
I just bought an old Powermatic. I need a 95" metal cutting blade capable of cutting 16 gauge sheetmetal as well as 1/8-1/4" angle. Where can I get blades? Thanks
I bought an offshore 14 inch saw for 400 bucks including the stand. It is all steel and built heavy. The first thing I did was to take it apart and blueprint it. I replaced everything I didn't like on the saw and rebuilt the tilt table. Total price, a few hours and about 50 bucks. It is accurate and works beautifully. I agree with the above poster that buying a used North American piece is most desirable, but because this is a hobby, I can't justify buying the Caddy when the Chevy will do. Bob
I paid right around 500 bucks for a Do-All with blade welder that had a broken table tilt mount. I spent about 2 hours repairing the mount. It's worked flawlessly since then - I have no doubt it will outlive me by a couple generations. Since it has the blade welder I buy blades off Ebay in any size equal to or larger than I need for dirt cheap - cut them and weld them. I bet I've saved the price of the machine just in blades over the years. The purchase price of the machine is one thing - what it costs to run it ought to figure in your calculations too. I highly reccomend anyone with a saw get a blade welder. You can save a bundle over the years (***uming you get a deal on the blade welder).
I bought a little JET bandsaw about 9yrs ago,put one blade on it, it works both horizontally and vertically(has a different plate you put on it) best $400 I ever spent for the garage.I think 6X6 is the biggest I can cut with it.
I don't know about anyone elses shop tools but in my shop the welder,bandsaw and vicegrips do not know how to build a hot-rod. The quality of the finished piece is due to the talent of the builder ,not the cost of the tools. It amazes me the # of people who will say "you get what you pay for" that don't drive Rolls Royces and eat Caviar for every meal.The cost of anything does not guarantee it's quality or life cycle. Just my opinion,I could be wrong.
I bought a used HF bandsaw, a 4" x 6" Rong Fu 21 years ago and it was used when I got it. Thought was, when it broke I'd get a bigger one. Darned HF saw is still going strong. If you have a little imagination you can cut some fairly large pieces with it. One of the big secrets is clamping stuff to the table with a C clamp on the side opposite the vise. In fact, I've been thinking about making a table extension on that side to make the clamping easier. Right now, HF has the 4" x 6" band saw on sale for - if I remember right - $159. I got an American made Delta 4" x 6" not long after I got the HF saw. It was handy to have two of them with different blades installed. I ended up giving my little brother the Delta and he's still got it. If you buy used, be sure and check the oil in the gearbox before you use it. You may have to re-gasket it. Far as the stands go, the cheap-o sheet metal stands don't cut it imo. Especially since you have to lift one end to move it. To that end I made a stand out of 1" x 2" x .120 wall rectanglar tubing and installed four casters. Two of the casters lock and swivel, two don't. Four swiveling casters may sound good, but they'll drive you crazy trying to roll the thing around. Been there, done that with a 4 swiveling casters body dolly I made. It went everywhere that it wasn't supposed to and moving the body around was a pain in the ***. Here's a pic of the stand I made. It would be improved by making the lower shelf from HD expanded metal so the 'sawdust' will flow through instead of collecting on the 16 gage shelf I made for the cutoffs and accessories. A second shelf half way up would be a good addition. Expanded metal there also. You'll note the legs are at an angle for a little wider stance. Makes for a solid saw mount and it resists tipping quite well.
Yours is identical to the one I bought at my swap meet for $100...except for the belt gaurd. I always thought it'd be kick-*** to have a big industrial band saw in the shop, but the fact is, most hobby guys don't use a band saw that often. Once a week? Three times a month? I also spent a little time adjusting things, replacing some of the ****py hardware and fasteners they had on it, and just generally making it a little more sturdy. It's worked great for me...and I'm the kind of guy who always wants to buy the best tools he can find, and tries to never buy the cheap "short life" stuff. -Brad
whatever saw you get buy the higher priced American blades,,,they will outlast the cheaper ones ten to one. HRP
Me too. When I lived in Central California a friend owned a large by huge private machine shop. He was great about letting me use the tools in the shop, but the only one I used was his big industrial bandsaw. Worked nice when I had to cut several 7" aluminum discs for some adapters I made. True that the bandsaw sits idle in the shop most times, but it's nice to have it there so you can cut off a piece of metal - and have it square - for whatever. Yesterday I used mine for several hours. Made up a lightweight workbench - 42" x 50 1/4" - that started out to be a temporary place to store the 31's roadster body while I did some more frame stuff. Brake lines etc. It was originally an open top piece until I laid a piece of 24" x 42" particle board over one end, clamped it down, eventually screwed it down and used it for ***embling stuff. The 42" height was nice for that. No leaning over. Anyway, I decided to cover the whole surface with 5/8" MDF board and that required a couple of additional legs (6 in all) to support the weight as well as a couple cross braces to support the board. Nice part about the height of the workbench/body stand is that I can roll most of my floor tools - grinder, belt sander etc. - under the table. It's made from 1 1/4" square tubing that was a touch rusty, but hitting it with a belt sander cleaned it up ok. I should give it a coat of POR if it stays in the garage . . . which it probably will....
The old HF stuff must have been much better...most HF stuff I have bought in the past(I don't buy Asian tools anymore regardless of quality) was garbage. I have to hold my hand on the bandsaw, if I let it cut under it's own weight, the blade comes off. I wish I would have bought some old American saw; all the very old American stuff I have is great, not just in function, but you can just tell the difference in quality holding a good US or European tool in your hand.(That sounded kinda gay.)
I have an old Delta 14" bandsaw that I have used for woodworking for some time now. I have thought about using it for metal. I would obviously need a metal cutting blade, but the speed of the blade I would think is too fast? I could be wrong on this but it seems that I would need to slow down the blade to make this a metal cutting saw? Would I need to change the roller bands too?
"The old HF stuff must have been much better...most HF stuff I have bought in the past(I don't buy Asian tools anymore regardless of quality) was garbage. I have to hold my hand on the bandsaw, if I let it cut under it's own weight, the blade comes off. I wish I would have bought some old American saw; all the very old American stuff I have is great, not just in function, but you can just tell the difference in quality holding a good US or European tool in your hand.(That sounded kinda gay.)" It sounds like it needs to have the guides adjusted. Either the guides, the rollers or possibly the tension spring that controls the drop rate of the saw. "I have an old Delta 14" bandsaw that I have used for woodworking for some time now. I have thought about using it for metal. I would obviously need a metal cutting blade, but the speed of the blade I would think is too fast? I could be wrong on this but it seems that I would need to slow down the blade to make this a metal cutting saw? Would I need to change the roller bands too?" The blade does need to be slowed way down. I sold Tudor a Craftsman woodworking band saw a year or two ago, and he converted it over to cut metal using a reducer. Send him a PM and find out what he did. I've used it since, and it works great. -Brad
Saw a magazine article on converting a wood cutting band saw, they slowed it down by adding an additional shaft with two pulleys, one large, one small, very simple, they also put small bearings to guide the blade instead of the br***, and used a Briggs&Stratton exhaust valve behind the blade, a bit larger than the original piece and also made of some harder ****. On a lighter note;RichardD missed the part about blueprinting the HF saw, me thinks!
Bandsaw mods: http://www.mini-lathe.com/Bandsaw/Bandsaw.htm I did this mod but I used a piece of angle iron with a tapped hole to replace the short jaw; it helped, but it's still a flimsy tool. I need to try the other hints in the above article.
An easier thing to do there is to take another piece of stock that's the same width as the piece you're cutting, and stick it in the back portion of the vise. It'll clamp evenly then. I might add a couple lenghts of flat stock to the inside of both vise jaws, to extend the edge of the vise all the way to the blade. There's been a couple times when i thought that would be a good idea. -Brad
The screw is handy, especially if you don't have a piece of stock the same size. I'm gonna do this one, too.
McMaster-Carr MSC (Manhattan Supply Co.) JTS Ebay Go to a local machine shop or metal supply house and ask where they get theirs. The local metal supply place will give GOOD ADVICE on blaeds since they cut steel all day long!!!
Where I work,(and we cut steel all day long) we use Starett blades that we get through Shop Tools, very good quality. Most welding supply houses have saw blades also, Air Gas, General Air and the like.
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