Best turnkey metal cutting bandsaw on a budget?

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Daniel Fairly Knives

Daniel Fairly Knives

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I need a metal cutting bandsaw but I am having a hard time deciding what to get. I want a vertical one with a table, hopefully around $250. Any ideas?

I want to mostly use it for profiling, I'd like to make my knifemaking more efficient.

As an alternative I might try the popular dewalt conversion I am seeing a lot here. Do you guys that own one feel they are the way to go on a budget?
 
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Daniel,

I have the "Red" Harbor Freight model. It is not exactly a "turnkey" model as you need to throw the blade that comes with it just as far as you can. Get yourself a good Lennox Bi-metal blade. I am still using the one I put on about 3-4 years ago. It has cut a lot of bar stock in that time. A little tweaking here and there and it will serve you well.

It stands upright also and comes with something they call a "work table", but that was the second thing I threw away. I use this one as a cut-off saw only.

I also have a Milwaukee Porta-Band that I made an upright stand for (7 1/2" X 5"). I made a table out of a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. I use this 95% of the time for profiling stock removal blades.

Both are somewhere in the same price range with either being + or - $50 bucks between each other. Somewhere between $275 and $325 plus any shipping.

Robert
 
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I am looking for the same thing in a band saw so I'm anxious to see some more responses.
 
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Robert Dark said:
Daniel,

I have the "Red" Harbor Freight model. It is not exactly a "turnkey" model as you need to throw the blade that comes with it just as far as you can. Get yourself a good Lennox Bi-metal blade. I am still using the one I put on about 3-4 years ago. It has cut a lot of bar stock in that time. A little tweaking here and there and it will serve you well.

It stands upright also and comes with something they call a "work table", but that was the second thing I threw away. I use this one as a cut-off saw only.

I also have a Milwaukee Porta-Band that I made an upright stand for (7 1/2" X 5"). I made a table out of a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. I use this 95% of the time for profiling stock removal blades.

Both are somewhere in the same price range with either being + or - $50 bucks between each other. Somewhere between $275 and $325 plus any shipping.

Robert
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Thanks Robert, that helps out a bunch.



I'm somewhat flexible in price range, I was hoping to spend as little as possible but it makes no sense wasting my money on junk either.

I plan on using the saw for profiling, I have a friction chop saw at the moment that does a decent job for basic stuff. (edited main post to add that)
 
I have the red Harbor Freight bandsaw.

Zero problems. The table could be better, but it's still usable.

The HF band saw blades are absolute junk. Buy a couple Lennox blades and you'll be set.
 
Robert Dark said:
Daniel,

I have the "Red" Harbor Freight model. It is not exactly a "turnkey" model as you need to throw the blade that comes with it just as far as you can. Get yourself a good Lennox Bi-metal blade. I am still using the one I put on about 3-4 years ago. It has cut a lot of bar stock in that time. A little tweaking here and there and it will serve you well.

It stands upright also and comes with something they call a "work table", but that was the second thing I threw away. I use this one as a cut-off saw only.

I also have a Milwaukee Porta-Band that I made an upright stand for (7 1/2" X 5"). I made a table out of a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. I use this 95% of the time for profiling stock removal blades.

Both are somewhere in the same price range with either being + or - $50 bucks between each other. Somewhere between $275 and $325 plus any shipping.

Robert
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Big Boy II, Are you talking the porta bandsaw like saw at Harbor Freight? If so I thought the blade was pretty good on the one I got. Now the saw was unmistakable a piece of crap but it sure worked good for about a year. If I had $250.00 in my hand I'd save up another 50 bucks and get the Dewalt Porta Bandsaw. I thought it was $300.00 the last time I checked.
 
I have the red harbor freight saw also. Its an ok saw for the money. I use mine to profile steel and also to cut handle materials, pins etc. My only real beef with the saw is the crappy wheel setup. I plan to weld up an angle iron cart with some decent casters as soon as i get my next batch of blades out to heat treat.
 
Raymond Richard said:
Big Boy II, Are you talking the porta bandsaw like saw at Harbor Freight? If so I thought the blade was pretty good on the one I got. Now the saw was unmistakable a piece of crap but it sure worked good for about a year. If I had $250.00 in my hand I'd save up another 50 bucks and get the Dewalt Porta Bandsaw. I thought it was $300.00 the last time I checked.
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Big-un,
No, I was talking about the Harbor Freight horizantal/vertical saw that takes somewhere around a 54 inch or so blade. Sometimes you can find them on sale for + or - $300.

When I bought the Milwaukee porta-band, it was $300 bucks.

I know prices have changed, but at my age and with my memory I just can't keep up any more.

Tell me again, just who are you?:confused:

Ro..... errrrr.... Robert I think
 
Dewalt bandsaw... fab up a stand and make a platen.. then go to lowes and buy some lenox wolfbands ..
- worth the buck.. it sits on my workbench and even has a lite on it.. .. just a super sweet machine.. if mine broke tomorrow, it'd take me two minutes to walk in the house and order another quickly.

- my chicom saw sits in the corner and only cuts horizontal stuff, and half the time the blade pops off.. i've tried every thing to tune it.. just becareful with those ... some work... some are real dud's

Greg
 
I'll second the Dewalt Port-a-Band for a saw, as well as the Swagg Offroad stand that BMK referenced. I have this set-up, and it works extremely well.
 
In that price range I would go for a port-a-band type (mine is a Porter Cable but the Milwaukee and Dewalt are probably as good or better) and a stand or just a "tab" bolted onto it so you can clamp it into a bench vise to use it upright. It still works as a handheld this way if you locate the vise tab out of the way.
 
Thank you very much everyone! I have been reading everything and getting some good ideas.
 
Just so I know for sure, you can slap a metal cutting blade on a bandsaw and cut metal? I've got a pretty nice bandsaw but I was unaware that a blade was all I needed.
 
Futz Brown said:
Just so I know for sure, you can slap a metal cutting blade on a bandsaw and cut metal? I've got a pretty nice bandsaw but I was unaware that a blade was all I needed.
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Typically, no. Most wood cutting saws run way to fast for cutting steel. That's why most say only non-ferrous alloys and wood. I have seen people use them as friction saws, but that still isnt a great idea.


-Xander
 
Whatever you do, don't buy this Craftsman, certainly not for metal and not even for handle material. It just plain sucks. You can have mine for the cost of shipping, if you have an empty corner that needs to be filled up with useless junk.
 
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