Harbor freight band saw or angle grinder?

Will Batayte

Will Batayte

Joined
Jan 8, 2007
Messages
640
Ok so as some of you guys know from my other posts I'm buying tools. So far the order is in or I have already: variable kmg 8, drill press, grizzly aniversary addition wood cutting band saw, a washtub forge, anvil, various files and hammers, safety gear, work benches, dremmel.

So now it's time to think about cutting out blanks. I allocated money to buy a hf 4x6 band saw. But I do hear less then stellar things about it on sone metal working sites. Our usage as knifemakers is pretty light duty I'd say. Cutting fairly thin annealed steel. So what do you guys use? Band saw? Angle grinder? There is a pretty huge jump in price between the two. I do intend to replace the blade with a good bimetal one.
 
Lots of guys swear by the handheld power bandsaws. I have a Jet 4x6 that works great, my father goes back and forth between his 4x6 and the Harbor Freight handheld. I HATE cutting with an angle grinder.
 
I use the HF 4X6 and it has been going strong for about 6 years.It gets my vote for the type of stuff we do.

Stan
 
I think a better description might be "portable" band saws, then converting them to mini vertical bandsaws.

I have a nice Jet wood/metal cutting bandsaw. Pretty sure that Wilton has been making this saw for a long time. When the owners of Jet purchased Wilton, they decided there were tools that could hardly be improved in any way. They probably moved production to China, but you are getting the same machine at about the same price. I have a Jet liquid cooled horizontal band saw that is Identical to a friend's Wilton too.

I make many "neck" type knives, with deep first finger choils and lots of curves. I use a 4 or 5 inch angle grinder to make relief cuts, then "connect the dots" along the profile. I think small angle grinders with good cutting wheels work great.

If you read the directions for a metal cutting vertical bandsaw, it will tell you to pick a blade that is fine enough to have at least two teeth in contact with your material. If you are forging smallish knives with distal taper, it's hard to find blades that fine.

Since those blades only work well on thin metal, and changing blades is a serious pita, I use an angle grinder a Lot.

I make knives in batches, so what I do is use the cutting wheel until the blade starts getting too warm to hold comfortably, then move to the next blade. Two or three rounds later, connecting the dots is easy either way.

The Jet 14" (I think) bandsaw with a transmission for variable speed, so it will cut anything, is about $1500.

A nice little 4-5" Makita angle grinder is about $70-$125, depending on whether you get it in a very nice storage box, or a bare machine.
 
They're called Portaband saws. Most tool companies make one. I have a Dewalt with variable speed. HF also makes one. Google Swag tables. Get ya one of these if you decide to go this route. Couldn't praise it enough. I have a large wood cutting bandsaw and have had for many years. In fact I'm on my third, wore out the first two. If I had to do it all over now that I have this Portaband set up I don't know if I would buy the wood saw too. The Portaband does it all with the variable speed. I use it to cut steel, pin and bolster material and various handle materials. There are a large variety of blades easily available in different tooth sizes depending on what you are cutting and changing a blade is simple. I use this little saw set up ALL the time and my wood band saw once or twice a month.
 
I'll also throw in a vote for a portaband mounted on your table. The Swag stands are nice, but you can also rig up something if you're handy. I've got a Milwaukee portaband in my shop.
 
SBuzek said:
I use the HF 4X6 and it has been going strong for about 6 years.It gets my vote for the type of stuff we do.

Stan
Click to expand...

I also have one of these HF 4 x 6 Metal cutting bandsaws. Going on 13 years now. Throw out the blade that comes with it and buy Starrett, Lenox or Laguna made Bi-metal band saw blades for it. 14 to 18 TPI.

Laurence
 
Wow! Now I see what the Portaband/SWAG guys are talking about. Those do look like useful tools.

I might just have to make one for my forging/fabricating shop.
 
I have had a Harbor Freight 4 X 6 bandsaw for 12+ years. It works great.
You could skip the wood cutting bandsaw and use the HF metal saw for wood cutting. It's a little slower than a dedicated wood saw, but works well.
Skip the portable band saws unless you are on a tight budget.
Forget the angle grinder.
 
Ok so I checked out the Portaband and swag table combo but Between the two is approaching the price of the 4x6. So I figure might as well just get that one. It is what I planned for anyway. I may grab a cheapo angle grinder to compliment it if I feel its needed as I go on.
 
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I've got Milwaukee Portaband with a stand. I cut through 1.5" solid square stock today and it went really smoothly. I was making some extra tool arms for the kmg. I'm a cheap bastard and didn't want to pay for premade ones. :) I would HIGHLY recommend the m42 Lennox diemaster 2 blades for the Portaband. They come in 5 tooth config.counts and are great. I would have passed on the grizzly wood saw and spent the money on the portaband and nice blades.
 
Think about this. Huge foot print and they are very top heavy went setup vertically. Get the Portaband and make a stand for now. Or just get the hf Portaband.
 
The footprint isnt really an issue. I'm lucky to have a huge basement where that I have pretty much plenty of room. The grizzly saw was like $500 but I also have a hobby of wood carving so I really don't mind having a dedicated wood saw.

As far as the top heavy part how bad is it? I mean is the thing gonna topple over?
 
I took my HF 4X6 off the stand and mounted it on the bench permanently. It has cut thousands of feet of steel and is still going strong after over ten years.
 

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Yup, +1 on the HF. I have mine set up vertically. Tossed the stock blade and ordered some good BiMetal blades. With the better blades I can run the bandsaw at max fpm. This is still pretty slow but it gets the job done.
 
I was in this same situation a couple weeks ago. I had just bought all my new tools to start knife making. I went with the angle grinder option. I got a really nice variable speed Dewalt, and it flies through metal.

I don't do a whole lot of tight cuts, so I end up having to grind off more. Its not to bad though, I can still profile a blade with about 3/4 of an inch around it in about 10 mins. I can get about 6 blades out of one blaze 50 grit. I probably could get 10 blades though if I was able to cut off more of the excess steel to begin with, so I would suggest getting the bandsaw for tighter cuts and saving the money on extra belts.
 
That bench Mount is very cool. Was it difficult to pull off? I really dont have much use for it as a horizontal saw either

So what brands and models of bimetal blades have you guys been using? Teeth per inch?
 
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