Lots of cutting

[busa]

Even a small 250 Dia. pull down cold saw can be very useful for repetetive cutting, especially when fitted with a quicklock vice and a back stop. Material size is going to play a major part in selecting a saw. In order to take advantage of a bandsaws ability to 'stack' cut it has to be a fairly large machine, or at least have a large enough vice. Whatever type of saw you decide on, if you are going to be making your living with it then it has to be a quality machine designed and built to work. Like everything else these days you get what you pay for, cheap budget machines are often barely fit for purpose with some being totally useless straight out of the box. Something like an Addison, Pedrazolli, Startrite etc is going to cope with hard work because it will have been built specifically for professional use. Don't be fooled by the word 'Pro' which seems to be printed on virtually every piece of crap that china exports these days.

Sadly there have been many casualties in the current economic recession including lots of welding and fabrication and engineering businesses. This means that there is a large amount of used machinery available through various dealers. Take your time and shop around, ebay isn't the only source of used machinery and often not the cheapest.

 

[neilgrahamirwin@hotmail.c]

Even a small 250 Dia. pull down cold saw can be very useful for repetetive cutting, especially when fitted with a quicklock vice and a back stop. Material size is going to play a major part in selecting a saw. In order to take advantage of a bandsaws ability to 'stack' cut it has to be a fairly large machine, or at least have a large enough vice. Whatever type of saw you decide on, if you are going to be making your living with it then it has to be a quality machine designed and built to work. Like everything else these days you get what you pay for, cheap budget machines are often barely fit for purpose with some being totally useless straight out of the box. Something like an Addison, Pedrazolli, Startrite etc is going to cope with hard work because it will have been built specifically for professional use. Don't be fooled by the word 'Pro' which seems to be printed on virtually every piece of crap that china exports these days.

Sadly there have been many casualties in the current economic recession including lots of welding and fabrication and engineering businesses. This means that there is a large amount of used machinery available through various dealers. Take your time and shop around, ebay isn't the only source of used machinery and often not the cheapest.

any places you can recommend for good s/h equipment? (in northwest of england ideally)

 

[busa]

any places you can recommend for good s/h equipment? (in northwest of england ideally)

Google used machinery suppliers, there are loads of them all over the country.

 

[""kb]

Is this intended saw to be used as a hobbyist or for business use, 1 phase or 3 phase ?

 

[neilgrahamirwin@hotmail.c]

Is this intended saw to be used as a hobbyist or for business use, 1 phase or 3 phase ?

half we between the two, i cut the list shown at the start of this thread about every 1-2months, plus a little extra cutting throughout the month-so certainly not everyday

 

[neilgrahamirwin@hotmail.c]

half we between the two, i cut the list shown at the start of this thread about every 1-2months, plus a little extra cutting throughout the month-so certainly not everyday

forgot to say, must be single ph

 

[astro_al]

Well, better to get the right tool then worry about motors / phase converters if necessary.

Looking at your cut list, there are 4 materials - are all cuts the same length for each material? I think one way to significantly reduce your time is to set up (fabricate / whatever) some pre-set length stops for each piece you require, so you eliminate measuring / marking / aligning the material with the blade etc - just make a bunch of stops and slam the stock in and pull the blade down. That'd save you more time than any choice between different machine types.

It'd probably take a few hours to set up some decent stops, but worth every penny.

On the subject of phases, Baileigh Industrial do single phase bandsaws. I have this one: http://www.bifabuk.co.uk/bandsaws/band-saw-250m.php & it'd do you just fine (for example). Or look for something similar used. Especially good for stacking loads of solids - your round bars or flats. I usually clamp together the 'other' ends of stock I'm batch cutting so the cut ends remain flush without me checking all the time, you could get tens cut per 'cut' and walk away in between. Combine that with no measuring / marking etc and you're really motoring.

Cheers, Al.