Like butter!

[shenion]

Picked this up at a pawn shop today for $125.00:

Milwaukee portable Deep-Cut band saw.

Tried it on some 3/4" square tube and 1.5" L-steel. Cuts right through.

About 20 seconds/cut vs several minutes with my cutoff wheel/die grinder. Sooo much nicer.

45's are a pain, need to figure some way to make a guide.

 

[Ratty]

Bargain! I've never even heard of such a machine, do we get them in UK?

 

[shenion]

Milwaukee is big in the US, but unknown to DIY users. Usually only used by building contractors. You don't see them much in home improvement stores, only specialty shops.

List price: $549, have seen them for $300 new, $249 refurbished.

They were one of the first to develop a "Saws-all" (I think their trademark name): a reciprocating saw that cuts though walls plaster/studs/nails, everything. Basically a heavy-duty jig saw with a 1"wide 10" long blade. I have a Dewalt clone that is decent, just can't do any real steel. 1/8" steel will melt the teeth. Not a limitation of the Dewalt, but of the blades. They just get too hot even using expensive blades.

The Dewalt reciprocating saw shakes like crazy. I hear the Milwaukee ones are much smoother. But i got the Dewalt for $60 ($140 new). Served its purpose when I cut in French doors in may basement. 10 minutes and there is a big hole in the wall

Band saw is almost silent, variable speed. Can cut real slow with the blade just crawling and still tons of torque. Feels real heavy duty.

And even nicer, does not throw grindings all over shop like cutoff wheel.

 

[Ratty]

Sounds a useful tool, found a milwaukee in UK. £342 +VAT . Makita make a version too, upwards of £200 on ebay.uk. Not that I need one (at the moment ) but always nice to know what is out there should the need arise!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Pssst, Ratty. MM do one branded 'woodstar'. Hell of a lot cheaper than the makita one. Looks a very useful bit of kit and very portable.Here it is.

 

[Ratty]

Hmmm..cheap it is but is it the bandsaw equivalent of a SIP?

 

[Wozzaaah]

I think it would be one of those tools you only use when you really need to so it probably wouldn't get much heavy use. Having said that, I've bought stuff for 'occasional' use and it's become indespensible. I could imagine them being very good for cutting full lengths to make them easier to move about.

 

[shenion]

Sounds a useful tool, found a milwaukee in UK. £342 +VAT . Makita make a version too, upwards of £200 on ebay.uk. Not that I need one (at the moment ) but always nice to know what is out there should the need arise!

£342 = $694.63

The full list price here is $549, highest I have seen for sale is $320. Have seen for sale as low as $279 new.

Thats a lot of money. They must be selling at full list price + import duties.

Don't know how the others compare. I think this has a worm drive as motor is at right angle to wheels (you cant turn the wheels manually.) Others look like regular gear drive.

Finished up a Wire feeder cart using it. Nice. If I had picked this up a few days earlier, I would have saved a lot of time. Cutting the 1.5" x 0.125" angle iron was real slow with cutoff wheel. 16, 45 degree cuts at about 5 minutes each vs probably less than 1 minute each. That would be an hour saved. Also used 5 cutoff wheels.

Ordered 3 bimetal blades for $15, should be set for a long time.

Been looking for a way to make a table for it to use it as a chop/miter saw.

 

[Hitch]

One of our suppliers tried to sell us one.

Wasn't particuly impressed with it to be honest, seemed a bit slow and inaccurate for my liking.

Waht are you using to cut Shenion? 5 mins a cut, must be a hand hacksaw!!

 

[shenion]

One of our suppliers tried to sell us one.

Wasn't particuly impressed with it to be honest, seemed a bit slow and inaccurate for my liking.

Portable does not mean accurate. A fixed one would be more accurate.

When I picked up the 1.5" x 1/8" steel they used a huge hydraulic band saw to cut to 10' lengths. Took 3-4 minutes. Guess they want the blade to last forever. I bet they could have set it up to cut in 5-10 seconds.

What are you using to cut Shenion? 5 mins a cut, must be a hand hacksaw!!

Right-angle die grinder with 3" cut-off wheel. All I have. When it works right, it is about 2-3 min. But I'm finishing off a 10-pack of cheap wheels. Seems to become oval shaped often. That slows it way down. 5 min includes time to change wheel every 3-4 cuts, remove mandrel from grinder, change wheel, reinstall. I have a mandrel that does not require removing from grinder to change wheel, but only works with wheels that have a metal reinforced hub on them.

A dry-cut chop saw or a hydraulic band saw would be nice, but I can justify the expense. This will do.

 

[shenion]

Now it is a bit easier to do accurate cuts:

Work well. It is a band saw so blade tends to wander a bit. But makes quick easy cuts and more accurate than doing by hand. Guide fence has bolt welded on one end as a pivot (you can see area where weld was ground smooth.) Opposite end is held with a C-clamp to maintain angle.

 

[Ratty]

Very neat Shen, but what I want to know is what you actually do with all your kit apart from re-building it and buying more kit so you can adapt & modify it

 

[Hitch]

Nice simple little jig.

Have you not thought about using a 5" angle grinder with thin discs?
They cut very fast.

 

[irondarren]

I love those 1mm slit discs, so quick. Infact now when i make a large pair of gates with a curved top. I normally rough cut the bars that fit into the curve and trim with slit discs. Its quick an acurate.