Band Saws

Charles L

Charles L

Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
138
I am getting ready to buy a band saw. I am only a hobbyist. Can anyone advise what is a good brand and model for knife making? Don't want to spend thousands for something I will not use that much. For those that do stock removal, what do you use? I mainly forge but just want a good all around metal cutting band saw. I don't know enough about any of them to know what are the ones to avoid and what are the good ones. When attending the ABS school in Arkansas I saw a porta band saw mounted to a homemade bracket so it could be used as a verticle band saw. Would that work or are there better options? Any suggestions are welcome.
 
Most of us here use the band saw from Harbour Freight, it costs about $200. I got mine from the TSC store near me(tractor supply co)The blade that comes with it is crap. Spend 30-35 $ on a bi-metal blade with 14-18 TPI(teeth per inch) from TKS or your favorite supplier.
 
rocketmann said:
Most of us here use the band saw from Harbour Freight, it costs about $200. I got mine from the TSC store near me(tractor supply co)The blade that comes with it is crap. Spend 30-35 $ on a bi-metal blade with 14-18 TPI(teeth per inch) from TKS or your favorite supplier.
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I'll second what Rocketmann said.


If you get to where you are making alot of knives you may want to move up to a bigger saw, but it works well for what I do.

Charles
 
I too am looking for a bandsaw. The Harbor Freight was reciently about $159 but is now $209. If it goes down soon I may purchase one. If not I am going to get a nice Jet for about $375.
 
i went a different route. i started with a 14 vertical shopfox, and bought a used 5:1 gear reducer from ebay, and converted it to a 300 sfpm setup. works great. was worth the effort..
 
rocketmann said:
Most of us here use the band saw from Harbour Freight, it costs about $200. I got mine from the TSC store near me(tractor supply co)The blade that comes with it is crap. Spend 30-35 $ on a bi-metal blade with 14-18 TPI(teeth per inch) from TKS or your favorite supplier.
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Which one from Harbor Freight? Is it the horizontal/vertical one that sells for $199.99 or a different one? If it is that one, does it come with a table when vertical or do you have to make one? Also, what is TKS? Thanks for the responses.
 
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Afik, the saw goes on sale about every 60 days. I regularly see it in town for $159. Not bad since you don't even have to ship it. Just buy good blades, you can get lenox diemasters from MSC and they go on sale every so often. It's the one that usually sells for 209 or 199. These days they are red, who knows how long that color will stay.
 
Thanks everyone. That is what I was looking for. Something not too expensive. One final question though...does this saw come with a table for cutting vertical or do you have to make your own? What I'm talking about is the table that you would lay the steel on while you cut it. Not a table to hold the entire saw. Thanks
 
It comes with one, but it's quite flimsy and not very good. I mostly use my HF metal cutting bandsaw horizontally to cut stock to length and it's pretty darned good at that for the money. In a vertical setup, I'd probably make my own table to replace the one that it came with. It comes with ~9" square stamped piece of 16 or 18g metal that is wibbly and flexible and not a very good support.
 
You can also just back the stock one with micarta or something similar. Several folks like to cut the table down is it's a little easier to move pieces around on it.
 
i just got a clark 4x6 ish saw and it seems to be better made then the HF one but then gain i know there all made the same place and the HF is like 5 years old so maybe they upgraded them across the board
 
butcher_block said:
i just got a clark 4x6 ish saw and it seems to be better made then the HF one but then gain i know there all made the same place and the HF is like 5 years old so maybe they upgraded them across the board
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Where did you get the Clark? Is it also a horizontal/vertical saw? What was the costs?
 
TSC is where i got mine and it even came with a good blade (jsut replaced the other day)
think it was like 250$ (i would have to look it up)
 
One final question and I will be set. The saw from HF sells for $200. The Clarke from TSC sells for $212. The Jet saw from Northern Tool sells for $329. It has a auto shutoff when through cutting, and from the catalog it looks like it has a heavier table to support the saw. From what everyone here has said, the HF and TSC saws have flimsy tables. So, since I have no experience with any of these saws, am in a position where I can purchase any one of the three, would you say the Jet is worth the extra $129 or are they all close enough alike that it is not worth spending the extra money?
 
The table that most of are saying is rickety is the cutting table. The stand that you put the saw on is flimsy also but you can make it work. In theory the harbor freight saw has a auto shut off on it. Its a piece of metal that hits the off switch when the saw completes a cut. I have not been able to get mine adjusted to work ...However There is an other post on the forum of someone who left there saw unattended to finish a cut, got distracted and didn't check on it. The saw burned up.
 
I have the jet. I use it tons for Damascus stock (horz.) and for profiling blades (vert.). The table comments apply for the jet as well. I just tossed it. It was a pain to keep taking off and putting on anyway. OOPS...I meant to say keep all original equipment and safety guards in place.

I went through about 10 hss blades before I discovered bi-metal. Don't waste time with anything else. I am not sure of the difference from HF model, but the jet has done well for me.

Ed Caffery uses a porta band saw attached to a table with stand and swears by it.

-Pete
 
I'll chime in also.... I found the Jet locally for 240.00... not sure why the same model seems to run about 320.00+shipping online. It's a good saw so far, but I've only had mine for about 6 weeks. I second the bi-metal blades- well worth the extra $$

-Mark
 
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