Recommendation? Which Bandsaw is best?

I too have the Harbor Freight one and for the price it is a steal. I use it for more things than I imagined.

Maybe it's mine or the nature of the beast bit I find it super loud.
 
I'm pretty deep into the Makita 18v ecosystem. Any thoughts on the cordless Makita Portable Bandsaw. I plan on purchasing a Rikon or Grizzly bandsaw for wood, so this will be mainly for cutting billet and occasionally making notches for a deck or something.
 
I just got the HF bandsaw yesterday. I took a poly cutting board ($10) to make a table around 9"x12" like a swag table. Took a 16" long piece of 3/8" thick, 2" wide barstock ($26 for 36", I used a leftover piece from another project) and put it under the width of the table, so the poly table screws (30mm m5-.8) thru the 2" wide steel to the saw body I the guard holes. The other end of the bar is clamped to the tool arm on my 2x72 belt sander. Works great!!! $40 in material and foot pedal will be here tomorrow!
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Taz said:
I just got the HF bandsaw yesterday. I took a poly cutting board ($10) to make a table around 9"x12" like a swag table. Took a 16" long piece of 3/8" thick, 2" wide barstock ($26 for 36", I used a leftover piece from another project) and put it under the width of the table, so the poly table screws (30mm m5-.8) thru the 2" wide steel to the saw body I the guard holes. The other end of the bar is clamped to the tool arm on my 2x72 belt sander. Works great!!! $40 in material and foot pedal will be here tomorrow!
490161238018699
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I'd love to see the picture, but it does not show up for me and appears to be a link to facebook. Might just be because I don't have a facebook account, it asks me to log in when I try to open the link.
 
I've cut some 1.5" angle iron, 1/8" thick with it w/o problems with the hdpe table as well as the 3/8"x2" bar and some other metals. It's easy to replace and I can use it for a template to have a steel one built now that I have the screw holes and stuff in it. I may do a larger table as well, but for now, it is working pretty well and at $40, I can build 3 for the price of one SWAG. I wanted to have something I can set up and use and then put away somewhere when it's not in use vs having the Portaband taking up work bench space all of the time. I am molding my own fabric composites and the slower speed of the Portaband seems to work better/less gumming on the blades than my 14" bandsaw, even at its slowest speed. I was hogging out the profiles after using an angle grinder/diamond cut off wheel and that just sucked. Too many sparks for my tastes!

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When I first considered getting a Swag table, I was thinking on getting the one that just fit into the vise. That way I could save space and just store it under the bench when not in use. I'm glad I didn't and went for the free standing one. I use the heck out of it. Even then I was just clamping it to the bench and putting it away when I wasn't using it. Then I wasn't putting it away, I was leaving it clamped up and then I just bolted that bad boy down. It is probably the most used tool in the shop. Eventually I gave away my 14 inch bandsaw as I was using the portaband on all handle materials too. Their limitation on cutting depth can be mitigated with proper planning and lay out. Here my daughter is cutting out some blades for me:

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She's 24 now and has cut out many hundreds of blades for me:

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This was a batch of 80 or so if I remember correctly. I don't use a foot switch as we run this lil guy by the hour. I zip tie the trigger and plug it into a light bar. Its the only thing plugged into the bar so we use the switch on the light bar.
 
Hey NickHFSS NickHFSS , while DeWalt and millwalkee do make great saws, lots of guys use the one from harbor freight and have great luck with them. I would recommend getting that one, or do like I did and buy one from a pawn shop. I think I payed 60$ or 100$ for my DeWalt...
 
It isn't a portaband and swag table setup, but honestly, if I was to set up a new bandsaw. I would look for an old Craftsman or similar heavy saw that has a belt drive . The table on most of these older machines was cast iron and dead flat. Change the motor to a 1HP 3Ph motor and add a VFD. This allows cutting anything from steel to veneer on the same saw merely by changing the blade and adjusting the speed.
 
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NickHFSS said:
Hello everyone , I want to buy a portable metal bandsaw with swag table.
My question is which one is the best ? I'm looking at milwaukee but which model should I go for? I'm looking for regular one with cable as power source

budget 400-500$

Thanks
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will need to make improvements but this is where things are at for me. I'm partial to Milwaukee tools
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