I am in the market for a vertical bandsaw, and I want to know what you guys use, or what bandsaws you have used that you like alot? No real budget has been placed, as if there really is something worth buying, then...

Thanks alot guys!

Jimmy

 

Doall Your better off with a used doall then almost any other saw new

 

the man said it DoAll band saws are king the ones with built in butt welders own everything

 

a do all 16" is pretty perfect for most shop stuff. but if you have extra room you can usually find the 24's and bigger for the same price in most cases because they are a ltitle less desireable. it just gets kind of scary when you have a 1" blade slicing metal right next to your hand... its pretty violent when the blade breaks haha. but the larger blades are stronger so it takes more to break them.

something like this is pretty much awesome for any shop:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Do-All-Ban...04211

i should have bought this one but i missed the end today! a good example of how the larger ones are the same price or even cheaper than the 16's

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...53371

 

roll in type or nothing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by weiRtech &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">roll in type or nothing.</TD></TR></TABLE>

What do you mean by that? could you please explain a bit better.

 

roll-in's are old style saws and offer only one advantage and as far as I am concerned. The self feed advantage is only good if you don't have a good horizontal or a cold saw or a strange shaped production job. My 16" doall actually has the feed attachment which I took off. I have a cold saw and also a c916 doall horizontal + a bunch of other saws.

As far as a blade welder goes I wouldn't worry about making sure I bought a machine with one. It sucks making blades and the only time I do is if I have to cut the center out of a part which forces me to cut a good blade and weld it after putting it thru the part. The blades that specialty saw in Conn. make are pretty much trash when the weld gives up and many times it still doesn't break on the weld anyway. http://www.specialtysaw.com/
10-14 pitch for everything and 6tpi for aluminum The 6tpi blade has a thicker backer and has a little more set so it cuts corners really well.

The roll ins also don't offer the versatitly of the the doall for blade variety and more then anything variable speed I run nothing but 1/4 bimetal blades in mine. Pretty much anything that gets cut needs a redius and there is nothing better the 1/4 for going around corners. I have no problem going around a .4-.45 radius in even 1 1/2 thick aluminum .

I know opinions are like a_______ and everyone has one but this works and works really well and the main purpose of a vertical is to cut shapes and in high range with a 6tpi blade the doall has the blade speed and power to cut extreemely fast

 

Hmmm, appears I use a vertical for very different reasons. At our shop, anything that needs a radius, gets machined. To me a vertical saw without power feed table is useless. We use the vertical saw to cut all the elbows for manifolds and charge pipes and downtubes. By making different fixtures I can cut the same elbow to the perfect size as many times as I like. Which when you need to make 50 of the same parts is important. Also once you make the fixture any one can sit there and swap out elbows.

Any old Grobb or doall that has been maintained should be a good saw.

 

roll ins are far more versatile than a standard vertical... you can set something up and walk away from it, when it shuts off, you go move your piece forward and away you go. the angle plate is adjustable for angles and you can remove it for plate cutting if needed. and like dave said, you can make holding fixtures for great repeatablity that will bolt right into the table.

as for blade selection, i can run 1/4", 1/2" or 3/4" on both my saws. i'm not sure what options you can use on a standard vertical.

my roll ins have stepped pulleys on them so having 4 different speeds is enought for me. it only takes 30 seconds to change the belt over for a different speed... besides i'm not cutting all that many different materials anyway.

i have one that looks like this:


my second one looks more like this, except with a foot pedal so you can use two hands instead of just one.

 

The only reason I don;t like the roll in is because of the large footprint they take up, I personally prefer a standard saw even up to 36 inch because they are fairly narrow, get one with coolant and a hydraulic feed table and you are set.

 

Marvel, HEM, or Do-All Tilt Frames. They are all hydraulic actuated machines that push through the parts. My Favorite is the HEM, followed by the Do-All, Marvel last.

http://www.hemsaw.com/bandsaw/verticalbandsaw.htm

 

What is the main advantage to having the tilt frame? Miter cuts?

 

Miter cuts primarily. If you are production trimming you never use it. The big saws are almost all tilt frame w/ hydraulic push and clamping. I would suggest 1.25" or larger for production stainless trimming (300-500 parts per day).

 

Yeah thats what I figured, I had the opportunity to buy one for $1000 2 weeks ago but didn't because it doesn't fit in with what I do.

Heres a question for you, I am looking for a vertical saw with t slot table, coolant, autofeed table, primarily used for cutting .065 wall SS, any recommendations?

 

I have a 1952 16" doall that gets used constantly. I love old machines... if they're still running; they're going to keep running. It also had the auto feed on it which i took off. I just dont find it that useful. One thing is for sure; don't cheap out on blades.

 

Im going out to take a look at a few today, I'll report back with my findings

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .john. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
something like this is pretty much awesome for any shop:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Do-All-Ban...04211
</TD></TR></TABLE>


Bwahahahhahahaha

" I don't want to sell this saw, but it asked my wife for a date and now it can't be trusted.....You know what this saw can do (and so did my wife). Get it while it's hot."

 

Dave I normally do all the drilling cycles on parts an then I have a mask I use to mark the finished profile. The part then gets rough cut on the bandsaw before it is profile milled in the cnc. Less chips+ more billet waste which is worth more$ less servo run hours (wear and tear) and the machines are then freed up to do other things also. One finish pass usually is all thats needed. Much more productive unless you have a part that is not a 2 step process meaning 1 drilling 2 profilling without bolting to a fixture between operations.

A std vertical saw usually has a larger throat also and the higher surface speeds are not close on a rollin. I think the average person on here is asking which saw becasue they want something that is the most usefull and a std vertical is that. you can do anything on them and most industrial models have a feed if you need something like that ir they pretty much all have a 3/4" slot in the table that fixtures can be worked off of easily.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KFMRC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dave I normally do all the drilling cycles on parts an then I have a mask I use to mark the finished profile. The part then gets rough cut on the bandsaw before it is profile milled in the cnc. Less chips+ more billet waste which is worth more$ less servo run hours (wear and tear) and the machines are then freed up to do other things also. One finish pass usually is all thats needed. Much more productive unless you have a part that is not a 2 step process meaning 1 drilling 2 profilling without bolting to a fixture between operations.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Gotcha, makes sense.

 

At my college the welding shop has a metal mizer vertical bandsaw that has an adjustable 45 (or so) angle either way. That thing is amazing, not sure on price though.
It also has adjustable speeds and on the side where you change the speed it has a chart for the appropriate speed for a corresponding metal.

Here's a picture of an older one.



Modified by 95delsolz6 at 12:51 AM 8/14/2008