local shop to us is selling a $1400 or so horizontal band saw for almost free. thinking about purchasing it just for the hell of it. just curious how useful you guys find these, what kind of projects you are using them for etc. currently have a vertical band saw but still find myself using a chop saw more often than anything else.

i dont have any of the details of the saw in front of me at the moment.

thanks!

 

Depending on how big it is they can be very useful, especially if you cut a lot of tubing/stock and don't feel like having to feed it all manually

 

I would definitely get it if the price is right. It makes a perfect cut every time, and it's nice to be able to set it and let it cut while you do other things. It's certainly a hell of a lot better than a chop saw, and a lot less dangerous too. You already have a vertical, so with the horizontal you'll be all set.

FWIW the first fab shop I worked at had only a chop saw, and I got used to that. Then I moved to FL and the shop there had both a horizontal and vertical bandsaw, it made me never want to look at a chop saw again.

 

I use my horizontal Wilton band saw daily, and there is no way in hell that I would use the chop saw or the vertical over it for repeated cuts..

 

probably the most used piece of equipment at our shop, we have a smaller one and a big one that has a little more options on it.

 

cool, thanks guys..i guess i'll go and check it out this week. anybody using any tooling from ohio forge?


ohio forge
Model 510-505
· 3 speed: 80, 120 and 200 RPM
· ½ inch x 64 ½ inch blade

 

Also the most used piece of equipment in my shop, after the TIG.

 

seems like the blade is a bit on the small side. if you plan on doing alot of stainless i would get a bigger saw. i have a shitty bandsaw with a 1/2inch blade (i made a collector jig for it) and the blade breaks in no time

its also nice to have a "bigger table" for random odd **** you may want to cut.

 

i guess i'm the oddball here. lol I have never found a horizontal bandsaw all that useful for the stuff we do here. I don't even have one.

 

H-bandsaw is the only way to go.

 

good saw's, nice clean cuts.....we use ours daily.

 

Mine runs for hours each day, just need to find better blades!

 

Since a lot of the posters in here actually use the things....I need some help with mine.

It's the bottom of the line Grizzley.

Issue with the blade coming off track. Found the driving blade pulley had some loose mechanics wire, holding the clear guide onto the pulley. Well, I redid all of that, now the same thing. But this time, it actually snapped the clear guide(ripped a chunk off of it).

The machine has worked find for years....maybe it's the cheap HF blade I bought and it's not flexible enough to make the bends? Maybe I need new clear guide plates? Any help would be great

 

i have a doall vertical bandsaw and use the thing to death daily and sometimes wish i had a horizontal for certain things. for some stuff the vertical just doesnt cut it... it all comes down to what you need it for... if your cutting anything that needs straight cuts and repeatability... then id get it!

 

Thats a nice saw! Most of the ones i see (ie the $1500 dollar wiltons, etc and i'm guilty for having one..) are horrible on anything but aluminum.

We have a couple horizontal's here. With fixtures, etc they can't be beat for cutting bends, etc. For one off cuts they can take some thinking how to clamp, etc.

 

if you run the cut too fast or don't take time to adjust the blade guides, nothings going to cut straight...

 

Do you cut structural or heavy wall materials? That's about the only reason we use ours. The replacement blade cost is high versus resharpening cold saw blades ($80-$100 for a blade that lasts maybe 3 days, versus $12 to resharpen a cold saw blade that lasts a similiar amount of time). And ultimately both cold saw and horizontal are slow compared to production abrasive sawing, which is also cheaper for blades ... so basically .. We never use it and ours cost $40k.

Edit: God I just double checked my last invoice for blades and it was $102.63/blade @ 5 blades, 17'6 x 1.5" thick. Holy crap those are expensive.

 

3 days for a band saw blade? You're cutting too fast if you go through them that quickly. The last one I had lasted me 6 months, and I cut thin-wall stainless tubing all day with it.

Coldsaws are great too, but damn expensive!

 

We aren't a fab shop, so our use is not typical to one. We process on a normal day 1000-1500ft of straight tubing, so we're talking about around ~600-700 cuts per day. So three days .. 1500-2000 cuts per blade isn't bad. My point is not how fast they go out, it's how fast they go out in comparison to other processes.

If I can get 1500-2000 cuts out of cold saw blade for $12 per resharpening versus $102 per band saw blade it adds up quickly. Since a horizontal bandsaw is mainly a straight material cutting saw, I felt that some economic comparisons were relevant in this case.

 

Oh I see! That's a lot of cuts!

 

we use 7 dollar hf blades on ours and they last about 3-4 months, now im not saying we make 2000 cuts/day, but it does sees about two full hours of use/day. a little wd40 goes a very long way with these blades

 

In our SAE shop at school, we had a brand new one and it was great for cutting solid aluminum/steel stock for lathe work. It makes very precise cuts.

We still used the chop saw for roll cage and suspension tubing, stuff that was going to be notched anyways, it was just quicker. If you are cutting tubing for cages that will be cut or notched again, there is no point in having a precision band saw, a chop saw will do the job in 1/10 the time.

 

I have both, a wilton horizontal and a doall vertical bandsaw, I would say that I use my horizontal 75% of the time when im making cuts, the cuts are straighter, and much more repeatable. I do ALOT of charge piping, and its perfect every time.

I like both machines alot, but I do prefer the horizontal much more, It was my first real saw and it was a really good first choice. I have cut lots of stuff with mine, I have cut through cranks, cylinderheads, 8" solid round stock (steel) etc, mine is a real beast, I have no problems with it and the blades for me last around 6 months if nothing giggled loose or jams, once a few teeth get smashed its all over. Im slow with cutting stuff and use lots of coolant and it lasts

 

this is mine
http://www.southern-tool.com/store/W...alBandsaw.html