whats up can you guys post a list or pics of what you use to cut your materials ex tubing, plates, making pie cuts, notches etc.. Im in the market to buy either a miter saw, chop saw, or ban saw. the only problem i found with the ban saw is i only found the Milwaukee hand held version, im looking for a good one but in a chop saw version. Can some of you more experienced fab guys point me in the right direction? i searched but there wasn't to many listings in this topic.

ps. this is for my own personal use not for a shop, so i don't have to much room for a giant machine.

 

Personal use, if you have the room, a bandsaw is the way to go. If you have the $$, a cold saw would also work. Problem is, most good bandsaws or coldsaws are big machines. A chopsaw doesn't give the cleanest, neatest, or straightest cuts, but its small and a good one is about $200.
Its a tradeoff. Its all about what you want to make. If you need to make merge collectors and seriously accurate cuts, a band/cold saw is the only option. If its just going to be the occasional piecut or cutting tubing, a chopsaw will work.

I have a Bosch chopsaw, and it works fine for my stuff. I also have an air-powered cutoff tool and a grinder to clean up the edges.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sharkytm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Personal use, if you have the room, a bandsaw is the way to go. If you have the $$, a cold saw would also work. Problem is, most good bandsaws or coldsaws are big machines. A chopsaw doesn't give the cleanest, neatest, or straightest cuts, but its small and a good one is about $200.
Its a tradeoff. Its all about what you want to make. If you need to make merge collectors and seriously accurate cuts, a band/cold saw is the only option. If its just going to be the occasional piecut or cutting tubing, a chopsaw will work.

I have a Bosch chopsaw, and it works fine for my stuff. I also have an air-powered cutoff tool and a grinder to clean up the edges.</TD></TR></TABLE>


yeah i would love a band saw but i only found the red Milwaukee and it's hand held so if you cant cut straight then your screwed lol, pretty much it's for dp, manifolds, roll cage, etc... My theory is that a miter saw would be the best for pie cutting since you can miter, rotate, bevel the blade. am i wrong for thinking so?
i saw a couple guy post a hF ban saw, what do you guys think of those?

 

the handheld bandsaw isn't what you want.
The HF bandsaw is pretty small, as far as bandsaws go, but it isn't the best unit. For the occasional user, it'll be fine. A mitre saw is a possiblity if you can find one thats DESIGNED to cut metal. Many aren't, and you'll destroy the bearings, or electrocute yourself once metal shavings get into the motor.