Anyone using a Porta-Band type saw as a their vertical bandsaw?

matthewsx said:
Yeah, too fast. But you have tools, see if you can slow it down.

John
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my research at the speeds DoAll go is about 120 and that's what I shot for with my 14" conversion and I'm totally happy with it. So by that your saw is going around 5-6x's to fast.
 
I have a #notsponsored (DeWalt) portaband on a stand with a heavy-duty foot-switch. I got it mostly because I'm phobic about large, heavy, stationary equipment, and my cutting needs are relatively simple and easy.

I chose the DeWalt mostly because its lowest speed was lower than most others (100 fpm, if I recall). It's a high-quality tool, in my opinion. It wasn't cheap, and it's certainly not equivalent to a real metal-cutting vertical bandsaw, but it's very handy and it's way, way better than a hacksaw. Besides basic cutting, I have also used it to rough-out shapes in flat stock.

I'm less impressed with the Swag stand, though it does work. The rust starts immediately, it came with an incorrectly-drilled main mounting hole, it's a bit top heavy (the legs were designed more for looks than for practicality), and so on, so I'd call it OK at best.
 
I could see the appeal of the portaband on a stand but after years of basically the same thing by tilting up my 4x6 I just hate the crappy table. If I want to do a sloppy chop I’ll do it with the grinder and a suicide blade or my little air grinder with a blade.

99% of the time I want to cut something odd or small a bandsaw without a good table and a sled doesn’t cut it for me. We all have different stuff we’re doing so it’s probably not applicable but for me the 14” with the nice cast iron table with the sled has made it where I don’t do weird dangerous stuff anymore like I used to. I almost never run out of ways to clamp weird pieces to that sled. And big thick pieces I can cut by putting air to the feed cylinder and let it go.

in keeping with the right tool for the job, if you find it’s a mess to cut sheetmetal with a bandsaw it’s because it is. Once you use like a throatless shear or a handheld electric shear you’ll see why sheetmetal guys use shears, not bandsaws. I love my Beverly B2 to right up to 16ga.
 
Aaron_W said:
I don`t understand the suggestion of a cold saw to replace a vertical bandsaw. As a replacement for a horizontal makes sense, but I thought one of the major reasons for a vertical bandsaw was cutting shapes or wide sheet stock too big for a horizontal. I don't see a cold saw being useful for either of those uses.
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I would agree that a cold saw isn't going to do any contour work. On the other hand, a porta-band isn't going to do much of that either. They only have a throat depth of around 5" and use 1/2" wide blades. The minimum radius that can be cut with a 1/2" blade is 2 5/8" or 66mm. To get tighter contours you will need narrower blades.

My 10" Dewalt vertical bandsaw can use blades as narrow as 1/8" allowing it to cut a radius as small as 1/8". Even though it can cut a tight radius it still has the problems of a small table, and only a 10" deep throat. If you really want a contour saw, I suggest a DoAll with a minimum of a 16" throat. They are great machines in that they have huge tables, can use a variety of blade sizes, and have multiple speeds. The big downside is they take up an acre of room and weigh a ton.

The cold saw can do angle cuts anywhere from 0* to 90* and leave a mill cut finish.
 
DavidR8 said:
Thanks @davidpbest I used a Porta-Band a lot to cut metal cable racks when I was building out telecom facilities and they seemed OK. But that was unknownium metal so maybe not representative use.
I'm not aware of a convertible mode saw. I have a table for my horizontal saw but it's a complete pain to use so I can't imagine that's a solution.
I was looking at the new Evolution 7-1/4" metal saw in the recent KBC catalog. Maybe I need to investigate that a bit more.

Love your metalworking cart!
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You asked about bandsaws that flip from horizontal to vertical. Here are some examples.

My suggestion about a cold saw alternative was based on an assumption you just wanted to do cut-off/cut-through operations, which is all a Porta-Band is good for anyway given the throat size and orientation of the blade to the handle of the Porta-Band. Obviously if you want to cut curved profiles you're going to need a bandsaw with a bigger throat than a Porta-Band in a stand anyway.
 
I know a lot of you guys wouldn't be seen with some of my contraptions but that's OK. To each his own.

This cost me nothing. When the HF saw had been used for many years, the brushes finally started giving trouble. I right away ordered another of the newer type from HF. One day when I was just playing, I took the brushes out and modified them a little to get a little more life. Glued, strapped and screwed it to a piece of plywood and it's been in use that way for 3 or 4 years.

I have a Johnson horizontal, but many times need to make a small cut on a very small piece, and this is so easy. Anything up to 1/4" thick but sometimes 3/8".

Aaron

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