Metal cutting band saw

[jaded13640]

I worked at a body shop a few years ago and they had taken a cheap Harbor Freight portable metal cutting band saw, screwed a plate to it and clamped it in a vise. I remember thinking, "I can do better than that". Finally the portable saws became cheaper and I happened to have the money at the time so I bought one and built a frame for it.

Here's a picture, I have quite a few more if anyone wants to see a different side or angle. I've been using it a lot lately it just really works great! I wish I'd done it years ago.

PS since I took this photo I made a larger plate for the workpiece table...what a difference!

Wayne

 

[Alcap]

I myself have the same HF saw , made my stand of wood , not as nice as yours . You found out is very handy . I seem to use mine all the time .

 

[jaded13640]

Yea, it sure is. I didn't expect it to work as well as a floor model machine that costs thousands of dollars. But I would say, considering what I have invested into this it works very well. Even excluding how little I have into it, it works damn good! You have to give it a little more time than you might have to give a larger machine. But as anyone that's used a larger machine can tell you, you don't cut fast either way. And this thing isn't exactly slow either... I'm actually impressed with how well it cuts I kind of expected it to be a deal where you say, "oh well, you get what you pay for". I'd say I got way more than I paid for.

 

[Eddyde]

Nice job! Yes, please post some more pictures.

 

[jaded13640]

ok

 

[Tmate]

Mine works better than I thought it would too. Great for small tasks for which it is too much trouble to lift my 7" x 12" Jet horizontal saw into the vertical position and install the table.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I made mine from an extra 4x6 I had lying around. No extra bench space, so I made it free-standing. It's getting a lot of use.

 

[Tmate]

I made mine from an extra 4x6 I had lying around. No extra bench space, so I made it free-standing. It's getting a lot of use.

Could we have some more detailed pictures of how you mounted the saw to the base, and any modifications to the saw?

 

[MrWhoopee]

Could we have some more detailed pictures of how you mounted the saw to the base, and any modifications to the saw?

The object was to get more throat, in the standard config it is only about 2 in. I made replacement blade guide support arms that are square to the wheels, removing the twist in the blade. That got a little over 5 in. of throat. I then milled out a section of the stiffening rib on the casting which got me to just under 6 in. That is the only modification to the head. The mounting bracket attaches to the bosses that support the motor and the bolt holes that attach the angled head pivot bracket.



If needed, it could be returned to its original configuration.

 

[Winegrower]

Huh, this is all very interesting. I have a big horizontal saw, that’s excellent for chopping thru 6” steel rounds and such, but for a small delicate corner cutout it’s pretty useless. A slitting saw on the mill works sometimes, but there is a couple minutes of setup time. That’s not fast, either. Lately I have been using a cut down hacksaw blade in the die filer…it works, but just not great.

I am really close to deciding if I want to do what Mr. Whoopee did. But I would rather have a DoAll.