horizontal or vertical band saw for steel cutting?

If the primary purpose of the saw is to cut stock to length I would suggest either a horizontal bandsaw or a power hacksaw. If space allows I would also suggest a used one designed for commercial or industrial use. They're much heavier built, more accurate, and in most cases supported by the manufacturer.
My primary saw is a 1980's Startrite H175. It was built in Great Britain for the US market and is still supported by Clausing. There are currently some on eBay, but in my estimation the prices are insane. My secondary saw is a Racine 66W2. Both are excellent machines and can be found in good condition. The bandsaw in this area generally sells for between $500.00 and $800.00 in this area, and the power hacksaws are usually less than half that amount.
I have had the bandsaw going on 20 years and the power hacksaw for about 6 years. Both machines were in excellent shape when I got them and cut within .005" with almost no maintenance.

Here are a couple pictures of he saws:

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As a side note I also have a Rockwell vertical bandsaw and a Black & Decker cold saw. The Rockwell is only used for contouring, and the Black & Decker is dedicated to cutting aluminum stock.
 
If you don't want both then a good option is a horizontal that has the option to convert to a vertical. I went with a Wellsaw 58BW and later purchased an Enco vertical. Both are nice to have but the horizontal/vertical combo will get you through.
 
My main saw is horizontal band saw. I purchased this saw used 6 years ago. It is the same size as the HF saws. Really works well. I did use the portable bandsaw on a stand for a while but gotten tired of the limited throat on the setup so I recently found a 12” Craftsman wood cutting bandsaw that I converted to metal cutting. It works surprisingly well. The saw is well the cost of the conversion


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Those HF horizontal bandsaws for what they cost are hard to beat. Just be sure to use only bimetal blades. The blade that comes with it is crap.
 
I pretty much concur with the above but since I do mostly small work now the horizontal 4x6 has not been used in months. For doing big stuff, it's King. But since getting a 14" HF vertical and converting it to metal the 4x6 sits. The vertical on the 4x6 is just shy of worthless to me. It can't take any pressure or it will fall over if not tied down to something. So since I was doing so much small work which the 4x6 sux at I put an auto feed sled on my 14" Vert and it is now the stuff! Yup,set up, set the feed(pneumatic) and walk away. I cut short chunks of 2.5x2.5 cast iron, 3" round 1018, 2" A0, 3"x3" 6061 aluminum 3/8" angel etc. Way small stuff there is no way to get in a 4x6 no problem. So, yeah,med big stuff 4x6, but everything else I'll take me 14" modded vert with the auto sled.
 
Horizontal bandsaw, but you want a swivel head if you are going to be switching frequently back and forth for angle cuts. Conventional horizontal handsaws the head is fixed and it is very awkward to set angles, let alone with any accuracy. I have a 9x12 Turn-Pro gear head horizontal, good for straight cuts but a pain to do miters. Also for short pieces w/o modifications not so good, it does poorly on angles not because of the cut but setting it up to do the angles accurately. Also time consuming to switch back and forth. Depending on your price range, a basic swivel head like a 7x12 run around 1500-2000, next level up would be the Jet (HVBS-710G, JET J-9180-3, J-9225) or Baileigh (BS-712MS, 210M, 250M), and then there is the the Ellis. There are previous reviews on this forum of all of these. Another option that you will see in many metal yards for small stock iron is a cold saw/abrasive chop saws. These come in many variations from inexpensive manual all the way up to automatic, and priced accordingly. The basic abrasive type are loud and nasty, so if you are doing a lot of cutting in a garage or shop, not ideal. The disc size needs to be large enough to accommodate angle work in the dimension stock you want to cut. A few people have purchased the Ellis, I have used them and they do a great job. The price is also commensurate.
www.hobby-machinist.com

Ellis 1600 bandsaw arrives

I studied bandsaws for 3 months and watched for used ones. Since I live in LA (Lower Alabama), Craigslist is almost worthless. The belief of the region is that used equipment is worth almost as much as new and the availability is limited too. I decided to give it up and "buy once" and got...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com

If I were to do it again I probably would have gone with a swivel head, but at the time the price was right ($900) and I didn't have the space for a swivel head. If I routinely needed to do various angle and straight cuts, I would have gone with the swivel.
www.hobby-machinist.com

Baileigh Bs-210m Horizontal Bandsaw From Qmt

I have been dealing with Matt @ Quality Machine Tools for about a month and a half now looking at a new vertical and a new horizontal bandsaw to replace my previous saws. I have found very, very little information on the particular saw I was looking at, the Baileigh BS-210M mitered head...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
 
mksj said:
Horizontal bandsaw, but you want a swivel head if you are going to be switching frequently back and forth for angle cuts. Conventional horizontal handsaws the head is fixed and it is very awkward to set angles, let alone with any accuracy. I have a 9x12 Turn-Pro gear head horizontal, good for straight cuts but a pain to do miters. Also for short pieces w/o modifications not so good, it does poorly on angles not because of the cut but setting it up to do the angles accurately. Also time consuming to switch back and forth. Depending on your price range, a basic swivel head like a 7x12 run around 1500-2000, next level up would be the Jet (HVBS-710G, JET J-9180-3, J-9225) or Baileigh (BS-712MS, 210M, 250M), and then there is the the Ellis. There are previous reviews on this forum of all of these. Another option that you will see in many metal yards for small stock iron is a cold saw/abrasive chop saws. These come in many variations from inexpensive manual all the way up to automatic, and priced accordingly. The basic abrasive type are loud and nasty, so if you are doing a lot of cutting in a garage or shop, not ideal. The disc size needs to be large enough to accommodate angle work in the dimension stock you want to cut. A few people have purchased the Ellis, I have used them and they do a great job. The price is also commensurate.
www.hobby-machinist.com

Ellis 1600 bandsaw arrives

I studied bandsaws for 3 months and watched for used ones. Since I live in LA (Lower Alabama), Craigslist is almost worthless. The belief of the region is that used equipment is worth almost as much as new and the availability is limited too. I decided to give it up and "buy once" and got...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com

If I were to do it again I probably would have gone with a swivel head, but at the time the price was right ($900) and I didn't have the space for a swivel head. If I routinely needed to do various angle and straight cuts, I would have gone with the swivel.
www.hobby-machinist.com

Baileigh Bs-210m Horizontal Bandsaw From Qmt

I have been dealing with Matt @ Quality Machine Tools for about a month and a half now looking at a new vertical and a new horizontal bandsaw to replace my previous saws. I have found very, very little information on the particular saw I was looking at, the Baileigh BS-210M mitered head...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
Click to expand...

As an FYI a chop saw and a cold saw are somewhat different. The standard chop saw uses a abrasive blade and usually runs between 3,600 and 5,000 rpm. The blade is somewhat flexible and they are not known for quality cuts. The cold saw looks very similar, however they usually run in the 1,800 rpm range and use metal blades that look similar to a wood cutting blade. The big difference between the blades is that the metal cutting ones have between 60 and 180 teeth and they are triple ground with a negative relief. These blades are also generally meant to run in the 2,000 rpm range (some do go up to 5,000 rpm), and are ground for cutting specific metals. There are different grinds for ferrous, aluminum, brass, and other materials. They are expensive compared abrasive or wood cutting blades of similar size. The least expensive cold saw blade I've seen is around $70.00. The better quality ones usually cost between $125.00 and $250.00 depending on size and grind.
 
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