Littlemachineshop Bench Top Band Saw - Anyone Have Experience

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angelfj1

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I need an easy way to cut stock so I've been looking at band saws. Most of what I do/will be doing involves stock less than 4"x 6" and primarily 6061 aluminum. LittleMachineShop has their bench top band saw on sale right now for $230. Can someone provide a review of this saw, plus and minus, etc.

Thanks, Frank
 
Frank said "involves stock less than 4"x 6" and primarily 6061 aluminum"

Are you saying that the alum block is 4" x 6" bar or are you cutting a piece of flat stock that is, for example, 3/4" thick and 4" wide into 6" long pieces? How many pieces?
The reason that I ask, is that this is my usual type of material to use: 6061 aluminum in sheet or bar form or aluminum tubing. I caution that I am a newbie on the machining front so take whatever I say with that in mind.

I am not familiar with this particular saw, but it appears to be a bench mounted version of a hand held bandsaw variety that I have used. Mine is a Rigid brand from home depot.
As a hand held, it is a very useful tool and I think that someone in this forum recently posted that they adapted one of the handheld units to a pivoting bench mount, (which would be my preference). I cut all of my aluminum and brass on my radial arm saw equipped with a carbide tipped metal cutting blade, and it cuts truer and more quickly than I could ever do with my hand held band saw. It takes a fair amount of set-up time consisting of holding the pieces firmly to the table, and each cut is only 1/8"-3/16" deep. If I had my druthers, I'd put my hard earned cash elsewhere, but then I'm a real cheapskate. The table and vise shown on the Little Machine Shop saw seems to be rather light weight to me, but I think that this what you should expect at this price point.

CHuck the grumpy old guy
 
For about the same price you can get a larger floor model from H.F. Say what you will but I've had mine for over 4 yrs and have been perfectly satisfied with it and it gets used often.
Ronzo


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angelfj1 said:
I need an easy way to cut stock so I've been looking at band saws. Most of what I do/will be doing involves stock less than 4"x 6" and primarily 6061 aluminum. LittleMachineShop has their bench top band saw on sale right now for $230. Can someone provide a review of this saw, plus and minus, etc.
Thanks, Frank
Click to expand...

Had that saw. Vise is not so good. Base is pretty flimsy too IMO. Gave it away.

For $70 more, you can get the little 4x6 from Grizzly. I've had mine for a couple of years now, and it's cut everything I've thrown at it. My only complaint is that I'm outgrowing the work envelope.
 
Yes, let me say that really the stock that I use is usually 2-3 in. round alum. bar, 1/2 x 2 or 3 or less, rect. bar. I have heard many complaints about the HF saw. They say it comes with an inferior blade. So, whatever a new bi-metal blade costs , to be fair, you should add that to the price. Space is at a premium, so I'm still undecided. Haven't seen that $300 Grizzly, but I intend to check it out.

Thanks, Frank
 
I would factor in a new bi-metal blade in with the cost of the Griz. The stock blade wasn't bad, but things got a whole lot better with the better quality blade. :)
 
I have an old rong fu 4x6 HV , it must have 100.000 miles on it now, I run starrett bimetal blades and it hasn't mised a lick it's the go to saw , I have a HF 4x6 also had to replace motor but it works ok.
 
angelfj1 said:
Yes, let me say that really the stock that I use is usually 2-3 in. round alum. bar, 1/2 x 2 or 3 or less, rect. bar. I have heard many complaints about the HF saw. They say it comes with an inferior blade. So, whatever a new bi-metal blade costs , to be fair, you should add that to the price. Space is at a premium, so I'm still undecided. Haven't seen that $300 Grizzly, but I intend to check it out.

Thanks, Frank
Click to expand...
The original 4x6 saw was a Wilton. All the later ones are basically copies of it. All or nearly all the 4x6 saws being sold today are Chinese or Taiwanese, and the biggest difference between them is usually the paint color. On some level they are kits, projects to be fiddled with until they work correctly. You cannot do cheap at the same time that you do high tolerances, careful assembly and individual testing. You make up for cheap with your own, hopefully less valuable, time and effort. All that said, the 4x6 saws from HF, Grizzly, and others are very nice machines, capable of very good work and long lives -- after you sort them out a bit. It is usually just adjusting and tuning up the saw so it works correctly. I would not be surprised if the Little Machine Shop saw has the same types of issues. There is a Yahoo group:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/4x6bandsaw/info
that is very active and educational. There are some fabulously pimped out 4x6 machines there, lots of happy owners, and no shortage of newbies trying to get theirs to work properly. Join, check it out, ask questions, and see if it might be right for you. It is not uncommon for those saws to be on sale for about $25o at HF, and 20% off coupons are easy to find. That makes it $200...

Edit: I used the original HF blade for a long while on mine, finally changed it when I needed to cut some 2.5" 4140, multiple cuts. I still have that original blade and it still works just fine.
 
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My first bandsaw was one like the Little Machine Shop saw. Still have it. To be honest it works OK but not good. As mentioned above the vise is crap. The blade cutting force is towards the movable jaw which tends to lift when cutting. Cutting 3" round bar is at the max capability for a benchtop saw even though the manufacturers claim a larger capacity. The consensus among the previous posters is a horizontal floor model saw is the way to go. That would be my recommendation too.

Tom S.
 
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