Power metal saws

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MattM

Active User
H-M Lifetime Diamond Member
I'm thinking my next acquisition will be a power saw. What's best horizontal reciprocating hacksaw or a horizontal bandsaw?

This will be a home shop tool to complement my SB 11 and Grizzly benchtop mill. New or used? Brand? I'd like to keep it under a thousand delivered.
 
I dont think theres but ONE answer to this question - for the home shop guy the venerable Chinese 4x6 bandsaw that is offered by just about every supplier out there. With its low initial cost and a ton of modifications to make it one of the top used tools in a shop ---- well, its just a heck of a tool.

There are seemingly so little differences in the many offerings, that a fella may as well get the HF version, it being the cheapest. A word of advice, whichever 'brand' you choose, as soon as you get it home, uncrate it and set it up to check it over and note any major problems. Make no mistake, as good a bargain as these saws are, they are known to sometime have some major problems, and almost certainly will need a bit of 'tinkering', but is well worth it.

Id fight a bear to keep mine....
 
A power hacksaw is just plain cool. Like watching a campfire. Compared to a bandsaw, it takes about as long to cut through a block of metal, too. I have a power hacksaw (followed me home from the junkyard), a portable bandsaw (HF and others sell them) and a big 9x12 horizontal (yard sale). The portable gets the most use, followed by the horizontal (it's out in the garage - too big for the shop).

As Pacer said, you'd get a lot of use out of a 4x6. Once properly set up with a good blade (keep the one that comes with it as an emergency spare), You'll be glad you got it.
 
I'll "second" the advice about the ChiCom 4x6. It almost killed me to buy it from HF (I NEVER buy anything from HF that has moving parts or motors.) but due to the advice from others on the forum I held my nose and bought one (Hint: Use the 20% off coupons you find in all the mags.) While it's still not what I would consider "well made", it definitely gets the job done. As far as cost-effectiveness goes I don't think you could do much better. If one were to do all the "upgrades" that are recommended it's even better.

The one major upgrade I would recommend from the get-go would be to throw out the blade that it comes with and replace it with a quality bi-metal blade. I was having a terrible time with my cuts until I swapped out the blade.

Then the next upgrade (which mine is waiting for) is to make a decent stand for it. The folding sheet metal legs that it comes with are laughable.

Hope that helps,

-Ron
 
I used to have an old power hack saw which was an awful machine. I don't know if it was typical of all such saws, but I finally got fed up with it and scrapped it. Used some of the parts for other projects that actually worked.

I got by with a chop saw for quite a while, but recently bought this little band saw when it was on sale.

8354789.jpg

Its a bit more pricy then the really cheap versions, but its pretty decent out of the box too. Not sure if you can find something compareable in the US.

8354789.jpg
 
bmw rider said:
I used to have an old power hack saw which was an awful machine. I don't know if it was typical of all such saws, but I finally got fed up with it and scrapped it. Used some of the parts for other projects that actually worked.

I got by with a chop saw for quite a while, but recently bought this little band saw when it was on sale.

View attachment 41477

Its a bit more pricy then the really cheap versions, but its pretty decent out of the box too. Not sure if you can find something compareable in the US.
Click to expand...

It looks like a portable handheld model mounted onto a base, very nice.

saw.jpg


M

saw.jpg
 
I have one of the ChiCom 4X6's and have done a few mods to it already and it does great for my little shop. I plan to move it to the top of a two drawer file cabinet and add wheels along with a drip coolant system, and a hydraulic down feed when I have time. The 4X6 group on Yahoo has a ton of easy mods and a tracking and truing procedure that will bring that little saw alive, I used a 20% coupon and got out right at 150 bucks tax and all. I do recomend that the original blade be replaced with a bi metal variable pitch from the git go and you will be much happier immediately with it's performance
Bob
 
The portable that 7 posted is the same as mine. I use it just about every shop session. The only problem with it is the gear noise. Muffs are a must.
 
Not even a question in my mind, the horizontal band saw by any maker. Mine is HF with lots of mods. Mine is undoubtedly the best cost to benefit value of all the machines in my shop,

Randy
 
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