HF band saw

I have seen four 4x6 bandsaws today (I started looking since this group opened my eyes to their possibilities). The price ranged from $249 - $599 (Canadian). Also, for the first time today I saw a portable band saw (Milwaukee - $399).

I have also gone through a lot of the stuff referenced in this thread. I am more confused than ever.

1) My "gestalt" is that the Chinese band saws are a an uncertain bet at best, but one can minimize chances of malfunction by replacing the blade and adjusting the various guides etc. 2) The portable band saw does not seem to be capable of cutting accurately (in terms of angles) unless supported in a stand. Or unless I do not understand the technique of their use right. The only company that seems to make a stand for the portaband is Milwaukee. The stand costs almost as much as the saw. Furthermore, I have not been able to look at the stand "in the flesh". On the web site it is hard to see how well it performs the necessary tasks. 3) There is always the question of how would a dry-cut saw for $275 compare with all of the above for cutting stock up to 3"X3"?

Has anyone here either used a portable bandsaw in a stand or has anyone built a stand for one? There is a slew of portable "HDC" band saws on Ebay for under $80. Even with a saw blade replacement this should be a good solution provided one can solve the problem of stabilizing the cut.

These take a bit of tuning. I got mine in an HF half-off sale for less than $90, so I was willing to add a decent name-brand bimetal blade and do some squaring up of things. There are a number of 4x6 sites out there that go into detail on things you can do to make it perform better. Getting one from a store is a Good Idea, if you end up with a motor that lets the smoke out, you can return it. Mine was made in Taiwan, is gray, not firecracker red. I had to replace all the hardware on the "vise", was softer than cheese. Once I did that and squared up the cut by using a square and adjusting the guides, it's been pretty good. You have to crank down on the blade tension, tight as you can crank it is at the lower end of suggested tension for these blades. Make sure you release it after use, it IS possible to warp the casting. A name-brand belt is a good idea, mine had a big lump on it that clunked every time it hit a pulley.

It isn't just a cheapie that needs adjustment, I used a multi-grand Greenlee electrical contractor's version back in the '70s that wouldn't cut square, either, I doubt if the guys using it knew how to do more than change the blade. Had a nice hydraulic downfeed but really didn't do much more than the Asian cheapie. I use mine for all sorts of metal cutting. It's a cutoff saw, not a precision mill with a slitting saw. Any expectation of holding thousandths is doomed. You can get a pretty square cut, but cleanup allowances are a good idea.

Stan

I don't think it is uncertain. They provide the stuff you can't make, like a big casting, and you can always correct things like bearings and guides if you're a machinist.

HF also makes a portable that is a decent clone of the Milwaukee. Nice to have both the 4x6 and the portable.

Harbor Freight has one as well, and it's 1/4th the price. I bought it on sale, with a 15% coupon, for about $58 (US). Wait for the sale, and use the 15% coupon, if you can find one.

I also have the 4x6, and the portable is very handy at times when you want a quick freehand cut.

Well, it's like a hacksaw. You can get better at cutting square. And you can use a file to clean up the edges. Since you may want to do that anyway, you can use the file(s) to square the ends as well.

The question is - how much do you have to file away?

What acuracy is needed in terms of building a trailer???

I don't see the original post to respond to, but I'll add this 4x6 bandsaw link to the discussion for anyone that's interested in purchasing one of these very versatile little saws.

Some adjustments and modifications are almost mandatory to improve the performance of these saws to the point where they will cut fairly straight every time, regardless of the stock thickness or shape.

I don't encounter wildly crooked cuts because the saw was disassembled and set true as it was reassembled (replacing inferior hardware and making some adjustments during reassembly).

In the horizontal cutting mode, a 4" downward cut varies less than one blade kerf from the scribed line for the cut. So, cutting 2" square tubing results in fairly close to perfect (TLAR) cuts and fit-ups for welding.

WB ......... metalworking projects

I cut the steel for my saw mill to tape measure / pencil line accuracy and straightened out welding distortions with a jack. The axle seats were aligned parallel with a framing level. I had the blade tracking properly 5 minutes after assembly. Your trailer can't possibly be as demanding as getting a bandsaw blade to track straight on motorcycle tires and that was done with carpentry tools.

When you weld a tapered, badly fitted joint it's likely to warp out of square as it cools. As long as you cut each piece to fit you can compensate for the distortion. For a trailer this is more of a nuisance than a real problem.

Jim Wilkins

The biggest need is for the distance from the hitch coupler to the tire to be the same on each side (means the axle is on straight relative to the hitch, and the hitch is centered correctly).

Square is nice (matching diagonals).

For the rest, you can probably get away with +/- an 1/8th or more. For individual joints, this variation can be filled when welding. If the main frame is accurate the rest of the structure is much less critical. At that point accuracy becomes more a measure of how hard do you want to work: The more accurate the cuts, the less work you have to do to adjust or shim everything when clamping and lining things up.

I would think that one of the handheld units would be more than sufficient for what you want to do. Take your time measuring and calculating (take notes as you go if you find you have to change things so you can remember why if you have to set it down and come back to it), mark your lines across the whole piece with a square rather than just a dot where your measurement is, it will give you something to follow with the saw. If a cut is starting to stray, consider starting the cut over again from another side of the piece. Get extra blades. --Glenn Lyford

How is the HF portable holding up? I cut a LOT of unistrut and allthread and a reciprocating saw simply doesnt cut it (pun intended)

Will a heavy 6 foot by 12 foot square stucture made out of 3x3 tubing warp much when welding if I tack everything first?

Is the key the axle spring seat centers are equal distance from the hitch on both sides or the tires are on both sides as you said?

\\\Will a heavy 6 foot by 12 foot square stucture made out of 3x3 tubing \\\warp much when welding if I tack everything first?

Yes. Its the order in which you weld them that will minimize the distortion. Practice building small square frame-like things, then you will understand the order.

That exceeds my limited experience, which is why I describe what I've already done and how well or badly it worked rather than give general advise. I'm not qualified to design and fabricate a roadworthy trailer; I don't even trust my welding skill enough to fix one for someone else.

The lengthwise rails on the sawmill are 1-1/2 square tubing with 1/8" walls. When I welded in the 1/4" wall tubing crosspieces near the center the free ends of the rails pulled inward and I had to jack them back out parallel. The crosspieces had been milled square on the ends, then beveled about half way. Clamping and tacking didn't help.

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I think the rails bent because all the beads were all on one side. Steel shrinks a lot as it cools. Usually I make mitered corners or add gusset plates and the weld beads are distributed more evenly across the width of the structural members, so they hold shape better.

Jim Wilkins

Pick a reference point, any reference point, it should match on both sides.

I bought the Jet version with a USA motor. Lots of folks ahve reported that the import motors are shot lived.

I ditched the flimsy sheet metal stand, and built a frame with casters so I can wheel it under a bench for storage. The frame I made & the frame of the saw aren't sufficiently rigid to guarantee a perfectly straight cut, depending on how uneven the floor is & where I park it, but it still works pretty well.

First thing you want to do with any of these is to open up the gear box and clean out the teaspoon of casting sand they leave in, presumably so you have to buy a new one sooner.

One thing that helped mine enormously was to install a Fenner link belt. It ran LOT smoother. Just be careful with the length & make sure the cover clears the pulley & belt at all three speed settings. I set mine up at one end of the range & melted the cover when I changed speeds where it was just touching the belt.

Doug White

It cuts as square as you want to make it. A matter of adjustments. I wouldn't think I could trust the Porter Cable setup you describe.

I guess I lucked out with mine, gear box was clean as a whistle, the old lube was as stinky as the new 90 gear oil I stuck in there, worm and gear looked good after a bunch of chrome-moly tubing went through it. I stuck a magnetron magnet on the cover to suck up any particles of gear that might float around and also act as a wrench holder for adjusting the "vise". The link belt is a good idea, I just got one from the hardware store, think it was a Goodyear. No lumps, anyway.

Stan

I found that with my machinemart version the gear wheel that the worm meshes with eventually went as the worm had sharp edges and slowly cut the gear wheel away over years of use, also the shaft had slipped slightly to the mesh was tight. Luckily the parts were available and cheap so a strip down, clean, bearing replacement, and adjusting of meshes and all being well it shouldn't give me any more problems with the gear drive for another 8 years or so use. One of the ball bearings I pulled had an inner race that was 0.004" over what it should have been for the bearing designation.