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Sawing Metal

thestelster

thestelster

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Of the 36 years I've been working with metal, my main mode of cutting stock has been...the hack saw. I have 3 saws with different tooth spacing. I've cut 3/4" thick steel plate 8" depth, (of course flipping it to cut through); 4" diameter aluminum. I never enjoyed it but, a man's gotta do what man's gotta do. I have to make some soft jaws from aluminium. What I have is a block 3"x4" x 10". (I also have that follow rest that I'll be making out of 1" thick hot rolled.) I better get new hack saw blades.
 

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Just got a Wen portable band saw for $139 from Amazon. Bolted it to a Princess Auto portable bandsaw stand with vise ($75). I guessed (correctly) that all the Chinese portable band saws are of the same design - so they did bolt together. It's awesome! (5" x 5" capacity)
 

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I have been contemplating getting one of those Craftex/King/ Rikon 5x6 saws, but $700 +tax. Ouch. I've been searching Kijiji, but rarely does one of the small ones pop up. Until today!! He wanted $400, I wanted $300, we me half way. I still think I over-paid but what the hell. Cutting all that stuff was going to kill me.
 

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A few years back I found one with a heavily damaged flimsy stand at a yard sale for $80.00. It is a work in progress still, but it works way better than my old hacksaw did.... Not to mention my old arms. :D
I really need to get in there and clean the shop up, it's storing everything except space. :oops:
 

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thestelster said:
Of the 36 years I've been working with metal, my main mode of cutting stock has been...the hack saw.
Click to expand...

That's too funny!

ME TOO!

I can work a hacksaw with the best of them!

WEN had a small 5x5 floor unit they sold at Home Depot and Amazon at what I thought was a very decent price. It also had a table so it could be stood up right and used like a regular bandsaw too. I didnt count on them selling out so fast and now it looks like they are totally gone and I missed out. You snooze you lose.

So now I'm back to watching Kijiji eBay & marketplace and hoping they get another shipment.

Sometimes I use a slit saw in the mill or a cutoff chop saw or an acetylene torch.

I would LOVE a nice cutoff bandsaw and when I grow up, I'm planning to own a nice deep throat metal/wood cutting vertical bandsaw. Growing up is a good 50 years away so I try not to fuss over it.
 
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

4x6 bandsaw $50

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-power-tool/calgary/misc-:-commercial-charger-metal-bandsaw-loading-ramp/1426450782?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com canadianhobbymetalworkers.com
 
Depending on space available, a portaband is awesome to have (I have the Dewalt deep throat corded one). Though I grabbed a dry cut saw back in the fall and on tubing and such, it's night and day better than the portaband. It's pretty close to 10x faster. I can't imagine cutting anything but super thin wall tubing with a hacksaw.
 
SomeGuy said:
Depending on space available, a portaband is awesome to have (I have the Dewalt deep throat corded one). Though I grabbed a dry cut saw back in the fall and on tubing and such, it's night and day better than the portaband. It's pretty close to 10x faster. I can't imagine cutting anything but super thin wall tubing with a hacksaw.
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What dry cut did you get?
 
Tom Kitta said:
You can just buy my King 7 x 12! Its in good condition. Problem solved. Half price of what is online for same size new.
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Funny you should say that I bought one new July 2020 from KBC (can't believe price has gone up $600).

I will say good blades are extremely important for cutting Aluminium, an flaw in in final joining shows up on wide thick cuts causing endless grief. I have found a very cost effective and good source for blades www.industrialbandsaw.ca, custom length to your saw.

One well known expensive supplier sent me 4 free blades because of the issues, still had them as they have a assembly issue (to be fair I won't mention them as they did try and correct the issue with the replacements).

I also made a large custom Table to allow it to be used vertically (which is about 40% of my cuts.
 
Degen said:
One well known expensive supplier sent me 4 free blades because of the issues, still had them as they have a assembly issue (to be fair I won't mention them as they did try and correct the issue with the replacements).
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Frankly, I am not sure why you hesitate to name them. I would much rather deal with a company that acknowledges and fixes their problems than one that has very few problems but won't acknowledge and fix the ones they do have.

In my mind, your experience ends well and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from your source.
 
Susquatch said:
What dry cut did you get?
Click to expand...

The Dewalt DW872...other than throwing chips EVERYWHERE and being a little fiddly to square up the fence, it works really really well. I haven't tried cutting anything more than 1/4" thick (flat bar, tube, etc.) yet with it, but it just chews right through it and makes really clean cuts.

Zoomed in snip of a pic with it in it:
drycut.jpg
 
My portaband ranks up there in the all time favourite tool purchase category for sure. Growing up we didn't have any fancy tools, so a lot was done on my rc cars, gocarts, bikes, etc with a hacksaw and files. I still remember giggling to myself during that first portaband cut lol.

It hangs on a hook off the side of my welding table next to my vise plugged in ready to go. I use it all the time.

I also have a 7x12 horizontal, but it's out in the barn and with 400' of about 2' of unplowed snow between me and it right now, the portaband has come in handy the past couple weeks. I'm not snowshoeing out there to cut tubing. Uphill, both ways.
 
Well, the first test run went pretty well. The factory saw blade 14tpi. Aluminium 6061, 4"x3". It cut straighter than I was expecting. Cutting time 22minutes, at 200fpm.
 

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I like that outfeed table. Making an outfeed table is something I've been meaning to do to mine, but just never get around to. That and a table to use in vertical mode.

Think of the calories you saved not hacking that by hand :D.
 
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