Need advice on bench top items

[Mousehouse]

I am thinking about buying a bench top mill but which one?

I would also like to find a upright bench top or small floor metal cutting band saw. All of the ones I have looked at don't have any metal blades available for them. Where would you suggest I find a metal cutting band saw?

[BobWarfield]

The Harbor Freight horizontal bandsaw works great and is cheap. Alternatively, the DeWalt Multicutter and similar machines from Milwaukee and others are awesome for cutting stock to length:



I cut through that 4" square chuck of aluminum bar stock in about 15 seconds. These saws run a carbide tipped blade at slow rpms and are sort of a "poor man's" cold saw. Much nicer than abrasive chop saws I have used.

Since getting the Multicutter my HF bandsaw has been gathering dust in a corner. You can find them on eBay or Amazon for circa $400.

Best,

BW

[in2steam]

Originally Posted by Mousehouse I am thinking about buying a bench top mill but which one? I would also like to find a upright bench top or small floor metal cutting band saw. All of the ones I have looked at don't have any metal blades available for them. Where would you suggest I find a metal cutting band saw?

At work I use a panasonic 15.6V cordless metal cutter for steel, it will leave a mirror finsih esp accurate, its not cheap but very very handy and very quick. Milwaukee makes similiar, they are now coming out with some benchtop models also as bob shows. Sawzalls are nice too, but not as accurate nor as quick. Bandsaw or power hacks are more accurate but slow, it depends if you can handle a little heat treating in your steel also, if not then get a band saw. Coldsaws are expensive but really nice, if you do alot of small pieces of steel I really think that would be the way to go. If you do aluim you can get away with most wood tools, I use my chop 10" wilton chop saw at work, or my 8 " delta at home, the only thing I have ever had trouble with is extrustions which are odd shaped(don't try your tablesaw for god sakes!). On my 12" bandsaw I use wood blades and speeds for cutting alum, otherwise they just clog up the smaller tpi blades for bandsaws it tends to be a little rough but works and is quick. If you buy a bandsaw, dump the OEM blade as they are almost always worthless, for wood and alum I use timberwolf low tension or a regular olsen bi-metal for light metal work(mine does not spin slow enough really but works in a pinch).
One of my projects later on this year is to make my own chopsaw for steel using a panasonic or milwaukee metal blade and a small motor and puleys(they run at 660 rpm). If you buy a upright bandsaw with the express purpose of cutting steel, make sure that its designed for that, they are expensive normally, a wood one could be modifyed but it would take some work. Wood bandsaw typically give around 2000fpm instead of about 600 for steel. Delta makes a nice 14" with multipy speeds but it will cost you an arm leg and several children unless you are lucky and find a used one.

chris

[project5k]

i had wondered about using my compoung sliding miter saw for cutting alum chunks.. i guess with a good blade it would work.... my elcheapo harbor freight bandsay (its the 4 1/2 inch one) uses 64.5 inch blades, i think,, but i have a problem, if you try and push it at all it will pitch the blade off the wheels.. suggestions.. i've tried playing with the wheel alignment screw thats up near the top, i've tried different blade tensions... i'm really frustrated and lost as to what to do nest...

[in2steam]

Originally Posted by project5k i had wondered about using my compoung sliding miter saw for cutting alum chunks.. i guess with a good blade it would work.... my elcheapo harbor freight bandsay (its the 4 1/2 inch one) uses 64.5 inch blades, i think,, but i have a problem, if you try and push it at all it will pitch the blade off the wheels.. suggestions.. i've tried playing with the wheel alignment screw thats up near the top, i've tried different blade tensions... i'm really frustrated and lost as to what to do nest...

Well you can only overcome design flaws to a certain extent. The HF bandsaw is no exception, but timber wolf goes through a very detailed way to tension there blades, I had untill that point just used the gauge. The problem with timberwolf is that they are low tension so what applies to them does not apply to your standard run of the mill blade. With your regular up right you almost need to change out the bearing blocks to "cool blocks" its a $10-20 investment, esp if you do alot of woodworking with hard woods. Next you need to tune your saw, do the alignment checks and tolerances. Mini-lathes.com had some interesting info on the 4 1/2 machines.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Bandsaw/Bandsaw.htm
I have a friend who has one and I have kicked on a regular basis just to keep running I also screw that blade down as tight as I can get it when I do metal on it, its the closest bandsaw(with a vise) I have avaliabe so when I need to do round I go visit him. I suppose it also depends upon how hard you are pushing it, but I can cut better now that hes changed the blades, he had a very fine blade and that was no good, I switched to a 10-14 tpi bi-metal for steel(not alloy) and hes getting a better results but still nothing to right home about. I told him to get better blade for alum, tooth form plays a big role also when switching material. It was special order through his work, and the blade had to be cleaned up at the weld I think it was a lennox. Next step is a bigger motor and a more rigid stand.

***Also I don't reccomend you using the sliding compund(or RAS either) thats not the same animal as the mitre. It may dig in and bite you, its not the best method in the world to use the mitre but it works alot better then most people would think. Again the proper blade has alot to do with it, but in both cases of the wilton and my delta they are the OEM blades. I don't think I would try it with a thin kerf diablo or anything less then 30 teeth, and I don't rightly know what the grind style is of the teeth either. A couple things to keep in mind I make the cuts on the mitre just like I would on a table saw, if its too small of a piece it will go flying and they hurt alot more then wood does. I would say no less then 1.5" on the cutoff, and 4-6 left on other unless you can clamp it, anything smaller and you are asking for a missle.
Ideally you would have a clamp like bob does on his metal cutoff, but I have never seen one on a mitre thats in my price range.

[Sorekiwi]

Originally Posted by project5k my elcheapo harbor freight bandsay (its the 4 1/2 inch one) uses 64.5 inch blades, i think,, but i have a problem, if you try and push it at all it will pitch the blade off the wheels.. suggestions.. i've tried playing with the wheel alignment screw thats up near the top, i've tried different blade tensions... i'm really frustrated and lost as to what to do nest...

Theres a 4x6 Bandsaw group over at the Yahoo groups with lots of tips and mods to the chinese metal cutting bandsaws. In the files section there's an excellent article by John Pitken on setting up the alignment which really helped me to get mine running true. (You'll have to join the group to see the files).

Mike

[project5k]

thanks for the information guys, i'll definately have to go check out the yahoo groups and see what all i can learn... i just know that its really frustrating to have to put the blade back on 3 times when im cutting 1-1/2 11 ga square tubing.... i did buy a couple blades from little machine shop dot com.. and was really happy with how well they cut and lasted.. if memory serves they were around the $30 mark... but worth it...

[project5k]

thanks for the information guys, i'll definately have to go check out the yahoo groups and see what all i can learn... i just know that its really frustrating to have to put the blade back on 3 times when im cutting 1-1/2 11 ga square tubing.... i did buy a couple blades from little machine shop dot com.. and was really happy with how well they cut and lasted.. if memory serves they were around the $30 mark... but worth it...