Depends a lot on what kind of work you do. For prepping materials for
either a lathe or a mill, a horizontal bandsaw would be my first choice.
One of the little 4x6 import specials with suitable upgrades would make
a nice start. They will do a 3" stainless round without much attention.
Upgrade to a larger one with coolant if you can afford the $$ and space.

For welding based fabrication, the 4x6 and the chopsaw both have merit.
I have both, use them both for that.

wrote:
I have a physically very small shop.
I have a small CNC Mill
and a CNC converted 13x40 Chineese Lathe.

Recently I've been doing some 316 Stainless stuff on the lathe and
having problems parting off the parts.
One of the recomendations was to part it in the band saw then clean up on the lathe.

I currently don't have a good metal cutting saw.
I used to have a chop saw, but it died and ugly smoking death hacking its way through a large copper bar.

Not having a good metal cutting saw says I end up milling things in half or doing large cutoffs in the lathe.

In the ideal world I'd have a good automatic horizontal band saw and a nice vertical band saw.
In the ideal world I'd have a bigger shop.


So the question is in a metal shop if you could only have one saw and space was at a preimum would
you get a:
Vertical band Saw?
Horizontal Band Saw?
Chop Saw?
Cold Saw?


I will be doing a fair bit of 316 Stainless in 3 to 6" diameters this year.
See the last picture in the current post...http://unreasonablerocket.blogspot.com/



Paul